To be cut off from human converse, now I had been taught to relish it, was to wander a ghost among the living.

Besides, I foresaw, to aggravate the severity of my fate, that my little pittance would soon melt away.

I endeavoured to obtain needlework; but, not having been taught early, and my hands being rendered clumsy by hard work, I did not sufficiently excel to be employed by the ready-made linen shops, when so many women, better qualified, were suing for it.

The want of a character prevented my getting a place; for, irksome as servitude would have been to me, I should have made another trial, had it been feasible.

Not that I disliked employment, but the inequality of condition to which I must have submitted.