Page:Gissing - Workers in the Dawn, vol. I, 1880.djvu/15

Rh my own grace, I hassure yer, I never uses any other! Come, who says ‘alf-a-crownd for this?—No?—Why, then, two bob—one an’-a-tanner—a bob! Gone, and damned cheap too! “This man makes noise enough; but here, close behind him, is an open shop-front with a mingled array of household utensils defying description, the price chalked in large figures on each, and on a stool stands a little lad, clashing incessantly with an enormous hammer upon a tray as tall as himself and with his piercing young voice doing his utmost to attract hearers. Next we have a stall covered with cheap and trashy ornaments, chipped glass vases of a hundred patterns, picture-frames, lamps, watch-chains, rings; things such as may tempt a few of the hard-earned coppers out of a young wife’s pocket, or induce the working lad to spend a shilling for the delight of some consumptive girl, with the result, perhaps, of leading her to seek in the brothel a relief from the slow death of the factory or the work-room. As we push along we find ourselves clung to by something or other, and, looking down, see a little girl, perhaps four years old, the Yery image of naked wretchedness, holding up, with shrill, pitiful appeals, a large piece of salt, for which she wants one halfpenny—no more, she assures us, than one half-penny. She clings persistently and will not be shaken off. Poor little thing; most likely failure to