Part 2, Section 8 Summary

Daisy lives in South London. She is used to crowding, there being too little space for the people present. Her childhood has been a plenitude of smells--coal, vinegar, gin, dung, "chloride of lime from the backstreet factories, and baking bread every morning." Her mother was very poor when she is young: when they went to market, it was always to the stalls on the cheap end, where they would purchase "cow-heel, which didn't turn as quickly as most kinds of meat." They moved around, never taking rooms twice on the same street. Daisy--an only child--watched after young children while her mother capped bottles at the Falcon Brewery. Their fortunes changed somewhat when Daisy's mother's sister, unexpectedly died and left them five years worth of income, 5 pounds a quarter. Mrs. Saunders continued working at the brewery so she could send Daisy to...