By way of Allchin, who knew all the gossip of the neighbourhood, Warburton learnt that his new competitor in trade was a man with five children and a wife given to drink; he had been in business in another part of London, and was suspected to have removed with the hope that new surroundings might help his wife to overcome her disastrous failing.

A very respectable man, people said; kind husband, good father, honest dealer.

But Allchin reported, with a twinkle of the eye, that all his capital had gone in the new start, and it was already clear that his business did not thrive.
"We shall starve him out!" cried the assistant, snapping his thumb and finger.
"And what'll become of him then ?" asked Will.
"Oh, that's for him to think about," replied Allchin.

"Wouldn't he starve us, if he could, sir ?" And Warburton, brooding on this matter, stood appalled at the ferocity of the struggle amid which he lived, in which he had his part.

Gone was all his old enjoyment of the streets of London.