Where: A Pawnbroker’s Shop off Drury Lane

Who: A Vagrant

There was new sign neatly written out:

OF PARTICULAR NOTE AND VALUE:

YOUR NEW OBJECTS!

MOST RECENT TO YOUR POSSESSION!!

BEST PRICES ON NEW THINGS!!!

And so they had come, all of them, to pawn their loved ones.

They didn’t know it perhaps but they were flogging off, to get a few pennies, maybe a quid or two, what was left of their children, or parents, grandparents, friends, husbands, wives, lovers, darlings, the best of their lives. How could they do it?