There was a marked difference of quality between the personages who haunted near bridge of brick and the personages who haunted the far one of stone. Those of lowest character preferred the former, adjoining the town; they did not mind the glare of the public eye. they had been of no account during their successes; and though they might feel dispirited, they had no sense of shame in their ruin. Instead of sighing at their adversaries they spat, and instead of saying the iron had entered into their souls they said they were down in their luck.The miserable's who would pause on the remoter bridge of a politer stamppersons who did not know how to get rid of the weary time. The eyes of his species were mostly directed over the parapet upon the running water below. While one on the town ward bridge did not mind who saw him so, and kept his back to parapet to survey the passer-by, one on this never faced the road, never turned his head at coming foot-steps, but, sensitive on his own condition, watched the current whenever a stranger approached, as if some strange fish interested him, though every finned thing had been poached out of the rivers years before.

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In this passage the author is trying to