Eve's Ransom

uthern extremity of the town, and by ten o'clock was in one of the streets which lead out of Moseley Road. Here,

fireside; on the table lay the materials of a satisfactory sup

"I was going to write to you; thanks for s

to drink

believe there's a bottle of Burgu

e held a post of responsibility would have permitted him to occupy better quarters than these; but here he had lived for ten years, and he preferred a few inconveniences to the trouble of moving. Trouble of any kind was Robert's bugbear. His progress u

," said Hilliard, when he had pulled

oo

visitor had begun to appease his hunger and had

eft Dudley this afternoon feeling ready to cut my th

's t

ake a second husban

Better than one co

Then he drew from his pocket an ob

iend. "How the deuce di

They debated Dengate's

e. At the age of sixteen I encountered the old woman again, and felt immense satisfaction in giving her a shilling. Bu

thought that there was a poor devil at Dudley who went about calling him a scoundrel. By-the-bye, someone to

candid friends th

w and then of late. There's muc

ed Narramore,

friend puffed tobacco, and idly rega

going to do?" he

rose from the table, paced the floor once or twice, selected a cigar fro

oing t

ve the table cleared, an

ughtfully smoking his cigar. At Narramore's request, he mixed two tumblers of wh

it down?" sa

I c

ke yours, I should have been in my gra

ned grinding mechanism that I spend my days in drawing-that roars all day in my ears and deafens me. I'll put an end to that. Here

," commented the listener, in

he man Marr wouldn't let her. I offered to lay it aside for th

oubt

and Marian married, it looked as if I had only myself to look after: then came Will's death, and half my income went to keep his wife and child from the workhouse. You know very well I've never grudged it. It's my faith that we do what we do because anything else would be

fraid of that," said

t his friend paced the room;

e tune. My uncle Sol was

come in

his morning; she learnt who he was from the papers in his pocket. It's come out that he had made friends with some old boozer of that neighbourhood; he told him that England was on the point of a grand financial smash, and that half the population would die of hunger. To secure himself, he began to lay in the stock of tinned prov

riven mad and killed off by machinery. Before long there'll be machines

led him to grotesque idea

efore me. I'll know what enjo

hat aft

. Impossible to foresee my state of mind after living humanly for a y

One of these days I may think of getting married, and marriage, you know, is devilish expensive. I should like to have three or four thousand a year; you can't start housekeeping on less, if you're not to be bored to dea

ssed off his second tumbler

s are there in a year? Three hundred and sixty-five. That doesn't allow me two years. I want two years of

you're particular

rd-rate swell. There's no enjoyment in making a beast of oneself, and none for me in strutting about the streets like an animated figure out of a tailor's w

Narramore looked a

nd turned away, "that you've kept so clear of women. Now, anyone

by the necessity of supporting my relatives. I've seen so much of women suffering from pov

nearly al

early a

moment's gloom, shook himself free again, and talked with gr