I paid a quarter's subscription at Mudie's, so that my poor sister should have something to while away the dreary hours of the long day.

With the few shillings left I bought her a bottle of wine and some oranges.
That is years ago, but tears rise in my eyes now when I remember her pretty joy, how gratefully she thanked me, how delicious she found the wine, how she made me taste it, how she opened the books one after another, and could hardly believe that every day she would have the same happiness--three books, three beautiful new books! Ah, well! As one grows older, such simple pleasures do not give the same great joy.
It was some time before I earned another.

It was just as welcome to me, and there came to me a great wonder as to whether I should spend the whole of my life in this hard work with so small a recompense.
"Surely," I said to myself, "I shall rise in time; if I am diligent and attentive at the office, I must make my way." But, alas! the steps were very small, and the clerks' salaries were only increased by five pounds a year at a time.

It would be so long before I earned two hundred a year, and at the same rate I should be an old man before I reached three hundred.
One morning--it was the 1st of May--bright, warm, sunny day, the London streets were more gay than usual, and as I walked along I wondered if ever again I should breathe the perfume of the lime and the lilac in the springtime.

I saw a girl selling violets and daffodils, with crocuses and spring flowers.