'
'True. Take another slice.'
'I am greatly obliged to you.'
'Not at all. I have known hard times myself, and am likely to
know worse.'
'I trust not. This is the first time that I have positively
begged. I should have been too much ashamed to beg of the kind of
men who are usually at these places; they certainly have no money
to spare. I was thinking of making an appeal at a baker's shop,
but it is very likely I should have been handed over to a
policeman. Indeed I don't know what I should have done; the last
point of endurance was almost reached. I have no clothes but
these I wear, and they are few enough for the season. Still, I
suppose the waistcoat must have gone.'
He did not talk like a beggar who is trying to excite compassion,
but with a sort of detached curiosity concerning the difficulties
of his position.
'You can find nothing to do?' said the man of letters.
'Positively nothing. By profession I am a surgeon, but it's a
long time since I practised. Fifteen years ago I was comfortably
established at Wakefield; I was married and had one child.
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