He carries his desolation with him, and the infirmary or the river will be the end of him.
Here are two stalwart fellows, big enough and strong enough to do useful work in the world.

But they are fresh from prison, and will be back in prison before long; they know us, for it is not the first time we have made their acquaintance.
They are by no means backward in speaking and telling us that they want "just ten shillings to buy stock in Houndsditch which they can sell in Cheapside." As we move away they beg insistently for "just a few shillings; they don't want to get back to prison." Now we come to a youth of eighteen; he seems afraid, and looks at us with suspicious eyes; what is he doing here?
We are interested in him, so young, yet alone on the Embankment.

We open our bag and offer him food, which he accepts and eats; as we watch him our pity increases: he is thinly clad, and the night air is damp and cold; we select an old coat, which he puts on.

Then we question him, and he tells us that his mother is dead, his father remarried; that his stepmother did not like him, and in consequence his father turned him out; that he cannot get work.

And so on; a common story, no originality about it, and not much truth! We suddenly put the question, "How long have you lived in lodging-houses ?" "About three years, sir." "What did you work at ?" "Selling papers in the streets." "Anything else ?" "No, sir." "You had not got any lodging money to-night. ?" "No." "Ever been in prison ?" "Only twice." "What for ?" "Gambling in the streets," and we leave him, conscious that he is neither industrious, honest nor truthful.
We come at length to Waterloo Bridge, and here in the corners and recesses of the steps we find still more of the submerged, and a pitiful lot they are.
We look closely at them, and we see that some are getting back to primeval life, and that some are little more than human vegetables.