
    »Why, I haven't touched a drop, Mrs. Eagles!«
    »Now, now, now, now, now! Why, your lips are shrivelled up like a bit of o'
dried orange-peel! You're a silly girl, that's what you are!«
    Of late Amy Hewett had become the victim of a singular propensity; whenever
she could obtain vinegar, she drank it as a toper does spirits. Inadequate
nourishment, and especially an unsatisfied palate, frequently have this result
in female children among the poor; it is an anticipation of what will befall
them as soon as they find their way to the public-house.
    Having administered a scolding, Mrs. Eagles went into the room which she and
her husband occupied. It was so encumbered with furniture that not more than
eight or ten square feet of floor can have been available for movement. On the
bed sat Mr. Eagles, a spare, large-headed, ugly, but very thoughtful-looking
man; he and Sidney Kirkwood had been acquaintances and fellow-workmen for some
years, but no close intimacy had arisen between them, owing to the difference of
their tastes and views. Eagles was absorbed in the study of a certain branch of
political statistics; the enthusiasm of his life was Financial Reform. Every
budget presented to Parliament he criticised with extraordinary thoroughness,
and, in fact, with an acumen which would have made him no inefficient auxiliary
of the Chancellor himself. Of course he took the view that the nation's
resources were iniquitously wasted, and of course had little difficulty in
illustrating a truth so obvious; what distinguished him from the ordinary
malcontent of Clerkenwell Green was his logical faculty and the surprising
extent of the information with which he had furnished himself. Long before there
existed a Financial Reform Almanack, Eagles practically represented that work in
his own person. Disinterested, ardent, with thoughts for but one subject in the
scope of human inquiry, he lived contentedly on his two pounds a week, and was
for ever engaged in the theoretic manipulation of millions. Utopian budgets
multiplied themselves in his brain and his note-books. He devised imposts such
as Minister never dreamt of, yet which, he declared, could not fail of vast
success. »You just look at these figures!« he would exclaim to Sidney, in his
low, intense voice. »There it is in black and white!« But Sidney's faculties
were quite unequal to calculations of this kind, and Eagles could never summon
resolve to explain his schemes before an audience. Indefatigably he worked
