You have never felt the hearts of all hardened against you; have never heard the jeer or curse from every lip; nor endured the insult and the blow from every hand.

I _have_ suffered all this.

I could resist the tempter _now_, I am strong in health,--in mind.
But _then_--Oh! Madam, there are moments--moments of darkness, which overshadow a whole existence--in the lives of the poor houseless wretches who traverse the streets, when reason is well-nigh benighted; when the horrible promptings of despair can, alone, be listened to; and when vice itself assumes the aspect of virtue.

Pardon what I have said, Madam.

I do not desire to extenuate my guilt--far less to defend it; but I would show you, and such as you--who, happily, are exempted from trials like mine--how much misery has to do with crime.