At any rate, he determined to change his room as soon as possible. It
mattered little where he went so that it was a change. He thought
over various tradesmen for whom he worked. Some of them might have an
attic, he cared not how small, that they might let him have in lieu
of paying him for his work. Even if they never spoke to him, it would
be better to be in a house where he knew something of those
downstairs, than to lodge in one where he was an utter stranger to
all. He had gone round to the shops where he worked, on the day after
his father's death, to explain that he could not come again until
after the funeral, and he resolved that next morning he would ask
each in turn whether he could obtain a lodging with them.

The sun was already setting when he rose from the bank on which he
had seated himself, and returned to the city. The room did not feel
so lonely to him as it would have done had he not been accustomed to
spending the evenings alone. He took out his little hoard and counted
it. After paying the expenses of the funeral there would still remain
sufficient to keep him for three or four months should he fall ill,
or, from any cause, lose his work. He had one good suit of clothes
that had been bought on his return to England,--when his father
thought that they would assuredly be going down almost immediately to
take possession of the old Hall,--and the rest were all in fair
condition.

The next day he began his work again; he had two visits to pay of an
hour each, and one of two hours, and the spare time between these he
filled up by calling at two or three other shops to make up for the
arrears of work during the last few days.