strong; the weariness of interminable days over-tried him and excited his mind
to vain discontent. His wife was the only one who could ever keep him cheerful
under his lot, and his wedded life had lasted but six years; now there was his
lad Bob and his little girl Clara to think of, and it only made him more
miserable to look forward and see them going through hardships like his own.
Things were wrong somehow, and it seemed to him that »if only we could have
universal suffrage -«
    Sidney was only eighteen, and strong in juvenile Radicalism, but he had a
fund of common sense, and such a conclusion as this of poor John's
half-astonished, half-amused him. However, the man's personality attracted him;
it was honest, warm-hearted, interesting; the logic of his pleadings might be at
fault, but Sidney sympathised with him, for all that. He too felt that things
were wrong somehow, and had a pleasure in joining the side of revolt for
revolt's sake.
    Now in the same house with them dwelt a young woman of about nineteen years
old; she occupied a garret, was seldom seen about, and had every appearance of
being a simple, laborious girl, of the kind familiar enough as the silent
victims of industrialism. One day the house was thrown into consternation by the
news that Miss Barnes - so she was named - had been arrested on a charge of
stealing her employer's goods. It was true, and perhaps the best way of
explaining it will be to reproduce a newspaper report which Sidney Kirkwood
thereafter preserved.
    »On Friday, Margaret Barnes, nineteen, a single woman, was indicted for
stealing six jackets, value 5l., the property of Mary Oaks, her mistress. The
prisoner, who cried bitterly during the proceedings, pleaded guilty. The
prosecutrix is a single woman, and gets her living by mantle-making. She engaged
the prisoner to do what is termed finishing off, that is, making the
button-holes and sewing on the buttons. The prisoner was also employed to fetch
the work from the warehouse, and deliver it when finished. On September 7th her
mistress sent her with the six jackets, and she never returned. Sergeant Smith,
a detective, who apprehended the prisoner, said he had made inquiries in the
case, and found that up to this time the prisoner had borne a good character as
an honest, hard-working girl. She had quitted her former lodgings, which had no
furniture but a small table and a