You won't b'lieve it, but I was." The last place in which she had worked was a coffee-house, hours from seven in the morning till eleven at night, and for which she had received five shillings a week and her food.

Then she had fallen sick, and since emerging from the hospital had been unable to find anything to do.

She wasn't feeling up to much, and the last two nights had been spent in the street.
Between them they stowed away a prodigious amount of food, this man and woman, and it was not till I had duplicated and triplicated their original orders that they showed signs of easing down.
Once she reached across and felt the texture of my coat and shirt, and remarked upon the good clothes the Yanks wore.

My rags good clothes! It put me to the blush; but, on inspecting them more closely and on examining the clothes worn by the man and woman, I began to feel quite well dressed and respectable.
"What do you expect to do in the end ?" I asked them.

"You know you're growing older every day." "Work'ouse," said he.
"Gawd blimey if I do," said she.