In Charles Kingsley’s ‘Water Babies’, little Tom is getting another beating from master sweep Mr Grimes, just for wanting to wash his face in a stream. A chance fellow-traveller, a barefoot Irish peasant, scolds Grimes and threatens to reveal a secret about him, and tells him enough to grab his attention and stop the beating.

Grimes turns angrily on the Irish woman, but her calm strength quietens him; she shows that she really does know something about his past, and Grimes seems quite abashed. The lady walks away with a reminder that being clean or dirty is a matter of choice; and though Grimes runs angrily after her, she has vanished without trace.

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