Clare, whose appetite was dainty and delicate, suffered greatly.

I could not manage to provide even a bunch of grapes for her; the trifling coppers I spent in flowers, that cheered her as nothing else ever did, were sorely missed.
How I longed sometimes to take home a ripe peach, a bottle of wine, an amusing book! But every penny was rigorously needed; there was not one to spare.

How I pitied her for the long hours she spent alone in those solitary lodgings! A bright inspiration came to me one day; I thought how glad I should be if I could get some work to do at night, if it were but possible to earn a few shillings.

I advertised again, and after some time succeeded in getting copying to do, for which I was not overwell paid.
I earned a pound--positively a whole golden sovereign--and when it lay in my hand my joy was too great for words.

What should I do with one sovereign and such a multiplicity of wants?
Do not laugh at me, reader, when I tell you what I did do, after long and anxious debate with myself.