Things were possible to him which to others like him would be
impossible. If such a man as Towneley were told he must live
henceforth in a house like those in Ashpit Place it would be more than
he could stand. Ernest could not have stood it himself if he had
gone to live there of compulsion through want of money. It was only
because he had felt himself able to run away at any minute that he had
not wanted to do so; now, however, that he had become familiar with
life in Ashpit Place he no longer minded it, and could live gladly
in lower parts of London than that so long as he could pay his way. It
was from no prudence or forethought that he had served this
apprenticeship to life among the poor. He had been trying in a
feeble way to be thorough in his work: he had not been thorough, the
whole thing had been a fiasco; but he had made a little puny effort in
the direction of being genuine, and behold, in his hour of need it had
been returned to him with a reward far richer than he had deserved. He
could not have faced becoming one of the very poor unless he had had
such a bridge to conduct him, over to them as he had found unwittingly
in Ashpit Place.
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