It was a serious loss. Clara's marriage
removed one grave anxiety, but the three children had still to be
brought up, and with every year John's chance of steady employment
would grow less. Sidney Kirkwood declared himself able and willing
to help substantially, but he might before long have children of his
own to think of, and in any case it was Shameful to burden him in
this way.
Shameful or not, it very soon came to pass that Sidney had the whole
family on his hands. A bad attack of rheumatism in the succeeding
winter made John incapable of earning any. thing at all; for two
months he was a cripple. Till then Sidney and his wife had occupied
lodgings in Holloway; when it became evident that Hewett must not
hope to be able to support his children, and when Sidney had for
many weeks p aid the rent (as well as supplying the money to live
upon) in Farringdon Road Buildings, the house at Crouch End was
taken, and there all went to live together. Clara's health was very
uncertain, and though at first she spoke frequently of finding work
to do at home, the birth of a child put an end to such projects. Amy
Hewett was shortly at the point when the education of a board-school
child is said to be 'finished;' by good luck, employment was found
for her in Kentish Town, with three shillings a week from the first.
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