he was strong enough for this, and that it was about the only
thing he was as yet fit for; so he left the infirmary sooner than he
would otherwise have done and entered the tailor's shop, overjoyed at the
thoughts of seeing his way again, and confident of rising some day if he
could only get a firm foothold to start from.

Everyone whom he had to do with saw that he did not belong to what are
called the criminal classes, and finding him eager to learn and to save
trouble always treated him kindly and almost respectfully. He did not
find the work irksome: it was far more pleasant than making Latin and
Greek verses at Roughborough; he felt that he would rather be here in
prison than at Roughborough again--yes, or even at Cambridge itself. The
only trouble he was ever in danger of getting into was through exchanging
words or looks with the more decent-looking of his fellow-prisoners. This
was forbidden, but he never missed a chance of breaking the rules in this
respect.

Any man of his ability who was at the same time anxious to learn would of
course make rapid progress, and before he left prison the warder said he
was as good a tailor with his three months' apprenticeship as many a man
was with twelve. Ernest had never before been so much praised by any of
his teachers. Each day as he grew stronger in health and more accustomed
to his surroundings he saw some fresh advantage in his position, an
advantage which he had not aimed at, but which had come almost in spite
of himself, and he marvelled at his own good fortune, which had ordered
things so greatly better for him than he could have ordered them for
himself.

His having lived six months in Ashpit Place was a case in point. Things
were possible to him which to others like him would be impossible. If
such a man as Towneley were told he must live henceforth in a house like
those in Ashpit Place it would be more than he could stand. Ernest could
not have stood it himself if he had gone to live there of compulsion
through want of money. It was only because he had felt himself able to
run away at any minute that he had not wanted to do so; now, however,
that he had become familiar with life in Ashpit Place he no longer minded
it, and could live gladly in lower parts of London than that so long as
he could pay his way. It was from no prudence or forethought that he had
served this apprenticeship to life among the poor. He had been trying in
a feeble way to be th