The few pounds realised from his effects passed into the hands of Mr.Roach, and were soon expended in payment for Sidney's board and lodging.
His bereavement possibly saved Sidney from a young-manhood of foolishness and worse.

In the upper world a youth may 'sow his wild oats' and have done with it; in the nether, 'to have your fling' is almost necessarily to fall among criminals.

The death was sudden; it affected the lad profoundly, and filled him with a remorse which was to influence the whole of his life.

Mr.Roach, a thick-skinned and rather thick-headed person, did not spare to remind his apprentice of the most painful things wherewith the latter had to reproach himself.

Sidney bore it, from this day beginning a course of self-discipline of which not many are capable at any age, and very few indeed at seventeen.
Still, there had never been any sympathy between him and his uncle, and before very long the young man saw his way to live under another roof and find work with a new employer.
It was just after leaving his uncle's house that Sidney came to know John Hewett; the circumstances which fostered their friendship were such as threw strong light on the characters of both.