It was
dreadful to go to her work and hear the girls talking of this
attempted murder. The new misery came upon her just as she was
regaining something of her natural spirits, after long sorrow and
depression which had affected her health. But circumstances, now as
ever, seemed to plot that at a critical moment of her own experience
she should be called out of herself and constrained to become the
consoler of others.
For some months the domestic peace of Mr. and Mrs. Byass had been
gravely disturbed. Unlike the household at Crouch End, it was to
prosperity that Sam and his wife owed their troubles. Year after
year Sam's position had improved; he was now in receipt of a salary
which made--or ought to have made--things at home very
comfortable. Though his children were now four in number, he could
supply their wants. He could buy Bessie a new gown without very
grave consideration, and could regard his own shiny top-hat, when he
donned it in the place of one that was really respectable enough,
without twinges of conscience.
But Sam was not remarkable for wisdom; indeed, had he been anything
more than a foolish calculating-machine, he would scarcely have
thriven as he did in the City.
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