This, fortunately, the cabman, being drunk, had left open.

By the time he reached their stair, all was still except the voice of the crying baby, which guided him to the right door.

He opened it softly, and peeped in.

There, leaning back in a chair, with his arms hanging down by his sides, and his legs stretched out before him and supported on his heels, sat the drunken cabman.

His wife lay in her clothes upon the bed, sobbing, and the baby was wailing in the cradle.