E. R. Punshon

“ His way took him through some of the poor and crowded parts which lie always behind the richest streets of the richest city in the world . He happened to be passing a butcher's open stall, where the salesman in a blue apron was bawling aloud the merits of his meat, when he came face to face with the very last person he would have expected to see—the incompetent waiter of the Club dining-room. ”

“ He did his best—ah, sir, he has worked!—and then I fell sick, and a sick wife is such a burden on a man. All the money we could get went on doctors."
The Colonel did not speak, but it seemed very strange to him, this brief history of a life so different from his own. And when he thought of his own campaigns in India and South Africa, he did not know that he had ever fought a battle so hard as that the incompetent waiter had waged for his sick wife and his child. A footstep sounded on the stairs, and the woman rose eagerly. ”

“ He has good references, sir, only he has been unfortunate—and I'm a great burden."
"How did he lose his work?" the Colonel asked.
"He had a place as waiter at a club in the West End, sir," the woman answered, "and one of the gentlemen was rather severe, and always frightened him. You see, sir, when a man has been out of work a long time, and has a child and a sick wife like me, then it frightens him to think of losing his post. And Arthur was not brought up to be a waiter; he is not really handy at it. ”

“ One may gather what kind of a man he was from the simple fact that, with hot soup streaming down his white waistcoat and carefully-creased trousers, he still looked dignified and imposing, so that not a soul laughed. ”

“ And now he has got Dad turned away from work. That's why we haven't very much to eat to-day."
"Good Heavens!" said the Colonel.
There was no special reason that he knew of why an incompetent waiter and would-be assassin should not have a sick wife and a pretty baby girl, but, all the same, the fact took him greatly by surprise. He had not allowed for it, and it slightly bewildered him.
"My husband has just lost his situation, sir," the woman explained. "I thought perhaps—it was only an idea, but when I was told there was a gentleman asking, I thought perhaps it might be someone wanting him. ”

“ You see, sir, he worked so hard. They are long hours at the Club, and before he went he did everything here, for if I try even to lift a saucepan, my coughing comes on. He did everything, sir, and every day he would take Phyllis for a walk, so that she might get out a bit, for we don't like her to play in the street here; and then at night he got so little sleep because of my coughing. Oh, sir, how he has worked, and me a useless burden ”