It was the first Saturday afternoon in August; it had been broiling hot all day, with a cloudless sky, and the sun had been beating down on the houses, so that the top rooms were like ovens; but now with the approach of evening it was cooler, and everyone in Vere Street was out of doors. Vere street, Lambeth, is a short, straight street leading out of the Westminster Bridge Road; it has forty houses on one side and forty houses on the other, and these eighty houses are very much more like one another than ever peas are like peas, or young ladies like young ladies. They are newish,...

The day broke gray and dull. The clouds hung heavily, and there was a rawness in the air that suggested snow. A woman servant came into a room in which a child was sleeping and drew the curtains. She glanced mechanically at the house opposite, a stucco house with a portico, and went to the child's bed. -Wake up, Philip, - she said. She pulled down the bed-clothes, took him in her arms, and carried him downstairs. He was only half awake. -Your mother wants you, - she said. She opened the door of a room on the floor below and took the child over to a bed in which a woman was lying. It was his...

'She said she wasn't goin' to 'ave no more, when the last one come.' This remark came from Polly's husband. 'Ah, ' said the stout old lady, who was in the business, and boasted vast experience. 'That's wot they all says; but, Lor' bless yer, they don't mean it.' 'Well, I've got three, and I'm not goin' to 'ave no more bli'me if I will; 'tain't good enough-that's wot I says.' 'You're abaht right there, ole gal, ' said Polly, 'My word, 'Arry, if you 'ave any more I'll git a divorce, that I will.' At that moment an organ-grinder turned the corner and came down the street. 'Good biz; 'ere's an...