This way and that the lights were blurred
into a misty radiance; overhead was mere blackness, whence descended
the lashing rain. There was a ceaseless scattering of mud; there
were blocks in the traffic, attended with rough jest or angry curse;
there was jostling on the crowded pavement. Public-houses began to
brighten up, to bestir themselves for the evening's business.
Streets that had been hives of activity since early morning were
being abandoned to silence and darkness and the sweeping wind.
At noon to-day there was sunlight on the Surrey hills; the fields
and lanes were fragrant with the first breath of spring, and from
the shelter of budding copses many a primrose looked tremblingly up
to the vision of blue sky. But of these things Clerkenwell takes no
count; here it had been a day like any other, consisting of so many
hours, each representing a fraction of the weekly wage. Go where you
may in Clerkenwell, on every hand are multiform evidences of toil,
intolerable as a nightmare. It is not as in those parts of London
where the main thoroughfares consist of shops and warehouses and
workrooms, whilst the streets that are hidden away on either hand
are devoted in the main to dwellings Here every alley is thronged
with small industries; all but every door and window exhibits the
advertisement of a craft that is carried on within.
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