The workshop where he was generally to be found was
owned by two brothers, who invariably spent the first half of each
week in steady drinking. Their money gone, they set to work and made
articles of furniture, which on Saturday they took round to the
shops of small dealers and sold for what they could get. When once
they took up their tools, these men worked with incredible
persistency, and they expected the same exertion from those they
employed. 'I wouldn't give a ---- for the chap as can't do his
six-and-thirty hours at the bench!' remarked one of them on the
occasion of a workman falling into a fainting-fit, caused by utter
exhaustion. Hewett was anything but strong, and he earned little.
Late on Saturday afternoon, Sidney Kirkwood and his friends were
back in London. As he drew near to Tysoe Street, carrying the bag
which was all the luggage he had needed, Sidney by chance
encountered Joseph Snowdon, who, after inquiring about his
relatives, said that he had just come from visiting the Hewetts.
Mrs. Hewett was very ill indeed; and it was scarcely to be expected
she would live more than a few days.
'You mean that?' exclaimed Kirkwood, upon whom, after his week of
holiday and of mental experiences which seemed to have changed the
face of the world for him, this sudden announcement came with a
painful shock, reviving all the miserable past.
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