eight he was in an industrial school; his father was dead, his
mother a drunkard; home he had none!

Leaving school at sixteen he became first a gardener's assistant,
then a gentleman's servant; in this occupation he saved some
money with which he apprenticed himself to french polishing.
From apprentice to journeyman, from journeyman to business on his
own account, were successive steps; he married, and that brought
him among my many acquaintances.

He had a nice home, and two beautiful children, and then that
great destroyer of home life, drink! had to be reckoned with.
So he came to consult me. She was a beautiful and cultured woman
and full of remorse.

The stained hands of the french polisher trembled as he signed a
document by which he agreed to pay L1 per week for his wife's
maintenance in an inebriate home for twelve months where she
might have her babe with her. Bravely he did his part, and at
the end of the year he brought her back to a new and better home,
where the neighbours knew nothing of her past.

For twelve months there was joy in the home, and then a new life
came into it; but with the babe came a relapse; the varnish-
stained man was again at his wits' end. Once more she entered a
home, for another year he worked and toiled to pay the charges,
and again he provided a new home. And she came back to a house
that he had bought for her in a new neighbourhood; they now lived
close to me, and my house was open to them. The story of the
following years cannot be told, for she almost ruined him. Night