The eastern arm, strange to say,
suddenly expands, and one side of it, for no earthly reason, is set
back with an open space in front of it, partitioned by low palings.
Immediately beyond, as if in a fit of sudden contrition for such
extravagance, the passage or gutter contracts itself to its very
narrowest and, diving under a printing-office shows itself in Shoe
Lane. The houses in these trenches were not by any means of the
worst kind. In the aforesaid expansion they were even genteel, or at
any rate aspired to be so, and each had its own brass knocker and
kept its front-door shut with decent sobriety and reticence. On the
top floor of one of these tenements lodged Jean Caillaud and Pauline.
They had three rooms between them; one was Jean's bedchamber, one
Pauline's, and one was workroom and living-room, where Jean made
ball-slippers and light goods--this being his branch of the trade--
and Pauline helped him. The workroom faced the north, and was
exactly on a level with an innumerable multitude of red chimney-pots
pouring forth stinking smoke which, for the six winter months,
generally darkened the air during the whole day. But occasionally
Nature resumed her rights, and it was possible to feel that sky,
stars, sun, and moon still existed, and were not blotted out by the
obscurations of what is called civilised life.
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