The
emotion proved too great a strain upon his body, and he had at
length to sit down in a tremulous state, miserable with the
consciousness of failing authority. He would have made but a poor
figure now upon Clerkenwell Green. Even as his frame was shrunken,
so had the circle of his interests contracted; he could no longer
speak or think on the subjects which had fired him through the
better part of his life; if he was driven to try and utter himself
on the broad questions of social wrong, of the people's cause, a
senile stammering of incoherencies was the only result. The fight
had. ever gone against John Hewett; he was one of those who are born
to be defeated. His failing energies spent themselves in conflict
with his own children; the concerns of a miserable home were all his
mind could now cope with.
'Come and sit down to your dinner, father,' Annie said, when he
became silent.
'Dinner? I want no dinner. I've no stomach for food when it's
stolen. What's Sidney goin' to have when he comes home?'
'He said he'd do with bread and cheese to-day. See, we've cut some
meat for you?'
'You keep that for Sidney, then, and don't one of you dare to say
anything about it.
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