Rent!--it was a subject on which the poor
fellow could speak to some purpose. What was the root of the
difficulty a London workman found in making both ends meet? Wasn't
it that accursed law by which the owner of property can make him pay
a half, and often more, of his earnings or permission to put his
wife and children under a roof? And what sort of dwellings were
they, these in which the men who made the wealth of the country were
born and lived and died? What would happen to the landlords of
Clerkenwell if they got their due? Ay, what _shall_ happen, my boys,
and that before so very long? For fifteen or twenty minutes John
expended his fury, until, in fact, he was speechless. It was
terrible to look at him when at length he made his way out of the
crowd; his face was livid, his eyes bloodshot, a red slaver covered
his lips and beard; you might have taken him for a drunken man, so
feebly did his limbs support him, so shattered was he by the fit
through which he had passed.
Joseph followed him, and presently walked along at his side.
'That was about as good a speech as I've heard for a long time, Mr.
Hewett,' he began by observing.
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