…would turn over a new leaf and live like respectable people. But what we wanted was five hundred pounds. If we had that sum we could retire to the country and run a farm. Jim liked an outdoor life, and I loved animals, so we thought a farm would suit us down to the ground.”Well, it was my turn first. Biding my time I, at last, saw a safe opportunity. I mingled with a crowd of well-dressed ladies at a benevolent bazaar in the West End, and came home with five nice fat purses — close on a hundred and fifty pounds in hard cash. Not bad, was it? I banked the money, and Jim, being a man of honour, told me that would do, and that I must now definitely retire on my laurels — a feat which he hoped soon to accomplish himself.One day Jim came to me…

…copper hue — a man in build and form, but enormous in size and development. ” See thy future!” it cried; and my free soul felt a strange pang of pity at the sight of its face — it was so full of sorrow that I could not fathom; a vastness of pain that could only be immortal. Yet as I looked, my pity was changed to fear and hate; the creature became contorted with demoniac fury; its lips wreathed and twisted, its eyes flashed, and it cried aloud so that my soul longed to flee yet dare not.”See! See!” it shrieked. And I looked and saw myself. It was I, but how altered! I was an aged man sitting alone in a dreary attic, bathed in a flood of cold moonlight, waiting — waiting for what? I looked a little further and saw a muddy river, and over it…