ressed and the young--wrinkled, repulsive, red.
As you see them drink, quarrelling, screaming, and cursing, as they
always do till turned out to go God knows where, can you imagine that the
difference between them and your own mother is merely that of
circumstance, and education, and habit?--perhaps merely the difference
produced by drink. I can tell you that little hag was once a rich man's
leman, and robed herself in silk and satin, and quaffed her costly wine;
and now hark how piteously she begs a drop of gin, ere she staggers to
her wretched garret and straw to dream of a youth and gaiety now no
longer hers. Here she has warmth, light, and society, and the
night-house exists for such as she; and if, as is quite as likely as not,
she is in league with some of the men around us, here she brings her
victim, and then, stupified by drink, she has only to decoy him down some
dark passage, and he becomes an easy prey to the sneaking thief who comes
skulking up behind. But let us listen--

"Me and my pal we was a-going along the Hedgware-road, and we sor"--

"Hold your tongue," is the courteous reply.

"What do you mean by making all this row?" cries the landlord, with a
horrid oath.

"Now, then, old buffer, another quartern of gin."

"And a screw of tobacco, master, if you please."

"Well, old gal, what'll you drink?"

"Well, I don't mind, what'll you stand?"

"Suppose we has arf and arf."

"Ay, to be sure."

And so the hours pass, and the place gets hotter, and stinks more and
more every hour, for the men and women have not a very pleasant
effluvium, and the hubbub becomes more intense. You tell me you would
rather not stay here long. Well, I am quite of your opinion, for a
couple of gentlemen with pale faces have been eyeing us most attentively
ever since we have been here, and I confess their appearance is not
prepossessing. Their short hair seems to indicate an acquaintance with
one of the public establishments of the metropolis, with whose inmates it
is not well to be too familiar. They are dressed in fustian, with thick
boots well studded with nails, a kick from which on the head when a man
is down would soon settle his business; and with their close-fitting
caps, Belcher handkerchiefs, and heavy animal faces, are certainly not
very pleasant-looking young men. I should be sorry to intimate my
suspicions to them, as they may be noblemen in disguise, and might feel
hurt at my want of charity. In th