…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…

…to a dream that occurred to him when he had sunk as low as any man could sink.”I had squandered two entire fortunes in drink, he said,” and, from living in a house of my own in Cadogan Gardens, was reduced to a garret in the South Lambeth Road. Not being brought up to any profession or trade, and having a serious physical defect, I could obtain no regular employment, but had to look out for odd jobs, such, for example, as carrying bags, opening carriage doors, and cleaning the brass work and windows of public, houses; and all the money I received I spent in drink. My wife had very rightly and wisely obtained a divorce from me. I was dead to all sense of decency and shame, and God alone knows in what act of outrageous devilry my wickedness might not have culminated, had it not been for…