He had been a very indifferent musical amateur in his better days; and when he fell with his brother, resorted for support to playing a clarionet as dirty as himself in a small Theatre Orchestra.

It was the theatre in which his niece became a dancer; he had been a fixture there a long time when she took her poor station in it; and he accepted the task of serving as her escort and guardian, just as he would have accepted an illness, a legacy, a feast, starvation--anything but soap.
To enable this girl to earn her few weekly shillings, it was necessary for the Child of the Marshalsea to go through an elaborate form with the Father.
'Fanny is not going to live with us just now, father.

She will be here a good deal in the day, but she is going to live outside with uncle.' 'You surprise me.

Why ?' 'I think uncle wants a companion, father.

He should be attended to, and looked after.' 'A companion?
He passes much of his time here.