Wandering about the Clare Market region on Sunday he found us out,
came in, and remained constant. Naturally, as we had so few
adherents, we gradually knew these few very intimately, and Taylor
would often spend a holiday or part of the Sunday with us. He was
not eminent for anything in particular, and an educated man,
selecting as his friends those only who stand for something, would
not have taken the slightest notice of him. He had read nothing
particular, and thought nothing particular--he was indeed one of the
masses--but in this respect different, that he had not the tendency
to association, aggregation, or clanship which belong to the masses
generally. He was different, of course, in all his ways from his
neighbours born and bred to Clare Market and its alleys. Although
commonplace, he had demands made upon him for an endurance by no
means commonplace, and he had sorrows which were as exquisite as
those of his betters. He did not much resent his poverty. To that I
think he would have submitted, and in fact he did submit to it
cheerfully. What rankled in him was the brutal disregard of him at
the office. He was a servant of servants. The messengers, who
themselves were exposed to all the petty tyrannies of the clerks, and
dared not reply, were Taylor's masters, and sought a compensation for
their own serfdom by making his ten times worse.
Pages:
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98