Alas! it is only those who have gone about from door to door
soliciting work who know the misery of the thing. To ask alms
would be scarcely more humiliating. People sneered at me, and
replied (when they deigned to reply at all) that 'there was no
business doing, and they had all the help they wanted.' My
evident inexperience was probably the cause of many of these
refusals, as well as my attire, for I still had the appearance of
being a rich woman. Who knows what they took me for? Still the
thought of you sustained me, Wilkie, and nothing daunted me.
"I finally succeeded in obtaining some bands of muslin to
embroider, and some pieces of tapestry work to fill in.
Unremunerative employment, no doubt, especially to one ignorant of
the art of working quickly, rather than well. By rising with
daylight, and working until late at night, I scarcely succeeded in
earning twenty sous a day. And it was not long before even this
scanty resource failed me. Winter came, and the cold weather with
it. One morning I changed my last five-franc piece--it lasted us
a week. Then I pawned and sold everything that was not absolutely
indispensable until nothing was left me but my patched dress and a
single skirt. And soon an evening came when the owner of our
miserable den turned us into the street because I could no longer
pay the rent.
"This was the final blow! I tottered away, clinging to the walls
for support; too weak from lack of food to carry you.
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