midnight
yea , worse than nothing ! Six months of sorrowing passed , and what a change we behold ! Experience has shown to Edward that the use of brandy is dangerous , and good dame Brandon has been led to believe that there are temptations in the city which she little thought of . Edward , driven from his business , revels in bar-rooms , and riots at midnight ; whilst the patient , uncomplaining , enduring Emily , forced by creditors from her former home , finds shelter from the storm in a small tenement ; where , by the aid of her needle , she is enabled to support herself and aged aunt , whilst a prattling infant plays at her side , and , laughing in its childish sports , thinks not of the sorrows it was born to encounter , and knows not the sad feelings of its mother 's wounded heart . In a low , damp , dark cellar , behold a man washing the glasses of a groggery . His ragged dress and uncombed hair , his shabby and dirty appearance , do not prevent us from seeing indications of his once having been in better circumstances , and that nature never designed that he should be where he now is . Having rinsed a few cracked tumblers , he sat down beside a red-hot cylinder stove , and , bending over till his head rested upon his hands , he , in a half-audible voice , talked to himself .