Paul Clifford Chapter I

In which on a tempestuous London night, a lowly man named Dummie seeks a book to comfort a dying woman whose mind flits between delirium and a tender devotion to her child, revealing a glimpse of human frailty amid squalor. The solemn scene closes with a solemn vow renewed and a secret whispered beneath the flicker of a dying candle, as life and death intertwine within the shadowed room.