
PART I.
PART II.
Transcriber's Notes:
In the bustling streets of late‑Victorian London, a young man who has drifted from clerk to shop‑boy finds his world narrowed to the cramped aisles of a haberdashery. When a delicate, veiled lady drops a blue‑velvet purse on a quiet corner, his impulse to return it leads to an unexpected exchange of polite words and a glimpse of concealed papers. The brief encounter leaves him both humbled by her genteel demeanor and intrigued by the quiet urgency hidden within the purse.
The narrative follows his quiet resilience as he navigates a life of modest means while the mystery of those papers begins to tug at his conscience. His sense of duty clashes with the subtle promise of a reward, hinting at a larger web of social expectations and hidden secrets. Listeners are drawn into a thoughtful portrait of class, chance, and the moment a simple act can alter the course of an ordinary life.
Language
en
Duration
~1 hours (70K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Demian Katz and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Images courtesy of the Digital Library@Villanova University (http://digital.library.villanova.edu/))
Release date
2014-03-10
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

A late-Victorian Irish writer with a taste for mystery, speculative ideas, and popular fiction, he published novels and story collections that ranged from sensation to early science-fiction themes.
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