His having lived six months in Ashpit Place was a case in point. Things
were possible to him which to others like him would be impossible. If
such a man as Towneley were told he must live henceforth in a house like
those in Ashpit Place it would be more than he could stand. Ernest could
not have stood it himself if he had gone to live there of compulsion
through want of money. It was only because he had felt himself able to
run away at any minute that he had not wanted to do so; now, however,
that he had become familiar with life in Ashpit Place he no longer minded
it, and could live gladly in lower parts of London than that so long as
he could pay his way. It was from no prudence or forethought that he had
served this apprenticeship to life among the poor. He had been trying in
a feeble way to be thorough in his work: he had not been thorough, the
whole thing had been a _fiasco_; but he had made a little puny effort in
the direction of being genuine, and behold, in his hour of need it had
been returned to him with a reward far richer than he had deserved. He
could not have faced becoming one of the very poor unless he had had such
a bridge to conduct him over to them as he had found unwittingly in
Ashpit Place.
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