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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life in London, by Edwin Hodder
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Life in London
+
+Author: Edwin Hodder
+
+Posting Date: November 28, 2011 [EBook #9940]
+Release Date: February, 2006
+First Posted: November 2, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN LONDON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Kevin Handy, Dave Maddock, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIFE IN LONDON
+
+OR, THE PITFALLS OF A GREAT CITY
+
+BY EDWIN HODDER, ESQ.
+
+1890.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+   I. THE INTRODUCTION
+
+  II. SCHOOL-BOY DAYS
+
+ III. STARTING WELL
+
+  IV. MEETING A SCHOOL-FELLOW
+
+   V. A FARCE
+
+  VI. THE LECTURE
+
+ VII. GETTING ON IN THE WORLD
+
+VIII. A TEST OF FRIENDSHIP
+
+  IX. IN EXILE
+
+   X. MAKING DISCOVERIES
+
+  XI. THE SICK CHAMBER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Breathless and excited, George Weston came running down a street in
+Islington. He knocked at the door of No. 16, and in his impatience,
+until it was opened, commenced a tattoo with his knuckles upon the
+panels.
+
+"Oh, mother, mother, I have got such splendid news!" he cried, as he
+hurried down stairs into the room where Mrs. Weston, with her apron on
+and sleeves tucked up, was busy in her domestic affairs. "Such splendid
+news!" repeated George. "I have been down to Mr. Compton's with the
+letter Uncle Henry gave me, in which he said I wanted a situation, and
+should be glad if Mr. Compton could help me; and, sure enough, I was
+able to see him, and he is such a kind, fatherly old gentlemen, mother.
+I am sure I shall like him."
+
+"Well, George, and what did he say!"
+
+"Oh! I've got ever so much to tell you, before I come to that part. The
+office, you know, is in Falcon Court, Fleet Street; such a dismal place,
+with the houses all crammed together, and a little space in front, not
+more than large enough to turn a baker's bread-truck in. All the windows
+are of ground glass, as if the people inside were too busy to see out,
+or to be seen; and on every door there are lots of names of people who
+have their offices there, and some of them are actually right up at the
+top storeys of the houses. Well, I found out the name of Mr. Compton,
+and I tapped at a door where 'Clerk's Office' was written. I think I
+ought not to have tapped, but to have gone in, for somebody said rather
+sharply, 'Come in,' and in I went. An old gentleman was standing beside
+a sort of counter, with a lot of heavy books on it, and he asked me what
+I wanted. I said I wanted to see Mr. Compton, and had got a letter for
+him. He told me to sit down until Mr. Compton was disengaged, and then
+he would see me."
+
+"And what sort of an office was it, George? And who was the old
+gentleman? The manager, I suppose!"
+
+"I think he was, because he seemed to do as he liked, and all the clerks
+talked in a whisper while he was there. I had to wait more than
+half-an-hour, and I was able to look round and see all that was going
+on. It is a large office, and there were ten clerks seated on
+uncomfortable high stools, without backs, poring over books and papers.
+I don't think I shall like those clerks, they stared at me so rudely,
+and I felt so ashamed, because one looked hard at me, and then whispered
+to another: and I believe they were saying something about my boots,
+which you know, mother, are terribly down at heel, and so I put one foot
+over the other, to try and hide them."
+
+"There was no need of that, George. It did not alter the fact that they
+were down at heel; and there is no disgrace in being clothed only as
+respectable as we can afford, is there?"
+
+"Not a bit, mother: and I feel so vexed with myself because I knew I
+turned red, which made the two clerks smile. But I must go on telling
+you what else I saw. The old gentleman seems quite a character--he is
+nearly bald, has got no whiskers, wears a big white neckcloth and a tail
+coat, and takes snuff every five minutes out of a silver box. Whether he
+knows it or not, the clerks are very rude to him: for when he took
+snuff, one of them sneezed, or pretended to sneeze, every time, and
+another snuffled, as if he were taking snuff too."
+
+"That certainly does not speak well for the clerks," said Mrs. Weston.
+"Old gentlemen do have peculiar ways sometimes, but it is not right for
+young people to ridicule them."
+
+"No, it is not; and I don't like to see people do a thing behind another
+one's back they are afraid to do before his face. When the clerks had to
+speak to the old gentleman, they were as civil as possible, and said,
+'Yes, sir,' and 'No, sir,' to him so meekly, as if they were quite
+afraid of him; but after a little while, when he took up his hat and
+went out, they all began talking and laughing out loud, although when he
+was there, they had only occasionally spoken in low whispers. There was
+only one young man, out of the whole lot, who did not join with them,
+but kept at his work; and I thought if I got a situation in that office,
+I should try and make friends with him."
+
+"That's right, George. I would rather you should not have a situation at
+all, than get mixed up with bad companions. But go on, I am so anxious
+to hear what Mr. Compton said."
+
+"Well, after half-an-hour, I heard a door in the next room close, and a
+table-bell touched, and then the old gentleman, who had by this time
+returned, went in Presently he came out again, and said Mr. Compton
+would see me. Oh, mother! I felt so funny, you don't know. My mouth got
+quite dry, my face flushed, and I couldn't think whatever I should say,
+I felt just as I did that day at the school examination, when I had to
+make one of the prize speeches. But I got all to rights directly I saw
+Mr. Compton. He said, 'Good morning to you--be seated,' in such a nice
+way, that I felt at home with him at once."
+
+"And what did you say to him, George?"
+
+"I had learnt by heart what I was going to say, but in the hurry I had
+forgotten every word. So I said, 'My name is--' (it's a wonder I did not
+say Norval, for I felt a bit bewildered at the sound of my own voice)
+'--my name is George Weston, sir, and I have brought you a letter from
+my uncle, Mr. Henry Brunton, who knows you, I think.' 'Oh! yes," he
+said, 'he knows me very well; and, if I mistake not, this letter is
+about you, for he was talking to me about a nephew the other day.' Isn't
+that just like Uncle Henry?--he never said anything about that to us,
+but he is so good and kind, we are always finding out some of his
+generous actions, about which he never speaks. While Mr. Compton was
+reading the letter, I had leisure to look at him, and at his room. He is
+such a fine-looking old man, just like that picture we saw in the
+Academy, last year, of the village squire. He looks as if he were very
+benevolent and kind-hearted, and he dresses just like some of the
+country gentlemen, with a dark green coat and velvet collar, a frill
+shirt, and a little bit of buf. waistcoat seen under his coat, which he
+keeps buttoned. He had got lots of books, and papers, and files about,
+and sat hi an arm-chair so cosily--in fact, I should not have thought
+that nice carpeted room was really an office, if it had not been for the
+ground-glass windows. Just as I was thinking why it was the glorious
+sunshine is not admitted into offices, Mr. Compton said--"
+
+"What did he say, George? I have waited so patiently to hear."
+
+"He said, 'Well, _Mr_. Weston,'--(he did really call me Mr. Weston,
+mother; I suppose he took me for a young man: it is evident he did not
+know I was wearing a stick-up shirt collar for the first time in my
+life)--'I have read this letter, and am inclined to think I may be able
+to do something for you.' That put my 'spirits up,' as poor father used
+to say; and I said, 'I'm very glad to hear it, Sir.' So then he told me
+that he wanted a junior clerk in his office, who could write quickly, be
+brisk at accounts, and make himself generally useful, as the
+advertisements in the _Times_ say. I told him I could do all these
+things; and he passed me a sheet of paper, to give him a specimen of my
+handwriting. I hardly knew what to write, but I fixed upon a passage of
+Scripture, 'Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the
+Lord.' My hand was so shaky, that all the letters with tails to them had
+the queerest flourishes you ever saw. Mr. Compton smiled when I handed
+him the sheet of paper--I don't know whether it was at the writing, or
+at the quotation, and I wished I had written a passage from Seneca
+instead!"
+
+"You did not feel ashamed at having written a part of God's word, did
+you, George?"
+
+"No, not ashamed, mother; but I thought it was not business-like, and
+seemed too much like a schoolboy."
+
+"I think it was very business-like. It would convey the idea that you
+would seek to do your business from the best and highest motives. But
+what did Mr. Compton say?"
+
+"He only said he thought the handwriting was good. Then he told me that
+he would take me as his clerk, and should expect me to be at my post
+next Monday morning, at nine o'clock. 'And now,' he said, 'we must fix
+upon a salary; and as your uncle has told me that you are anxious to
+maintain yourself, I will give you a weekly sum sufficient for that
+purpose; and if you give me satisfaction, I will raise it yearly.' And
+what do you think he offered me, mother?"
+
+"I really do not know; perhaps, as you are young, and have never been in
+a situation before, he said five shillings a week, although I did not
+think you would get any salary at all for the first six months."
+
+"No, mother, more than five shillings; guess again," said George, his
+face shining with excited delight.
+
+"Then I will guess seven and sixpence a week," said his mother,
+doubtfully, for she thought she had gone too high.
+
+"More than that, mother; guess only once more, for I cannot keep it in
+if you are not very quick."
+
+"Then I shall say ten shillings a week, George; but I am afraid I have
+guessed too much."
+
+"No, mother, under the mark again. I am to have ten shillings and
+sixpence--half a guinea a week! Isn't that splendid? Only fancy, Mr.
+George Weston, Junior Clerk to Mr. Compton, at half-a-guinea a week! My
+fortune is made; and, depend upon it, mother, we shall get on in the
+world now, first-rate. Why, I shall only want--say, half-a-crown a week
+for myself, and then there will be all the rest for you. Now don't you
+think blind-eyed Fortune must have dropped her bandage this morning, and
+have spied me out?"
+
+"No, George; but I think that kind Providence; which has always smiled
+upon us when we have been in the greatest difficulties, has once more
+shown us that all our ways are in the hands of One who doeth all things
+well."
+
+"So do I, mother; and I do hope that this success, which has attended my
+journey this morning, may turn out to our real good. I feel it will--we
+shall be able to go on now so swimmingly, and I shall be getting a
+footing in the world, so that by-and-bye we shan't have a single debt,
+or a single care, and you will be growing younger as fast as I grow
+older: and then, after a time, we will get a little house in the
+country, and finish up our days the happiest couple in the British
+dominions."
+
+For the remainder of that day, poor George was in a regular whirl of
+excitement. A thousand schemes were afloat in his mind about the future,
+of the most improbable kind. His income of half-a-guinea a week was to
+do wonders, which were never accomplished by half a score of guineas.
+He speculated about the rise in his salary at the end of the year, which
+he was determined, if it rested upon his own industry, should not be
+less than a pound a week; and then he forgot the first year, and
+commenced calculating what he could do, with his increased salary, till,
+at last, worn out with scheming, he said,--
+
+"Money is a great bother, after all, mother. I've been calculating all
+this day how we can spend my salary; and I am really more perplexed than
+if Mr. Compton had said I should not have anything for the first six
+months. I can't make ends meet if I attempt to do what I have planned,
+that's very certain; so I shall quietly wait till the first Saturday
+night comes, and I feel the half-guinea in my hand, and then I shall
+better realize what it is worth."
+
+That was a pleasant evening Mrs. Weston and George spent together in
+discussing the events of the day, and when it became time to separate
+for the night, she said--
+
+"This is one of the happiest days we have spent for a long time, George.
+How your poor father would have enjoyed sharing it with us!" and the
+widow sighed.
+
+"Mother," said George, "I have thought of poor father so many times
+to-day, and I have formed a resolution which I mean to try and keep. He
+was a good man. I don't think he ever did anything really wrong--and I
+recollect so well what he used to tell me, when I was a boy"--(George
+had jumped into manhood in a day, he fancied)--"I mean to take him for a
+model; and if I find myself placed in dangers and difficulties, I shall
+always ask myself, 'What would father have done if he had been in this
+case?' and then I should try and do as he would."
+
+"May you have strength given to you, my deal boy, to carry out every
+good resolution! But remember, there is a model which must be taken even
+before that of your father. I mean the pure, sinless example of our
+Lord; follow this, and adhere to the plain directions of God's word, and
+you cannot go wrong. And now, good night; God bless you, my son!"
+
+It was a long time before George went to sleep; again and again the
+events of the day came to his memory, and he travelled in thought far
+into the future, peering through the mist which hung over unborn time,
+and weighing circumstances which might never have a being.
+
+"I shall be quite accustomed to my duties by next Monday," he said to
+his mother in the morning; "for I was all night long busy in the office,
+counting money, posting books, and when I awoke I was just signing a
+deed of partnership in the name of Compton and Weston."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+SCHOOL-BOY DAYS.
+
+
+George Weston was an only son, and, at the time our story commences, was
+nearly seventeen years of age. His early years had been spent at home,
+under the watchful care of kind and good parents. When he was ten years
+old he was sent to a boarding school at Folkestone, and placed in the
+charge of Dr. Seaward, a good man, who superintended his education, and,
+besides imparting secular instruction, endeavoured to train his
+character and make him good as well as clever. George was a sharp,
+shrewd boy, a keen observer, who would know the why and the wherefore of
+everything, and his lessons always came to him more as an amusement than
+a task. He had a horror of being low down in his class, and if he did
+not retain his place at the top, it was rarely through inattention or
+want of study on his part.
+
+George was a great favourite with the whole school; he was a merry,
+joyous fellow, who always had sunshine in his face and a kind word on
+his lips; a ringleader in any harmless fun, and a champion on the side
+of all the younger boys who met with oppression or injustice from the
+elder classes. At cricket or football, swimming or boating, George had
+few superiors; and as he was one of those boys who seem determined,
+whatever they do, to do it with all their might, he went heart and soul
+into all the spoils with such a zest and earnestness that he acquired
+the name of the "Indefatigable." Nor did this name merely apply to his
+zeal in sports. There was not in the whole school a more diligent
+student than George: there was for him "a time to work and a time to
+play," and he never allowed one to trespass upon the other. He would
+rather go without a game at cricket for a fortnight than be behindhand
+in one of his lessons. The boys would laugh at him for this, but George
+could bear to be laughed at on such points, because he knew he was in
+the right. "I came to school to learn," he would say, "and I don't see
+any fun in making my parents pay heavy fees for me every year to play
+cricket at the expense of study." Every boy knew there was wisdom in
+this, and they secretly admired George for it, although it condemned
+their own conduct, more especially when they had to go to him not
+unfrequently, and say, "Weston, I shall get in a scrape with these
+lessons to-morrow, unless you can help me a bit with them. Do give me a
+leg up, that's a good fellow!" and though George never said "No," he did
+sometimes take an opportunity to say, "If you did not waste so much time
+in play, you might be independent of any help that I can give."
+
+It was a source of great pleasure to his parents to hear from time to
+time, through Dr. Seaward, some good account of his conduct; and when he
+returned home at the holiday seasons, generally laden with prizes which
+he had victoriously borne off, they did not feel a little proud of their
+only son.
+
+George remained at the school at Folkestone for five years, during which
+time he rose from the lowest to the highest form. It was the intention
+of his parents then to place him in a college for a year or two, in
+order to give him in opportunity to complete his education, and have the
+means to make a good start in life. But this purpose was frustrated by
+an event which happened only a month before George was to have been
+removed.
+
+One day, when all the boys were out in the playfield, busily engaged in
+marking out boundaries for a game at hockey, Dr. Seaward was seen coming
+from the house towards the field. This was an unusual event, as he
+rarely interfered with them during play hours. "Something's up," said
+the boys; and waited expectantly until the Doctor came up to them.
+
+"Call George Weston," said he; "I want to speak to him."
+
+"Weston! George Weston!" shouted one or two at once; and George came
+running up, nothing abashed, for he knew he had done nothing wrong.
+
+"George," said the Doctor, laying a hand on his shoulder, "I want you to
+come with me; I have something to tell you;" and they walked together
+away from the field.
+
+"What is it, sir? You look pained: I hope I have done nothing to offend
+you?"
+
+"No, George," replied the Doctor; "few lads have ever given me so little
+cause of offence at any time as you have. But I _am_ pained. I have some
+sad news to tell you."
+
+"Sad news for me, sir? Oh, do tell me at once. Is anything the matter at
+home?"
+
+"Yes, George; a messenger has just arrived to say that your father has
+met with a serious accident; he has been thrown from his chaise, and is
+much hurt. The messenger is your uncle, Mr. Brunton; and he desires you
+to return at once to London with him."
+
+George waited to hear no more; he bounded away from the Doctor, cleared
+the fence which enclosed the garden at a leap, and rushed into the room
+where Mr. Brunton was anxiously awaiting him. No tear stood in his eye;
+but he was dreadfully pale, and his hands trembled like aspen leaves.
+"Oh, uncle!" was all he could say; and, throwing himself into a chair,
+he covered his face with his hands.
+
+"Come, George, my boy," said Mr. Brunton, tenderly; "do not give way to
+distress. Your poor father is seriously hurt, but he is yet alive. We
+have just half an hour to catch the train."
+
+That was enough for George; in a moment he was calm and collected, ran
+up to his room to make a few hasty arrangements, and in five minutes was
+again with his uncle prepared for the journey.
+
+"Good-bye, Dr. Seaward," he said as he left the house.
+
+"God bless you, my young friend," said the kind-hearted Doctor; "and
+grant that you may find His providence better than your fears."
+
+George thought he had never known the train go so slowly as it did
+during that long, wearisome journey to London. At last it arrived at
+the terminus, and then, jumping into a cab, they were hurried away
+towards Stamford Hill as quickly as the horse could travel.
+
+"Now, George," said Mr. Brunton, as they came near their journey's end,
+"we know not what may have happened while we have been coming here. Be a
+man, and recollect there is one who suffers more than you."
+
+"Do not fear, uncle. I will not add to my mother's grief," was all he
+could reply.
+
+We will not pry into that interview between mother and son when they
+first met; there is a grief too solemn for a stranger's eye.
+
+Mr. Weston was still alive, and that was all that could be said. The
+doctors had pronounced his case beyond human skill, and had intimated
+that there were but a few hours for him on earth.
+
+As George stood beside the bed of his dying father, the tears which had
+been long pent up came pouring thick and fast down his cheek.
+
+"Don't give way to sorrow, George," said his father, in a low voice, for
+he had difficulty in speaking; "it will be only a little while before we
+meet again; for what is life but a vapour, which soon vanisheth away?"
+
+"Oh, father, it is so sudden, so sudden!" sobbed George.
+
+"Therefore, my boy, remember that at all times there is but a step
+between us and death; and if for us to live is Christ, then to die is
+gain. Make that your motto through life, my dear boy, 'For me to live is
+Christ.'"
+
+That night the silver cord was loosed, the golden bowl was broken, and
+the spirit of Mr. Weston returned to God who gave it. "Precious in the
+eyes of the Lord is the death of His saints."
+
+Never did a mother more realize the joy of possessing the unbounded love
+of an affectionate son, than did Mrs. Weston during those melancholy
+days between the death and the funeral of her husband, "Cheer up, dear
+mother," he would say; "God is the father of the fatherless, and the
+husband of the widow, and did not _He_ say 'to die is gain'?"
+
+George and Mr. Brunton followed the remains of the good man to their
+last resting-place; and then the body was lowered to the grave "in the
+sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection."
+
+Mr. Weston had not been a rich man, nor had he been a far-seeing,
+provident man. He had moved in comfortable circumstances, with an income
+only sufficient to pay his way in the world, and had made but scanty
+provision for the future. At the time of his sudden death, his affairs
+were in anything but a satisfactory state; and it was found that it
+would be impossible for his widow to live in the same comfortable style
+she had formerly done.
+
+After all his accounts were wound up, it was seen that she would only
+have a sufficient sum of money, even if invested in the best possible
+manner, to keep her in humble circumstances. She determined therefore to
+leave her house at Stamford Hill, and take a smaller one in Islington,
+and let some of the rooms to boarders.
+
+Mr. Brunton acted the part of a kind brother in all her difficulties; he
+was never wearied in advising her, and on him principally devolved all
+the necessary arrangements for her removal. Everything he did was with
+such delicacy and refinement that, although his hand was daily and
+hourly felt, it was never seen.
+
+One evening, shortly before leaving the locality in which they had lived
+so many years, George and his mother walked together to the cemetery
+where Mr. Weston had been buried, to pay a farewell visit to that
+hallowed spot. They had been too much reduced in circumstances to have a
+stone placed over the grave where he lay, and they were talking about it
+as they journeyed along, saying, how the very first money they could
+afford should be expended for that purpose. What was their surprise to
+find a handsome stone raised above the spot, bearing these words:--
+
+     _Sacred to the Memory of_
+     MR. GEORGE WESTON,
+     Who departed this life, Feb. 18th, 18--, aged 46 years.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
+
+Tears of grateful joy stood in their eyes as they recognized another
+token of the kind, tender love of Mr. Brunton.
+
+The bereavement and change of fortune were borne by the widow with that
+fortitude which is only shown by the true Christian. It was hard, very
+hard, to begin the world again; to be denied the pleasure of allowing
+George to go to college and complete his studies; and to bear the
+struggles and inconveniences of poverty. But Mrs. Weston knew that vain
+regrets would never alter the case; the Lord had given, the Lord had
+taken away, and from her heart she could say cheerfully, "Blessed be
+the name of the Lord."
+
+George had not been idle. Every hour in which he was not occupied for or
+with his mother, he was diligently engaged in prosecuting his studies,
+and preparing himself for the time when he should be able to procure a
+situation. Mr. Brunton had not been anxious for him to enter upon one at
+once; he knew how lonely the widow would be without her son, and
+therefore he did not take any steps to obtain for George a situation.
+But when a twelvemonth had passed, and the keenness of sorrow had worn
+off, he mentioned the matter to his friend Mr. Compton; with what
+success we have seen in the first chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+STARTING WELL.
+
+
+Never did days drag along more heavily than those which elapsed between
+the interview with Mr. Compton, and the morning when George was to enter
+upon his new duties. Every day the office was a subject of much
+conversation; and neither George nor his mother ever seemed to weary in
+talking over his plans and purposes. George wrote a long letter to Mr.
+Brunton, telling him of the successful issue of his application to Mr.
+Compton, and thanking him in the most hearty way for all his kindness.
+The next day Mr. Brunton replied to George's letter as follows:--
+
+    "MY DEAR NEPHEW,
+
+    "I am delighted to hear that you have obtained an appointment, and
+    that you seem so well satisfied with your prospects. May you find it
+    to be for your good in every way. Remember, you are going into new
+    scenes, and will be surrounded with many dangers and temptations to
+    which you have hitherto been a stranger. Seek to be strong against
+    everything that is evil; aim at the highest mark, and press towards
+    it. Much of your future depends upon how you begin--therefore begin
+    well; hold yourself aloof from everything with which your conscience
+    tells you you should not be associated, and then all your bright
+    dreams may, I hope, be fully realized.
+
+    "I shall hope to be with you for an hour or two on Sunday evening.
+
+    "You will have some unavoidable expenses to incur before entering
+    upon your duties, and will require a little pocket-money. Accept the
+    enclosed cheque, with the love of
+
+    "Your affectionate Uncle,
+
+    "HENRY BRUNTON."
+
+George's eyes sparkled with delight as he read the letter; and found the
+enclosure to be a cheque for five pounds. This was a great treasure and
+relief to him, for he had thought many times about his boots, which were
+down at heel, and his best coat, which shone a good deal about the
+elbows, and showed symptoms of decay in the neighbourhood of the
+button-holes.
+
+A new suit of clothes and a pair of boots were therefore purchased at
+once, and when Sunday morning came, and George dressed himself in them,
+and stood ready to accompany his mother to the house of God, she thought
+(although, of course, she did not say so) that she had never seen a more
+handsome and gentlemanly-looking youth than her son.
+
+"Mother," said George, as they walked along, "what a treat the Sunday
+will always be now, after being pent up in the office all the week. I
+shall look forward to it with such pleasure, not only for the sake of
+its rest, but because I shall have a whole day with you."
+
+"The Sabbath is, indeed, a boon," replied Mrs. Weston, "when it is made
+a rest-day for the soul, as well as for the body. You remember those
+lines I taught you, when you were quite another fellow, before you went
+to school, do you not?--
+
+     "'A Sunday well spent brings a week of content
+       And health for the toils of the morrow;
+     But a Sabbath profaned, whatsoe'er may be gained,
+       Is a certain forerunner of sorrow.'"
+
+"Yes, mother, I remember them; and capital lines they are. Dr. Seaward
+once said, 'Strike the key-note of your tune incorrectly, and the whole
+song will be inharmonious;' so, if the Sabbath is improperly spent, the
+week will generally be like it."
+
+That morning the preacher took for his text the beautiful words in
+Isaiah xli. 10, "Fear thou not, for I am with thee: be not dismayed, for
+I am thy God: I will strengthen thee--yea, I will help thee yea, I will
+uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." These words came
+like the sound of heavenly music into the soul of the widow; and she
+prayed, with the fervency a mother alone can pray for a beloved and only
+son, that the time might speedily come when he would be able to
+appropriate these words, and realize, in the true sense of the term, God
+as his Father. For George, although he had from early infancy been
+brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and had learnt to
+love holiness from so constantly seeing its beauty exemplified by his
+parents, had not yet undergone that one great change which creates the
+soul anew in Christ Jesus.
+
+Mr. Brunton arrived in the evening, just as Mrs. Weston and George were
+starting out to the second service, and so they all went together to the
+same place. The minister, an excellent man, who felt the responsibility
+of his office, and took every opportunity of doing good, was in the
+habit of giving four sermons a year especially to young men, and it so
+happened that on this evening one of these discourses was to be
+delivered. Nothing could have been more appropriate to a young man just
+starting out in life than his address. The text was taken from those
+solemn, striking words of the wise man, "My son, if sinners entice
+thee, consent thou not."
+
+He spoke of the powerful influences continually at work to allure young
+travellers along life's journey into the snares and pitfalls of sin, and
+pointed to God's armoury, and the refuge from all the wiles of the
+adversary.
+
+As the trio sat round the supper-table that evening, discussing the
+events of the day, George said--
+
+"I feel very glad that this Sunday has come before I go to Mr.
+Compton's. I thought, when the text was given out this evening, that the
+minister had prepared his sermon especially for me. I have no doubt all
+he said was quite true; and so, being prepared, I shall be able to be on
+my guard against the evils which he says are common to those who make
+their first start in life."
+
+When Mr. Brunton rose to leave that night, he took George aside; and,
+laying his hand on his shoulder, said--
+
+"George, I am glad you have got your appointment, my boy; but I am
+sorry, for some reasons, that it is in Mr. Compton's office, for I have
+made inquiries about the clerks there, and I regret to find that they
+are not the set of young men I should have liked you to be with. Now, I
+want you to make me a promise. If ever you are placed in critical
+circumstances, or dangers, or difficulties (I say _if_, because I do not
+know why you should, but _if_ you are), be sure and come to me. Tell me,
+as you always have done, honestly and openly, your difficulty, and you
+will always find in me one willing to advise and assist you. Will you
+promise?"
+
+"With all my heart I will, uncle; and thank you, too, for this, and all
+your interests on my account."
+
+"Good-bye, then, George. Go on and prosper; and God bless you."
+
+Punctually at nine o'clock on Monday morning, George was at the office.
+Mr. Sanders, the manager (the old gentleman whom George had seen on his
+first visit), introduced him to the clerks by saying--
+
+"This is Mr. George Weston, our new junior;" and George, with his face
+all aglow, made a general bow in return to the salutations which were
+given him.
+
+"This is to be your seat," said Mr. Sanders; "and that peg is for your
+hat. And now, as you would, no doubt, like to begin at once, here is a
+document I want copied."
+
+George was glad to have something to do; he felt all eyes were upon him,
+and the whispered voices of the clerks rather grated upon his ears. He
+took up his pen, and began to write; but he found his hand shaky, and he
+was so confused that, after he had written half a page, and found he had
+made two or three blunders, he was obliged to take a fresh sheet, and
+begin again.
+
+"Take your time," said Mr. Sanders, who noticed his dilemma; "you will
+get on right enough by-and-bye, when you are more accustomed to the
+place and the work."
+
+George felt relieved by this; and making up his mind to try and forget
+all around him, he set to work busily again, and in an hour or two had
+finished the job.
+
+"I have done this, sir," he said, taking it to Mr. Sanders. "What shall
+I do next?"
+
+"We will just examine it, and then you may take it into Mr. Compton's
+room. After that you can go and get your dinner, and be back again in an
+hour."
+
+The document was examined, and, to the surprise of George and Mr.
+Sanders, not one mistake was found. "Come, this is beginning well," said
+the manager; "we shall soon make a clerk of you, I see."
+
+When George went into Mr. Compton's room, and presented the papers, he
+was again rewarded with an encouraging commendation. "This is very well
+written--very well written indeed, and shows great painstaking," he
+said.
+
+George felt he could have shaken hands with both principal and manager
+for those few words. "How cheap a kind word is," he thought, "to those
+who give it; but it is more precious than gold to the receiver. I like
+these two men; and, if I can manage it, they shall like me too."
+
+George had not as yet exchanged a word with any of the clerks; but as he
+was leaving the office to go to dinner, one of them was going out at the
+same time, on the same errand.
+
+"Well, Mr. Weston, you find it precious dull, don't you, cooped up in
+your den?"
+
+"Do you mean the office?" said George.
+
+"Yes; what else should I mean?"
+
+"It seems a comfortable office enough," said George, "and not
+particularly dull; but I have not had sufficient experience in it to
+judge."
+
+"You see, that old ogre (I beg his pardon, I mean old Sanders) takes
+jolly good care there shall be no flinching from work while he's there,
+and it makes a fellow deuced tired, pegging away all day long."
+
+"If this is a specimen of the clerks," thought George, "Uncle Brunton
+was not far wrong when he said they were not a very good set."
+
+"From what I have seen of Mr. Sanders," he said, "I think him a very
+nice man! and as for work, I always thought that was what clerks were
+engaged to do, and therefore it is their duty to do it, whether under
+the eye of the manager or not."
+
+George got this sentence out with some difficulty. He felt it was an
+aggressive step, and did not doubt it would go the round of the office
+as a tale against him.
+
+"Ugh!" said the clerk; "you've got a thing or two to learn yet, I see.
+You must surely be fresh and green from the country; but such notions
+soon die out. I don't like to be personal though, so we'll change the
+subject. Where are you going to dine? Most of our chaps patronize the
+King's Head--first-rate place; get anything you like in two twinklings
+of a lamb's tail. I'm going there now; will you go? By the way, I should
+have told you before this that my name is Williams."
+
+"I suppose, Mr. Williams,' the King's Head is a tavern? If so, I prefer
+a coffee-house; but thank you, notwithstanding, for your offer."
+
+"By George! that's a rum start. Our chaps all hate coffee-shops, with
+the exception of young Hardy, and he's coming round to our tastes now.
+You can get a good feed at the King's Head--stunning tackle in the shape
+of beer, and meet a decent set of fellows who know how to crack a joke
+at table; whereas, if you go to a coffee-shop, you have an ugly slice of
+meat set before you, a jorum of tea leaves and water, or some other
+mess, and a disagreeable set of people around. Now, which is best?"
+
+"Your description is certainly unfavourable in the latter case; but I do
+not suppose all coffeehouses are alike, and therefore I shall try one
+to-day. Good morning."
+
+George soon found a nice-looking quiet place where he could dine, and
+felt sure he had no need to go to taverns for better accommodation.
+
+When he returned to the office, at two o'clock, Mr. Sanders was absent,
+and the clerks were busily engaged, not at work, but in conversation.
+Mr. Williams was the principal speaker, and seemed to have something
+very choice to communicate. George made no doubt that he was the subject
+of conversation, for he had caught one or two words as he entered, which
+warranted the supposition. He had nothing to do until Mr. Sanders
+returned; this was an opportunity, therefore, for Mr. Williams to make
+himself officious.
+
+"Mr. Weston," he said, "allow me to do the honours of the office by
+introducing you, in a more definite manner than that old ----, I mean
+than Mr. Sanders did this morning. This gentleman is Mr. Lawson, this is
+Mr. Allwood, this is Mr. Malcolm, and this my young friend, Mr. Charles
+Hardy, who is of a serious turn of mind, and is meditating entering the
+ministry, or the undertaking line."
+
+A laugh at Hardy's expense was the result of this attempt at jocularity
+on the part of Mr. Williams. George hardly knew how to acknowledge these
+introductions; but, turning to Charles Hardy, he said,--
+
+"As Mr. Williams has so candidly mentioned your qualities, Mr. Hardy,
+perhaps you will favour me with a description of his."
+
+Hardy rose from his seat, for up to this time he had been engaged in
+writing, and, in a tone of mock gravity, replied,
+
+"This is Mr. Williams, who lives at the antipodes of everything that is
+quiet or serious, whose mission to the earth seems expressly to turn
+everything he touches into a laugh. He is not a 'youth to fortune and
+to fame unknown,' for in the archives of the King's Head his name is
+emblazoned in imperishable characters."
+
+"Well said, Hardy!" said one or two at once. "Now, Williams, you are on
+your mettle, old boy; stand true to your colours, and transmute the
+sentence into a joke in self-defence."
+
+Williams was on the point of replying when Mr. Sanders entered. In an
+instant all the clerks pretended to be up to their eyes in business;
+each had his book or papers to hand as if by magic; whether upside down
+or not was immaterial.
+
+But George Weston stood where he was; he could not condescend to so mean
+an imposition, and he felt pleased to see that Charles Hardy, unlike the
+others, made no attempt to hide the fact that he had been engaged in
+conversation, instead of continuing at his work.
+
+At six o'clock the day's duties were over; and George felt not a little
+pleased when the hour struck, and Mr. Sanders told him he could go.
+Hardy was leaving just at the same time, and so they went out together.
+
+"Are you going anywhere in my direction?" said Hardy; "I live at
+Canonbury."
+
+"Indeed!" replied George; "I'm glad to hear that, for I live at
+Islington, close by you. If you are willing, we will bear one another
+company, for I want to ask you one or two questions;" and taking Hardy's
+arm, the two strolled homewards together.
+
+Now George would never have thought of walking arm in-arm with Mr.
+Williams, or any of the other clerks; but, from the first time he saw
+Hardy, and noticed his quiet, gentlemanly manners, he felt sure he
+should like him. Hardy, too, had evidently taken a fancy to George; and
+therefore both felt pleased that accident had brought them together.
+Accident? No, that is a wrong word; whenever a heart feels that there is
+another heart beating like its own, and those two hearts go out one
+towards the other, until they become knit together in the bonds of
+friendship, there is something more than accident in that.
+
+"How long have you been in Mr. Compton's office?" said George, as they
+walked along,
+
+"Nearly two years," he replied; "I went there as soon as I left school.
+I was then about seventeen years old; and there I have been ever since."
+
+"Then you are my senior by two years," said George. "I left school a
+year ago, and this is my first situation. How do you like the office?"
+
+"Do you mean my particular seat, the clerks, or the duties, or all
+combined?"
+
+"I should like to know how you like the whole combined."
+
+"I prefer my desk to yours, because I sit next to Mr. Malcolm, who is
+one of the steadiest and most respectable clerks in the office; and
+therefore I am not subject to so much annoyance as you will be, seated
+next to that empty-headed Williams, and coarse low-minded Lawson. I do
+not really like any of the clerks; there are none of them the sort of
+young men I should choose as companions. As to the duties, they are
+agreeable enough, and I have nothing to find fault with on that score."
+
+"I tell you candidly," said George, "I am not prepossessed in favour of
+the clerks; they are far too 'fast' a set to please me; but I am very
+glad, for my own sake, that you are in the office, Mr. Hardy."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, although we are almost strangers at present, I know I shall
+find in you some one who will be companionable. You don't seem very
+thick with the others; you don't join with them in that mean practice of
+shirking work directly Mr. Sanders's back is turned; and you don't, from
+what I have heard, approve of the society at the King's Head, in which
+the others seem to take so much delight. Now, in these points, I think,
+our tastes are similar."
+
+"Ah! Mr. Weston," said Hardy, "you will find, as I have done, that
+amongst such a set we are obliged to allow a great many things we do not
+approve. But I'm very glad you have come amongst us; unity is strength,
+you know, and two can make a better opposition than one. Now, will you
+let me give you a hint?"
+
+"Certainly," said George.
+
+"Be on your guard with Lawson and Williams; they are two dangerous young
+men, and can do no end of mischief, because they are double-faced--sneaking
+sometimes, and bullying at others. I don't know whether you have heard
+that you are filling a vacancy caused by one of our clerks leaving the
+office in disgrace. It is not worth while my telling you the story now,
+but that poor chap would never have left in the way he did, had it not
+been for Lawson and Williams."
+
+"Many thanks, Mr. Hardy, for your information and advice, upon which I
+will endeavour to act. And now, as our roads lay differently, we must
+say good evening."
+
+"Adieu, then, till to-morrow," said Hardy. "By-the-bye, I pass this
+road in the morning, at half-past eight; if you are here we will walk to
+the office together."
+
+It took George the whole of the evening to give his mother a full
+account of the day's proceedings; there were so many questions to ask on
+her part, and so many descriptions to give on his, and such a number of
+events occurred during the day, that it seemed as if he had at least a
+week's experience to narrate.
+
+"I like Hardy, mother," said George, once or twice during the evening;
+"he is such a thorough open-hearted fellow, and I know we shall get
+along together capitally."
+
+"I hope so, my boy," said his mother; "but be very careful how you form
+any other friendships."
+
+When Mrs. Western retired to her room for the night, it was not to
+sleep. She felt anxious and uneasy about George; she thought of him as
+the loving, gentle child, the merry, light-hearted boy, and the manly,
+conscientious youth. Then she thought of the future. How would he stand
+against the evil influences surrounding him? Would his frank, ingenuous
+manner change, and the confidence he always reposed in her cease? Would
+he be led away by the gay and thoughtless young men with whom he would
+be associated?
+
+Tears gathered in the widow's eyes, and many a sigh sounded in that
+quiet room; but Mrs. Weston had a Friend at hand, to whom she could go
+and pour out all her anxieties. She would cast her burden on Him, for
+she knew He cared for her. As she knelt before the mercy-seat, these
+were her prayers:--
+
+"Lord, create in him a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within him.
+May he remember Thee in the days of his youth. Heavenly Father, lead him
+not into temptation, but deliver him from evil Guide him by Thy counsel,
+and lead him in the paths of righteousness, for Thy Name's sake."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MEETING A SCHOOL-FELLOW.
+
+
+Six months passed rapidly away. George continued to give satisfaction to
+Mr. Compton, soon learnt the office routine, and earned the warmest
+expressions of approbation from Mr. Sanders, who said he was the best
+junior clerk he ever remembered to have entered that office.
+
+George had carefully guarded against forming any kind of intimacy with
+the other clerks; he had declined to have more to say to them during
+office hours than possible, and when business was over he purposely
+shunned them. But a strong friendship had sprung up between him and
+Charles Hardy; every morning they came to the city together, and
+returned in company in the evening. Sometimes George would spend an
+evening at the house of Hardy's parents, and Hardy, in like manner,
+would occasionally spend an evening with George.
+
+Williams and Lawson had, as Hardy predicted, been a source of great
+annoyance to George. He was constantly obliged to bear their ridicule
+because he would not conform to their habits, and sometimes the insults
+he received were almost beyond his power of endurance. He and Hardy
+received the name of the "Siamese youths," and were generally greeted
+with such salutations as "How d'ye do? Is mamma pretty well?"--or
+something equally galling. But George bore it all with exemplary
+patience, and he did not doubt that after a while they would grow tired
+of annoying him. At all events, he felt certain some new policy would be
+adopted by them; for he had so risen in the estimation of his employer,
+who began to repose confidence in him, and entrust him with more
+important matters than he allowed the others to interfere with, that
+George anticipated the time when the clerks would either be glad to
+curry favour with him, or at least have to acknowledge that he was
+regarded more highly than they were.
+
+So matters went on. Mrs. Weston was full of joy as she saw how well
+George had kept his resolutions, and full of hope that he would continue
+as he had begun.
+
+Mr. Brunton had given him many kind encouragements during this time, and
+had felt himself well rewarded for all his trouble on George's behalf
+by hearing from Mr. Compton of the satisfaction his services had given.
+
+And now an event occurred, simple and unimportant in itself, and yet it
+was one that affected the whole of George's after-life.
+
+One evening, as he was leaving the office, and had just turned into
+Fleet-street, a nice-looking, fashionably-dressed young man came running
+up, and, clapping him on the shoulder, exclaimed,
+
+"What! George Weston, my old pippin, who ever thought of turning you up
+in London!"
+
+"Harry Ashton! my old school-chum, how are you?" and the two friends
+shook hands with a heartiness that surprised the passers-by.
+
+"Where ever have you been to, all these long years, George?" said Aston;
+"only fancy, we have never seen each other since that day we were
+playing hockey at dear old Dr. Seaward's, and you were hastily called
+away to London. The Doctor told us the sad news, and we all felt for you
+deeply, old fellow; in fact I never recollect the place having been so
+gloomy before or since."
+
+"It was a sad time for me," said George; "and after that I lived at home
+for a twelvemonth. Then I got an appointment in an office in
+Falcon-court, and have held it just six months. Now, tell me where you
+have sprung from, and where you have been since I last saw you?"
+
+"I stayed only six months longer at Dr. Seaward's and was then articled
+to a surveyor in the Strand, with whom I have been nearly a year, and
+now I am bound for my lodgings, and you must come with me."
+
+"You had better come with me," said George; "my mother will be so
+pleased to welcome an old school-fellow of mine, and she is not
+altogether a stranger to you."
+
+"Thank you, old fellow," replied Ashton; "I shall be very glad to accept
+your invitation some other night; but, after our long separation, we
+want to have a quiet, confidential chat over old times together, and I
+must introduce you to my crib. I am a bachelor--all alone in my glory.
+The old folks still live in the country, and I boarded at first in a
+family; but that that was terribly slow work, and since that time I have
+hung out on my own hook. So come along, George; I really can't hear any
+excuse."
+
+George hesitated only a moment; he had never spent an evening from home
+without first acquainting his mother; but this was an unusual event,
+and he was so anxious to hear about Dr. Seaward, and talk over old
+school days, the temptation was irresistible.
+
+Harry Ashton called a cab, much to George's surprise, into which they
+jumped; and were not very long in getting into the Clapham road, where
+they alighted before a large, nice looking house.
+
+"This is the crib," said Ashton, as he ushered George into a large
+parlour, handsomely furnished with everything contributing to comfort
+and amusement. "Now, make yourself at home. Here are some cigars
+(producing a box of Havannahs), and here (opening a cellaret) is bottled
+beer and wine; which shall it be?"
+
+"As to smoking, that is a bad habit, or an art (which you like) I have
+never yet practised," said George; "but I will join you in a glass of
+wine just to toast 'Dr. Seaward and our absent friends in the school.'"
+
+Then the two school friends fell into conversation. Many and many a
+happy recollection came into their minds, and one long yarn was but the
+preface to another.
+
+"Come, George, fill up your glass," said Ashton repeatedly; but George
+declined.
+
+Two or three hours slipped rapidly away, and then George rose to leave.
+"Not a bit of it, George," said Ashton; "we must have some supper and
+discuss present times yet. I have not heard particulars of what you are
+doing, or how you are getting on, and you only know I'm here, without
+any of the history about it."
+
+So George yielded: how could he help it? Harry Ashton had become his
+bosom-chum during the five years he had been at school, and all the old
+happy memories of those days were again fresh upon him.
+
+"Now, George, tell your story first, and then mine shall follow." Then
+George narrated all the leading circumstances which had attended his
+life, from the time he left school up to that very evening, and a long
+story it was.
+
+"Now," said Ashton, "for mine. When you left Folkestone I got up to your
+place at the head of the school, and there I held on till I left. Six
+months after you left, the holidays came, and I came up to town. I spent
+a few days with Mr. Ralston, an old friend of the family, and one of the
+first engineers and surveyors in London. He took a liking to me, offered
+to take me into his office, wrote to the governor (I know you don't like
+that term, though--I mean my father), proposed a sum as premium,
+arrangements were made; and, instead of returning to school, I came to
+London and commenced learning the arts and mysteries of a profession. I
+had only been with Mr. Ralston two or three months, when one morning my
+father came into the office, out of wind with excitement, and said,
+'Harry, I have got sad and joyful, and wonderful news for you! Poor old
+Mr. Cornish is dead; the will has been opened, and--make up your mind
+for a surprise--the bulk of his property is left to you.' I was
+thunderstruck. I knew the old gentleman would leave me something, but I
+did not know that he had quarrelled with his relatives, and therefore
+appropriated to me the share originally intended for them. So, you see,
+I have stepped into luck's way. I am allowed an income now which amounts
+to something like two hundred a year, as I shall not come into my rights
+till I am twenty-one, and how I am not nineteen; so I have a long time
+to wait, you see, which is rather annoying. I took this crib, and have
+managed to enjoy my existence pretty well, I can assure you. Sometimes I
+run down into the country to spend a week or two with the old folks, and
+sometimes they come up and see me."
+
+"Don't you find it rather dull, living here alone, though?" said George.
+
+"Dull? far from it. I have a good large circle of friends, who like to
+come round here and spend a quiet evening; and there are no end of
+amusements in this great city, so that no one need never be dull.
+Besides, if I am alone, I am not without friends, you see,"--pointing to
+a well-stocked book case.
+
+"I have been running my eye over them, Harry. There are some very nice
+books; but your tastes are changed since I knew you last, or you would
+never waste your time over all this lot here which seem to have been
+best used. I mean the 'Wandering Jew,' 'Ernest Maltravers,' and the
+like."
+
+"I won't attempt to defend myself, George; but when I was at school, I
+did as school-boys did: now I have come to London, I do as the Londoners
+do. I know there is an absence of anything like reason in this, but I am
+not much thrown amongst reasoners. But, to change the subject; now you
+have found me out, George, I do hope you will very often chum with me. I
+shall enjoy going about with you better than with anybody else; and as
+we know one another so well, we shall soon have tastes and habits in
+common again, as we used to have."
+
+Presently the clock struck. George started up in surprise. "What!
+twelve o'clock! impossible. It never can be so late as that?"
+
+"It is, though," said Ashton, "but what of that? you don't surely call
+twelve o'clock bad hours for once in a way?"
+
+"No, not for once in a way," replied George; "but I have never kept my
+mother up so late before. Good-bye, old fellow. Promise to come and see
+me some night this week. There is my address." And so saying, George ran
+out into the street and made his way towards Islington.
+
+That was an anxious night for Mrs. Weston. "What can have happened?" she
+asked herself a hundred times. Fortunately, Mr. Brunton called, and he
+assisted to while away the time.
+
+"George does not often stay out of an evening, does he?" he asked.
+
+"No, never," replied Mrs. Weston; "unless it is with his friend, Charles
+Hardy, and then I always know where they are, and what they are doing.
+But something extraordinary must have happened to-night, and I feel very
+anxious to know what it is. Not that I think he is anywhere he ought not
+to be. I feel sure he is not," continued Mrs. Weston confidently; "but
+what it is that has detained him, I am altogether at a loss to guess."
+
+"Well, I will not leave you till he comes home," said Mr. Brunton.
+
+It was one o'clock before George arrived; it was too late to get an
+omnibus, and a cab, he thought, was altogether out of the question;
+therefore he had to walk the whole distance--or rather run, for he was
+as anxious now to get home as they were to see him.
+
+He was very much surprised, and, if it must be confessed, rather vexed
+on some accounts, to find Mr. Brunton waiting up for him with his
+mother.
+
+His explanation of what had happened, told in his merry, ingenuous way,
+at once dissipated any anxiety they had felt.
+
+"I recollect Harry Ashton well," said Mrs. Weston. "Dr. Seaward pointed
+him out to me, the first time I went to see you at Folkestone, as being
+one of his best scholars; and he came home once with you in the holidays
+to spend a day or two with us, did he not?"
+
+"That is the same, mother, and a better-hearted fellow it would be hard
+to find."
+
+"There is only one disadvantage that I see in your having him as an
+intimate friend," said Uncle Brunton, "and that is, he is now very
+differently situated in position to you as regards wealth, and you
+might find him a companion more liable to lead you into expense than any
+of your other friends, because I know what a proud fellow you are,
+George," he said, laughingly, "you like to do as your friends do, and
+would not let them incur expense on your account unless you could return
+their compliment. But I will not commence a moral discourse to-night--it
+is time all good folks should be in bed."
+
+All the next day George was thinking over the events of the previous
+evening; he was pleased to have found out Harry Ashton, and thought he
+would be just the young man he wanted for a companion. Then he compared
+their different modes of life--Ashton living in luxuriant circumstances,
+without anybody or anything to interfere with his enjoyment, and he,
+obliged to live very humbly and carefully in order to make both ends
+meet; and then came a new feeling, that of restraint.
+
+"There is Ashton," he thought, "can go out when he likes and where he
+likes, without its being necessary to say where he is going or what he
+is going to do, and he can come in at night without being obliged to
+account for all his actions like a child. If I happen to stay out, there
+is Uncle Brunton and my mother in a great state of excitement about me,
+which I don't think is right. I really do not wonder that the clerks
+have made me a laughing-stock. All this while I have lived in London I
+have seen nothing; have not been to any of the places of amusement; and
+have not been a bit like the young men with whom I get thrown into
+contact. I think Ashton is right, after all, in saying that when he was
+at school he did as school-boys did, and when he came to London he did
+as the Londoners do. Far be it from me to be undutiful to those who care
+for me; but I think, as a young man, I do owe a duty to myself,
+different altogether from that which belonged to me as a schoolboy."
+
+These were all new thoughts to George: he had never felt or even thought
+of restraint before; he had never even expressed a wish to do as other
+young men did, in wasting precious time on useless amusements; he had
+always looked forward to an evening at home with pleasure, and had never
+felt the least inclination to wander forth in search of recreation
+elsewhere. Nay, he had always condemned it; and when Lawson or Williams,
+or any of the other clerks, had proposed such a thing to him, he never
+minded bearing their ridicule in declining.
+
+And here was George's danger. He was upon his guard with his
+fellow-clerks, and was able to keep his resolution not to adopt their
+ideas, nor fall into their ways and habits; but when those very evils he
+condemned in them were presented to him in a different form by Harry
+Ashton, his old friend and school-fellow--leaving the principle the
+same, and only the practice a little altered--he was off his guard; and
+the habits he regarded with dislike in Williams and Lawson, he was
+beginning secretly to admire in Ashton.
+
+As he walked home that evening with Hardy he gave him a long description
+of his meeting with Ashton, and all that happened during his interview
+and upon his return home.
+
+"Now, Hardy," said George, "which do you think is really
+preferable--Harry Ashton's life or ours? We never go out anywhere; and,
+for the matter of that, might as well be living in monasteries, as far
+as knowing what is going on in the world is concerned."
+
+"For my own part, Weston," said Hardy, "I would rather be as I am. Your
+friend is surrounded with infinitely greater temptations than we are,
+from the fact of his living as he does without any control. He is
+evidently free from his parents, and although he is old enough to take
+care of himself, still there is a certain restraint felt under a
+parent's roof which is very desirable."
+
+"Quite true," said George; "but that involves a point which has been
+perplexing me all day. Should we, after we have arrived at a certain
+age, acknowledge a parent's control as we did when we were mere
+school-boys? I do not mean are we to cease to honour them, because that
+we cannot do while God's commandment lasts; but are we, as Williams
+says, always to go in leading-strings, or are we at liberty to think and
+act for ourselves?"
+
+"That depends a good deal on the way in which we wish to think and act.
+For instance, my parents object to Sunday travelling and Sunday
+visiting. Now, while I am living with them, I feel it would not be right
+for me to do either of these things--even though as a matter of
+principle I might not see any positive wrong in them--because it would
+bring me into opposition with my parents. So, in spending evenings away
+from home, I know it would be contrary to their wish, and it is right to
+try and prevent our opinions clashing."
+
+"I agree with you, partly, Hardy; but only partly. We must study our
+parents' opinions in the main, but not in points of detail. Suppose I
+want to attend a course of lectures, for example, which would take me
+from home sometimes in the evening; and my mother objects to my spending
+evenings from home, although the study might be advantageous to me--then
+I think I should be at liberty to adhere to my own opinion; if not, I
+should be under the same restraint I was as a child. It is right and
+natural that parents should feel desirous to know what associations
+their sons are forming, and what are their habits, and all that sort of
+thing; but I am inclined to think it is not right for a parent to
+exercise so strong a control as to say, 'So-and-so shall be your
+companion;' and, 'You may go to this place, but you may not go to
+that.'"
+
+"Well, Weston, your digestion must be out of order, or you are a little
+bilious, or something; for I never heard you talk like this before. I
+have told you, confidentially sometimes, that I have wanted to rebel
+against the wishes of my parents on some points, and you have always
+counselled me, like a sage, grey-headed father, to give up my desire.
+But now you turn right round, and place me in the position of the
+parent, and you the rebellious son. I recommend, therefore, that you
+take two pills, for I am sure bile is at the bottom of this; and then I
+will feel your pulse upon this point again."
+
+Mrs. Weston noticed a difference in George that evening. He seemed as
+if he had got something upon his mind which was perplexing him. He was
+not so cheerful and merry as usual, but his mother attributed it partly
+to his late hours, followed by a hard day's work, and therefore she said
+nothing to him about it.
+
+A day or two elapsed, and George was still brooding upon the same
+subject. He did not know that the great tempter was weaving a subtle net
+around him, to lure him into the broad road which leadeth to
+destruction. He tried a hundred times to fight against the strange
+influence he felt upon him; but he did not fight with the right weapons,
+and therefore he failed. Had the tempter suggested to him that, as he
+was a young man, he should do as his fellow-clerks, or even Ashton did,
+and have his way in all things, he would have seen the temptation; but
+it came altogether in a different way. The evil voice said, "You are
+under restraint. Ask any young man of your own age, and he will tell you
+so. It is high time you should unloose yourself from apron-strings." And
+this idea of restraint was preying upon him, and he could not throw it
+off. George was anxious to do the right, but did not know how to fight
+against the wrong. Conscience whispered to him, "Do you remember that
+motto your dying father gave you, 'For me to live is Christ?'" George
+replied, "Yes, I remember it; and it is still my desire to follow it."
+Conscience said again, "Do you recollect that sermon you heard, and the
+resolutions you made, 'My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou
+not?'" And he answered, "I remember it well; but I am not aware that any
+are endeavouring to entice me."
+
+This was the effect of the unconscious influence of Harry Ashton. He had
+unknowingly fanned a latent spark into a flame, which, unless checked,
+would consume all those high and praiseworthy resolutions which George
+had formed, and carefully kept for years. He had cast a shadow over the
+landscape of his friend's well-being, which made the sign-posts pointing
+"upward and onward" almost indistinct. He had breathed into the
+atmosphere a subtle malaria, and George had caught the disease. The
+little leaven was now mixed with his life, which would leaven the whole.
+The genus of that moral consumption, which, unless cured by the Great
+Physician, ends in death, had been sown, and were now taking root.
+
+George was unconscious of any foreign influence working upon him--he
+could not see that Ashton had in any way exerted a power over him; nor
+in the new and undefined feelings which had taken possession of him
+could he recognise the presence of evil. He had consulted conscience,
+and, he fancied, had satisfactorily met the warnings of its voice.
+
+But he had _not_ gone to that high and sure source of strength which can
+alone make a way of escape from all temptations; he had _not_ obtained
+that armour of righteousness which is the only defence against the fiery
+darts of the wicked one; he had _not_ that faith, in the power of which
+alone Satan can be resisted; and therefore his eyes were holden so that
+he could not see the snares which the subtle foe was laying around him,
+nor could he, in his own strength, bear up against the strong tide which
+was threatening to overwhelm him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A FARCE.
+
+
+Harry Ashton kept his promise, and went one evening that week to see
+George at Islington. Hardy had been invited to meet him; and the three
+friends, as they kept up a perfect rattle of conversation, interspersed
+with many crossfired jokes, made the merriest and happiest little party
+that could be imagined.
+
+Mrs. Weston was very much pleased with Ashton--his refined thought and
+gentlemanly address, joined with an open-hearted candour and a fund of
+humour which sparkled in every sentence, made it impossible for any one
+not to like him. Charles Hardy thought he had never met a more
+entertaining companion than Ashton; Ashton thought Hardy was an
+intelligent, agreeable fellow; and George declared to his mother that,
+if he had had the pick of all the young men in London, he could not have
+found two nicer fellows.
+
+A hundred topics were discoursed upon during the evening, in which
+Ashton generally took the lead, and showed himself to be very well
+informed on all ordinary subjects. Incidentally the theatre was
+mentioned.
+
+"Have you seen that new piece at the Lyceum?" said Ashton. "It is really
+a very capital thing."
+
+"No," said George. "I have never been to a theatre."
+
+"Nor I," said Hardy.
+
+"Nor I," said Mrs. Weston.
+
+"Well, that is really very extraordinary," said Ashton; "I thought
+almost everybody went to a theatre at some time or other. But perhaps
+you have some objection?"
+
+"I have," said Mrs. Weston. "I think there is a great deal of evil
+learnt there, and very little good, if any. It is expensive; and it
+leads into other bad habits."
+
+"Those last objections cannot be gainsaid," said Ashton; "but they
+equally apply to all amusements, and therefore, by that rule, all
+amusements are bad."
+
+"But not in an equal degree with that of the theatre," George remarked;
+"because other amusements do not possess such an infatuation. For my
+own part, I should not mind going to a concert; but I very much
+disapprove of the theatre, and should never hesitate to decline going
+there."
+
+"Yours is not a good argument, George. You have never been to the
+theatre, you say, and yet you disapprove of it. Are you right in
+pronouncing such an opinion, which cannot be the result of your own
+investigation?"
+
+"I think I am," replied George; "I can adopt the opinions of those whom
+experience has instructed in the matter, and in whom I can rely with
+implicit confidence. If a man goes through a dangerous track, and falls
+into a bog, I should be willing to admit the track was dangerous, and
+avoid the bog, without going in to prove the former traveller was right;
+and this applies to going to theatres."
+
+"No, George; there is your error. There would be no two opinions about
+the bog; but suppose you go for a tour to the Pyrenees, and, from
+prejudice or some other cause, come back disgusted. You warn me not to
+go, telling me I shall be wasting my time, and find nothing interesting
+to reward my trouble in the journey. But Hardy goes the same tour, comes
+home delighted, and says, 'Go to the Pyrenees by all means; it is a
+glorious place, the most pleasant in the whole world for a tour.' To
+decide the question, I read two books; one agrees with you, and the
+other with Hardy. How can I arrive at an opinion unless I go myself, and
+see what it is like? So it is with the theatre: some say it is the great
+teacher of morals, others that it is the most wicked and hurtful place.
+Therefore I think every one should form his own opinion from his own
+experience."
+
+"You may be right," said George, waveringly. "I am not clear upon the
+subject; but I do not think, even if I were to form an opinion in the
+way you prescribe, that I should ever choose the theatre as a place of
+amusement."
+
+"Then what is your favourite amusement?" asked Ashton.
+
+"To come home and read, or spend a social evening with a friend," George
+answered.
+
+"Then I know what will suit you all to pieces," said Ashton; "and your
+friend Hardy too. I am a member of a literary institution. It is a
+first-rate place--the best in London. There are lectures and classes,
+and soirées, a debating society, a good library, and rooms for
+chess-playing and that sort of thing. Now, you really must join it; it
+will be so very nice for us to have a regular place of meeting; and,
+besides that, we can combine study with amusement. What do you say, Mrs.
+Weston?"
+
+"I cannot see any objection to literary institutions," said Mrs. Weston;
+"but I have always considered them better suited to young men who are
+away from home, than for those who have comfortable homes in which to
+spend their evenings. You speak about having a regular place of meeting.
+I shall always be very pleased to see you and Mr. Hardy here, as often
+as ever you can manage to spend an evening with us."
+
+"Many thanks for your kindness, Mrs. Weston," returned Ashton; "but it
+would not be right for us to trespass on your good nature. Now I will
+give you and your friend a challenge, George," he continued. "Next
+Monday, the first debate of the season comes off; will you allow me to
+introduce you to the institution on that evening?--it is a member's
+privilege."
+
+"I shall be very pleased to join you, then," said George. "What say you,
+Hardy?"
+
+"I accept the invitation, with thanks," replied Hardy.
+
+On Monday night, as George and Hardy journeyed towards the place of
+meeting, they discussed the question of joining the institution.
+
+"If you will, I will," said Hardy. "My parents do not much like the
+idea; but, as you said the other evening, 'we must not allow ourselves
+to be controlled like mere children.'"
+
+"I do think we really require a little recreation after business hours;
+and we can obtain none better than that of an intellectual kind, such as
+is found at literary institutions. The new term has only just commenced;
+so we may as well be enrolled as members at once."
+
+"I wish the institution was a little nearer home," said Hardy, "for it
+will be so late of an evening for us to be out. However, we need not
+always attend, nor is it necessary we should very often be late. Have
+you had any difficulty in obtaining Mrs. Weston's consent to your
+joining?"
+
+"None at all; she prefers my attending an institution of this kind to
+any other, although probably she would be better pleased if I did not
+join one at all. But, as Ashton says, we really must live up to the
+times, and know something of what is going on in the world around us.
+Did you not notice, the other evening, how Ashton could speak upon every
+subject brought on the carpet? My mother said, 'What a remarkably
+agreeable young man he is! he has evidently seen a good deal of
+society;' and I think the two things are inseparable--to be agreeable
+in society, one must mix more with it."
+
+Ashton was punctual to his appointment; and all were at the institution
+just as the members were assembling for the debate. George was surprised
+to find how many of the young men knew Ashton, and he admired the ease
+and elegance of his friend in acknowledging the greetings which met him
+on every hand.
+
+"I won't bore you with introductions to-night," he said, "except to just
+half-a-dozen fellows in particular, who, I am sure, you will like to
+know; and we can all sit together and compare opinions during the
+debate."
+
+The friends were accordingly introduced; and as the proceedings of the
+evening went on, and all waxed warm upon the subject under discussion,
+the party which Ashton had drawn together soon became known to one
+another, and were on terms of conversational acquaintance.
+
+The meeting separated at ten o'clock, and then George and Hardy essayed
+to bid good-night to their friends, and make their way at once towards
+Islington.
+
+"Nonsense," said Ashton; "I want you to come with me to a nice quiet
+place I know, close by, and have a bit of supper and a chat over all
+that has been said, and then I will walk part of the way home with you."
+
+"No, not to-night, Ashton; it is quite late enough already; and it will
+be past eleven o'clock before we get home as it is."
+
+"What say you, Hardy? Can you persuade our sage old friend to abandon
+his ten o'clock habits for one night?" asked Ashton.
+
+"I do not like to establish a bad precedent," said Hardy; "and as we
+have to-night joined the institution, I think we should make a rule to
+start off home as soon as we leave the meetings, because we have some
+distance to go, and bad hours, you know, interfere with business."
+
+"I did not expect you to make a rule to keep bad hours," said Ashton;"
+but every rule has an exception--"
+
+"And therefore it will not do to commence with the exception; so
+good-bye, till we meet again on Wednesday."
+
+Three nights a-week there was something going on at the institution
+sufficiently attractive to draw George and Hardy there. One evening a
+lecture, another the discussion class, and the third an elocution class,
+or more frequently that was resigned in favour of chess. From meeting
+the same young men, night after night, a great number of new
+acquaintanceships were formed, and George would never have spent an
+evening at home, had he accepted the invitations which were frequently
+being given him; but he had made a compact with himself, that he would
+never be out more than three evenings a week, and would devote the
+remainder to the society of his mother. A certain little voice did
+sometimes say to him, "Is it quite right and kind of you, George, to
+leave your mother so often? Do you not think it must be rather lonely
+for her, sometimes, without you?" And George would answer to the voice,
+"Mother would never wish to stand between me and my improvement.
+Besides, she has many friends who visit her, and with whom she visits;
+and few young men of my age give their mothers more than three evenings
+of their society a week."
+
+One evening, as George and Hardy were entering the institution, Harry
+Ashton came up to them, and said,--
+
+"I have just had some tickets sent me for the Adelphi. There is nothing
+going on here worth staying for, so I shall go. Dixon will make one, and
+you and Hardy must make up the quartette."
+
+"Dixon going?" asked George; "why, I thought he was such a sedate
+fellow, and never went to anything of the sort!"
+
+"Neither does he, as a rule; but he has never been to the Adelphi, and
+he wants to go. Will you accompany us?"
+
+"No, thank you," said George; "I told you once I did not like theatres;
+perhaps you recollect we discussed the point one evening?"
+
+"We did, and you said you had never been to a theatre: you disapproved
+of them, without ever having had an opportunity of judging whether they
+were good or bad places. Now, take the opportunity."
+
+"I am not anxious to form a judgment; and I so dislike all the
+associations of a theatre that it would be no pleasure for me to go."
+
+"Complimentary, certainly!" laughed Ashton. "But I will grant you this
+much--there are bad associations connected with the theatres, and this
+is the stronghold of objectors; but we are four staid sober fellows, we
+shall go to our box without any bother, sit and see the play without
+exchanging a word with anybody beyond our own party, and then leave as
+soon as the performance is over. You had better say you will go, eh?"
+
+"No, it would be very late before I got home," said George: "and I do
+not like keeping my mother up, more particularly as I was so very late
+the other evening. But what do you say, Hardy?"
+
+"I don't know what to say," said Hardy. "I did once say to myself I
+would never go to a theatre; but I am not sure that there is any moral
+obligation why I should keep my word, when the compact rests only with
+myself. I have not time to consult Paley, and so I put the question to
+you--Can I go, seeing I have said to myself I will not?"
+
+"Arrange it in this way," said Ashton; "both of you go, and when you get
+there, if you decide you have done wrong, then leave at once; or if you
+find that your consciences are in durance vile, and you have not
+patience or sufficient interest to stay and see the play out, go, and I
+will excuse you then with all my heart; but I won't excuse your not
+going. Now is your time to decide; for here comes Dixon, true to his
+appointment."
+
+"I suppose you have got your party complete, Ashton?" he said; "and if
+so, we had better start at once, or the play will have begun before we
+get there."
+
+George pondered no longer. "Suppose we try it, Hardy, on Ashton's
+plan," said he; "I don't see any harm in that, do you?"
+
+"No, I think that is the best way in which the case can be put," he
+replied; "and I don't see that any harm can possibly come of it."
+
+Away went the party, full of high spirits, bent upon amusement. But
+George felt a certain uneasy something, which tried to make him feel
+less pleased with himself than usual, and his laugh was at first forced
+and unnatural; there was not the same joyousness there would have been
+had he been starting on some recreation which he knew would be approved
+by parent and friends, and his own conscience. Ashton noticed he did not
+seem to be quite at ease; and therefore he brought all his humour into
+play to provoke hilarity. By the time they arrived at the theatre, that
+love of novelty and excitement which is so natural to young people
+completely overcame all other feelings, and the sight of the crowds
+flocking into all parts of the house was now an irresistible temptation
+to follow in too.
+
+They were shown into a very comfortable box, commanding a good view of
+the whole of the theatre. The thrilling strains of music issuing from
+the orchestra, the dazzling lights, and the large assembly of elegantly
+dressed ladies in the boxes, a mass of people in the pit, and tiers of
+heads in the galleries, filled George with excitement. He who a little
+while before had been the dullest of the party, was now the gayest of
+the gay; he was lost in astonishment at all he saw and heard, dazzled
+with the brilliancy of the scene, and abandoned to all the enjoyments of
+the hour.
+
+The performances that evening consisted of a farce, the comedy of the
+"Serious Family," and a ballet. When the curtain rose, and the farce
+commenced, George entered heart and soul into the spirit of the
+performance; laughed till the tears rolled down his cheeks at the
+dilemmas of an unlucky wight who acted a prominent part, and stamped
+applause in favour of a young lady who tried in every way to defend this
+unfortunate individual from his persecutors.
+
+When it was over, Ashton turned to George, and said--
+
+"Well, Weston, so much for the farce; now, if you think it is
+objectionable, off you go, old fellow, and we will forgive you."
+
+"No," said George; "I think that farce was capital, and I shall stay now
+and see the end. I am not surprised people like the theatre--I never
+enjoyed a laugh more in my life. But there is one thing I have not
+liked. That hero of the piece did not scruple to use language for which
+he would have been kicked out of any respectable private house--and yet
+there are respectable people here, old and young, all listening and
+seeming to enjoy it. That shows there is insincerity somewhere; either
+these people hush their sensitive feelings in the playhouse, or they are
+hypocrites at home, and profess to be much more refined than they really
+are."
+
+"You evidently don't understand plays yet," said Ashton; "that man
+depicts a certain style of life, and he must be true to it. If he enacts
+the part of a costermonger, he must swear and talk slang, and commit
+crimes, if need be, or anything suiting the character he assumes; or
+else the thing would be absurd, and the gentleman and costermonger would
+be both alike."
+
+"The theatre must be a 'great teacher of morals,' then, if we come here
+to be initiated into the vices of costermongers," said George, rather
+sarcastically.
+
+"George," whispered Hardy, "we've got into a mess; look down in the
+pit--Williams and Lawson are there. They have recognized us, and are
+nodding--shall we nod?"
+
+"Yes," said George, and he nodded; but his face was red as crimson. "I
+would not have had Lawson and Williams see us here for the world," he
+whispered to Hardy; "but it's too late now--as you say, we've got into a
+mess."
+
+Just then the curtain rose again, and the play of the "Serious Family,"
+commenced.
+
+The plot of the piece is this:--
+
+Mr. Abinadab Sleek and Lady Creamly are two hypocrites, introduced as
+ordinary specimens of Christians. They are living in the house of their
+daughter and son-in-law (Mr. and Mrs. Charles Torrens), over whom they
+exercise a stern and despotic control. Mr. Charles Torrens, "for the
+sake of peace and quietness," agrees to all the solemnities opposed upon
+him; and is willing to pass himself off in Christian circles as a
+co-worker with Mr. Abinadab Sleek. In his heart he detests everything
+like seriousness; and whenever an opportunity occurs, on the pretext of
+going into the country, indulges in the gaieties and vices of London
+fashionable life. He is visited by an old friend, Captain Murphy
+Maguire, who persuades him to renounce boldly the sanctimonious customs
+of the "Serious Family," and enjoy with unshackled freedom the pleasures
+of the world. To this he consents; but he has not courage to alter the
+family customs. Captain Maguire aids his plans by convincing Mrs. C.
+Torrens that unless she provides in her home those amusements which are
+found in the world, her husband will prefer the world to his home. A
+conspiracy is laid to oppose the religious tyranny of Mr. Abinadab
+Sleek, the result of which is, that a ball is given by Mr. Torrens,
+assisted by his wife, who, throwing off her former profession of
+Christianity, becomes a woman of the world. On all this their future
+happiness as man and wife is made to hinge; and when, through the flimsy
+plot of the piece, the tableau arrives, the curtain drops, leaving the
+younger members of the "Serious Family" whirling in the giddy dance,
+commencing the new era of domestic happiness.
+
+Throughout the play, Scripture is quoted and ridiculed, religion is made
+contemptible, and vice under the name of "geniality, openheartedness,
+and merriment," is made to appear the one thing necessary to constitute
+real happiness.
+
+George followed the play through all its shifting scenes; now laughed,
+now sighed, now felt the hot blush of shame as he listened to the
+atrocious mockery of everything which, from the time he had been an
+infant on his mother's knee, he had been taught to regard as good and
+pure. He was heated to indignation when the audience applauded the base
+character of Maguire, and shuddered when as he thought that a masked
+hypocrite was brought before the world as the type of a Christian, and
+that a "Serious Family" was only another name for an unhappy, canting
+set of ignorant people.
+
+And yet George did not leave the theatre. He was hurt, wounded to the
+heart by what he saw and heard, felt he would have given the world to
+have stood up in the box, and have told the audience that the play was a
+libel upon everything sacred and solemn; but he stayed and saw it out,
+rivetted by that strange, unholy infatuation which has been the bane of
+so many.
+
+"Let us go now, Hardy," he said, as the curtain dropped; "you do not
+care to see the ballet, do you?"
+
+"Oh, in for a penny, in for a pound. While we are here, we may as well
+see all that is to be seen. I won't ask you how you liked the comedy. I
+want to see something lively now, to remove the disagreeable impressions
+it has left upon me."
+
+And so they stayed, delighted with the music, fascinated with the
+graceful dancing, and dazzled with the scenery. At length the curtain
+fell, and the evening's performance was over.
+
+"It is only half-past eleven," said Ashton, when they got outside; "now
+we must just turn in somewhere, and get a bit of supper, and then, I
+suppose we must separate. There is a first-rate hotel close handy, where
+I sometimes dine. What do you say?"
+
+"Just the place for us," said Dixon; "because we must limit ourselves to
+half an hour, and we shall get what we want quickly there."
+
+As they went into the supper-room, George saw, to his vexation, Lawson
+and Williams, with a party of boon companions, seated round a table at
+the further end. He instantly drew back; but it was too late, they had
+recognised him.
+
+"Confound it!" he said to Ashton, "there are some chaps from our office,
+at the end there. I do not wish to meet them; cannot we go into a
+private room?"
+
+"Certainly," said Ashton; and the party retreated. "But why do you not
+wish to meet your fellow clerks?"
+
+"Because they are a low set of fellows with whom I have nothing in
+common."
+
+When supper was over and the clock had struck twelve, the party
+separated.
+
+"Good night, old fellow," said Ashton to George. "I am sorry we have
+not seen quite the sort of play you would have liked; but now you have
+seen the worst side of the theatre, and next time we go together we will
+try and see the best; so that between the two extremes you will be able
+to discriminate and determine what sort of place the theatre is as an
+amusement."
+
+"Thank you, Ashton, for your share in the entertainment to-night. I will
+talk to you about the play some other time; but I must say, candidly, I
+never felt so distressed in my life as I did while that gross insult to
+all good feeling, 'The Serious Family,' was being performed. If you had
+said to me what that wretch, Captain Maguire, said in my hearing
+to-night, I would not have shaken hands with you again as I do now."
+
+An omnibus happened to be passing for the Angel at Islington that
+moment, and George and Hardy got up.
+
+"What shall we do with regard to Williams and Lawson?" said Hardy. "They
+have got a victory to-night. I fear our protest against theatres and
+taverns is over with them for ever now, seeing they have caught us at
+both places."
+
+"I cannot but regret the circumstance," said George, "but it is nothing
+to them; they are not our father-confessors, and we are not bound to
+enter into any particulars with them. The greatest difficulty with me is
+how to manage when I get home. I don't like deceiving my mother; but I
+should not like to pain her by saying I have been to the theatre. She
+knew I started for the institution, and that I might possibly be late;
+so, unless she asks me where I have been, I don't see that there will be
+any good in unnecessarily distressing her."
+
+"The disagreeable thing in such a case is," replied Hardy, "if the fact
+comes out afterwards, it _looks_ as if a deception had been practised."
+
+George and Hardy had never talked together like this before; and they
+spoke hesitatingly, as if they hardly liked to hear their own voices
+joining to discuss a mean, unworthy, dishonourable trick.
+
+O temptation! what an inclined path is thine! How slippery for the feet,
+and how rapidly the unwary traveller slides along, lower and lower--each
+step making the attempt to ascend again to high ground more difficult!
+George had made many dangerous slips that night--would he ever regain
+his position?
+
+Mrs. Weston was sitting up for George, and pleased was she to hear, at
+last, his knock at the door.
+
+"Mother, this is too bad of me, keeping you up so late," said George. "I
+really did not mean to keep bad hours to-night; but I will turn over a
+new leaf for the future."
+
+"I do not mind sitting up, George, if it is for your good," she
+answered; "but I fear you will not improve your health by being so late
+as this. Have you enjoyed your meeting to-night?"
+
+"Pretty well," said George; "but I have been with Ashton, Dixon, and
+Hardy since."
+
+"Then you have not had supper?"
+
+"Yes, we had supper with Ashton." George got red as he said this. It was
+the first time he ever remembered wilfully deceiving his mother.
+
+"Oh! that has made you late, then," said Mrs. Weston. "I am afraid
+Ashton has so many attractions in those apartments of his--what with
+friends, books, and curiosities--that you find it difficult to break up
+your social gatherings."
+
+"It is too bad of me to leave you so often, my dear mother; but I don't
+mean to go to Ashton's again for some time, unless he comes to see us;
+and so I shall return straight home from the institution for a long
+while."
+
+When George retired to his room, he felt so distracted with all that
+had taken place, that his old custom of reading a chapter from God's
+Word, and kneeling down to pray before getting into bed, was abandoned
+for that night. He tried to sleep, but could not. The strains of music
+were yet ringing in his ears, and the dazzling light was still flashing
+before his eyes. Then the plays came again before him; and he followed
+the plots throughout, smiling again over some of the jokes, and feeling
+depressed at the sad parts. Then he thought of Williams and Lawson, and
+reproached himself for having acted that evening very, very foolishly.
+Alas! this was not the right term; it was more than foolishness to
+tamper with the voice of conscience, to violate principles which had
+been inculcated from childhood, to plot wilful deceit, and act a lie.
+Instead of saying he had acted foolishly, he should have said, "Father,
+I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight Have mercy upon me, O God!
+Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquities, and cleanse me from my sin; for
+against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil." But George
+only said, "I am so very vexed I went with Ashton to-night; it was very
+foolish!--very foolish!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE LECTURE.
+
+
+"You look seedy this morning, Mr. Weston," said Williams, as George
+entered the office on the following day. "The effect of last night's
+dissipation, I suppose. How did you like the play?"
+
+"Not at all," answered George, mortified and angry at having the
+question put to him before all the clerks, who were now informed of the
+fact of his having been there.
+
+"No; I suppose one Abinadab Sleek does not like to hear another one of
+the same gang spoken ill of, eh?"
+
+"I do not understand you," said George.
+
+"Then, to put it plainer, you and Hardy, who are of the 'Serious Family'
+style, don't like to see yourselves taken off quite so true to life as
+you were last night at the Adelphi. You saw that old canting Abinadab
+Sleek was up to every dodge and vice, although he did seem such a
+sanctified individual in public; and our young Solomons, who condemn
+wicked theatres and disgusting taverns, can go to both on the sly, and
+be as sanctimonious as ever Abinadab was in office."
+
+George felt his hands clench, and his eyes flash fire. He could bear
+taunts from Williams, when he had right on his side, and felt the
+consciousness of innocence; but he could not bear it now.
+
+"You lie," said George passionately, "in drawing that comparison."
+
+"And you lie continually," said Williams, "in acting a perpetual edition
+of that part of the 'Serious Family' represented by Abinadab Sleek."
+
+"Fight it out I fight it out!" said Lawson. "The Governor won't be here
+for half an hour; bolt the door and have it out."
+
+"Nothing of the kind," said Hardy, stepping forward. "Williams is the
+aggressor in this instance; it is nothing to him if Weston and I went to
+the theatre every night in our lives; he has no right to interfere; if
+he fights it must be with Weston and me, for he insults me as much as my
+friend."
+
+"Then come on," said Williams, taking off his coat, "and I'll take you
+both: one man is worth two canting hypocrites, any day."
+
+But no one had bolted the door, and, to the surprise of all, Mr.
+Compton stood before them.
+
+"What is this?" he said; "young men in my office talking of fighting, as
+if it were the tap-room of a public house? George Weston! I did not
+think this of you."
+
+"Do not judge hastily, sir," said Hardy. "My friend Weston has been
+grossly insulted by Mr. Williams, and the little disturbance has only
+been got up through jealousy, to get him into trouble."
+
+"Step into my room a moment, Mr. Hardy," said Mr. Compton; "and you,
+too, Weston and Williams."
+
+George was flushed with excitement; but his proud, manly bearing, in
+contrast to the crest-fallen Williams, won for him the admiration of the
+whole staff of clerks.
+
+Mr. Compton patiently heard from Hardy a recital of the causes leading
+to the fray, and was made acquainted with the course of opposition
+George had to contend with, from Williams and Lawson, ever since he had
+been in the office.
+
+"I regret this circumstance," said Mr. Compton, "for several reasons. I
+have always held you, Weston, in the highest estimation, nor do I see
+sufficient cause, from this event, to alter my estimate; but I have
+always found my best clerks those who have been in the habit of spending
+their evenings elsewhere than in theatres and taverns. I am not
+surprised at the part you have taken, Mr. Williams; and it now rests
+with you, whether you remain in this office or leave. I will not have
+the junior clerks in this establishment held in subjection to those who
+have been with me a few years longer; nor will I have a system of insult
+and opposition continued, which must eventually lead to unpleasant
+results. If I hear any more of this matter, or find that you persist in
+your unwarranted insults on Mr. Weston, I shall at once dismiss you from
+my service. You did well, Mr. Hardy, in interfering to prevent a
+disgraceful fight; and, much as I dislike tale-bearing, I request you to
+inform me, for the future, of any unpleasantness arising to Mr. Weston
+from this affair."
+
+Williams was terribly crest-fallen, and the tide of office opinion
+turned from him in favour of George and Hardy, who, without crowing over
+the victory they had gained, yet showed a manly determination not to
+allow an insult which reflected upon their characters.
+
+"I tell you what it is," whispered Lawson to Williams; "Old Compton
+takes a fancy to those two sneaking fellows, and, after this affair,
+the office will get too hot for us if we do not draw it milder to them.
+If I were you, I should waylay them outside the office and say something
+civil, by way of soft soap, so as to nip this matter off, for you've got
+the worst of it so far."
+
+Williams determined to accept the hint Lawson had given him, and when
+the office closed, remained in the court until George came out.
+
+"Mr. Weston," he said, stretching out his hand, which George felt would
+be mean-spirited not to take, "that was an unpleasant affair this
+morning, but I didn't think you would fire up as you did; and when I let
+fly at you, it was only in joke."
+
+"I must deny that it was a joke," George replied; "it was an intended
+insult. Probably you might not have thought it would have produced
+indignation in me, because you, evidently, do not understand my feelings
+in the matter. However, let the thing drop now. I will not retract what
+I said to you this morning, that you lied in forming that estimate of my
+character, nor do I ask you to retract your words, unless your
+conscience tells you that you wronged me."
+
+"What I said was hasty, and I don't mind eating all my words," said
+Williams; "so, as the song says, 'Come, let us be happy together.' Will
+you come into the King's Head, and take a glass of wine on the strength
+of it?"
+
+"No, thank you," said George; "but as it is no wish of mine to live at
+loggerheads with any one, here is my hand upon it."
+
+And then they shook hands, and so the matter ended. But it ended only so
+far as Williams was concerned. A day or two afterwards Mr. Brunton was
+passing the office, and he called in to say "How d'ye do?" to Mr.
+Compton. In the course of conversation he asked how George was getting
+on, and whether he continued to give satisfaction.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Compton, "I have no fault to find with him; on the
+contrary, he is the best junior clerk I ever had, and I trust him with
+matters I never placed in the hands of a junior clerk before. But there
+was an unfortunate occurrence the other day, which I think it right to
+mention to you confidentially." And then Mr. Brunton heard the whole
+history of the theatre adventure, and its consequences in the office on
+the following morning. He was grieved, deeply grieved. At first he could
+not credit the account; but when he heard that George had himself
+confessed to the truth of the circumstances before Mr. Compton, and
+there was no longer room to doubt, a tear stood in his eye as he thought
+of his nephew--that noble, manly boy, whom he loved with all the
+affection of a father--stooping to temptation, and acting the part of a
+deceiver; for Mr. Brunton had spent an evening with Mrs. Weston and
+George, and had heard nothing of his having been to a theatre, nor did
+he believe Mrs. Weston was aware of it.
+
+"What I have told you is strictly confidential," said Mr. Compton; "but
+as you are, as it were, the father of George Weston, I thought it only
+right that you should know this, in order that you may warn him, if he
+has got into the hands of bad companions."
+
+George was absent from the office during the interview, and did not know
+until some days afterwards of his uncle's visit.
+
+Mr. Brunton went from Falcon-court a sadder man. He was perplexed and
+harassed; he could not conscientiously tell Mrs. Weston, as he had
+received the information in confidence; he could not speak directly to
+George upon the subject, because he would at once have known that Mr.
+Compton must have given the statement to his uncle. He was obliged,
+therefore, to remain passive in the matter for a day or two, and
+resolved to spend an evening that week at Islington.
+
+In the meantime the affair became known to Mrs. Weston, and in rather a
+curious manner. George had worn his best coat on the evening he went to
+the theatre; and one day as Mrs. Weston, according to custom, was
+brushing it, before putting it away in his drawers, she turned out the
+pockets, and, amongst other things, drew forth a well-used play-bill.
+
+"George has never been to the theatre, surely?" she asked herself.
+"Impossible! he would have told me had he done so, for he is far too
+high-principled to deceive me."
+
+But the sight of that play-bill worried Mrs. Weston. She thought over it
+all day, and longed for the evening to come, when she might ask George
+about it.
+
+That evening Mr. Brunton had determined to spend at Islington; and as he
+was passing Falcon-court, he called for George on his way, and they
+walked home together.
+
+The play-bill happened to be on the table when they entered, and it
+caught the eye of both George and Mr. Brunton at once.
+
+"Where did you get that from?" asked George, colouring, not with the
+honest flush of self-respect, but with the burning sense of deceit
+detected.
+
+"I found it in your pocket, George; and as I have never found one there
+before, I thought I would leave it out, to ask you how you came by it."
+
+"I came by it the other night, when I went to the theatre," said George;
+for he could not tell a direct falsehood. "I did not tell you of it at
+the time, but led you to suppose that I had been at the institution."
+
+Mrs. Weston was indeed sorry to hear George's account of what had
+passed; but Mr. Brunton felt all his old confidence in George restored
+by the open, genuine statement he made.
+
+"George," said Mr. Brunton, "I know you are old enough to manage your
+affairs for yourself, without an uncle's interference, but do take from
+me one word of caution. I fear you may be led unwittingly into error by
+your associates. Do be on your guard--'if sinners entice thee, consent
+thou not.' If you feel it right, and can conscientiously go with them
+and adopt their habits, I have no right, nor should I wish to advise
+you; but if you feel that you are wrong in what you do, listen to the
+voice of your better self, and pause to consider. Do not turn a deaf
+ear to its entreaties, but be admonished by its counsel, and rather
+sacrifice friends and pleasure than that best of all enjoyments--the
+satisfaction of acting a part of duty to God and yourself."
+
+George did not argue the point with his uncle; he felt himself in the
+wrong, but could not see his way clear to get right again.
+
+"I have made so many resolves in my short life," he said, "and have
+broken them so often, that I will not pledge myself to making fresh ones
+My error, in this instance, has not been the fault of my companionships,
+but entirely my own; and, as far as I can see, the chief blame lies in
+having concealed the matter from my mother, which I did principally out
+of kindness to her. But I will endeavour to take your counsel, uncle."
+
+Weeks passed away, and with them the vivid memories of that time. George
+had at length reasoned himself into the idea that a great deal of
+unnecessary fuss had been made about nothing, and instead of weaning
+himself from the society of Ashton, they became more than ever thrown
+into each other's company. George was a constant attendant at the
+institution, where he was surrounded by a large circle of intimate
+acquaintances, with whom much of his time was spent. In the office he
+had risen in the estimation of the clerks. Williams and Lawson, finding
+that opposition was unavailing, altered their conduct towards him, and
+became as civil and obliging as they had before been insulting and
+disagreeable. George began to think he had belied their characters from
+not having known sufficient of them; and instead of shunning them, as he
+had hitherto done, sometimes took a stroll with them in the evening
+after office hours, and once or twice had dined with them at the King's
+Head.
+
+Imperceptibly, George began to alter. Sooner or later, evil
+communications must corrupt good manners; and from continually beholding
+the lives of his companions, without possessing that one thing needful
+to have kept him free from the entanglement of their devices, he became
+changed into the same image, by the dangerous power of their influence
+and example.
+
+A month or two after the theatre adventure, Mrs. Weston received an
+invitation to spend a week or two in the country with some relatives,
+whom she had not seen for several years. Mr. Brunton persuaded her to
+accept it, as the change would be beneficial; and George, knowing how
+seldom his mother had an opportunity for recreation, added all his
+powers of argument to induce her to go. The only obstacle presenting
+itself was the management of the house during her absence. Mr. Brunton
+invited George to stay with him while Mrs. Weston would be away; and she
+did not like to leave her servant alone in the house with the boarders.
+It was at last arranged that George should decline Mr. Brunton's
+invitation, and have the oversight of the house during his mother's
+absence.
+
+The first night after her departure, George brought Hardy home with him
+to spend the evening, and a pleasant, quiet time they had together.
+
+"It will be rather dull for you, George," said Hardy, "if Mrs. Weston is
+going to remain away for a few weeks. What shall you do on Sunday? You
+had better come and spend the day with us."
+
+"No, I cannot do that, because I promised I would be here, to let the
+servant have an opportunity of going to church. But I mean to ask Ashton
+to come and spend the day here, and you will come too; and there's
+Dixon, he is a nice fellow, I'll ask him to come as well."
+
+"What is to be the programme for the day?" said Hardy. "Of course it
+will be a quiet one."
+
+"We will all go to church or chapel in the morning, spend the afternoon
+together at home, and take a stroll in the evening after the service.
+Are you agreed?"
+
+"I think we shall have a very nice day of it. Let the other chaps know
+of it early, and we will meet here in good time in the morning."
+
+Sunday came, and George's friends arrived as he expected. They were
+early, and had time for a chat before starting out.
+
+"Where shall we go this morning?" asked George. "There is a very good
+minister close by at the church, and another equally good at the chapel.
+My principles are unsectarian, and I do not mind where it is we go."
+
+"Don't you think," said Dixon, "we might do ourselves more good by
+taking a stroll a few miles out of town, and talking out a sermon for
+ourselves?"
+
+"I am inclined to the belief that nature is the best preacher," Ashton
+remarked. "We hear good sermons from the pulpit, it is true; but words
+are poor things to teach us of the Creator, in comparison with
+creation."
+
+"I do not agree with you in your religious sentiments, Ashton, as you
+know," said George. "Creation tells us nothing about our Saviour, and,
+as I read the Scriptures, no man can know God, the Father and Great
+Creator, but through Him."
+
+"And yet, if I remember rightly, the Saviour said that He made the
+world, and without Him was not anything made that was made--so that He
+was the Creator; and when we look from nature up to nature's God we see
+Him, and connecting His history with the world around us, we have in
+creation, as I said before, the best sermon; aye, and what the parsons
+call a 'gospel' sermon, too."
+
+"I agree with you," said Dixon; "preaching is all very well in its way,
+and I like a good sermon; but the words of man can never excel the works
+of God."
+
+"A proper sermon," replied George, "is not uttered in the words of man;
+they are God's words applied and expounded. Nature may speak to the
+senses, but the Scriptures alone speak to the heart; and that is the
+object of preaching. But you are my visitors, and you shall decide the
+point."
+
+"Then I say a stroll," said Ashton.
+
+"And so do I," chimed in Dixon.
+
+"I am for going to a place of worship," said Hardy.
+
+"And so am I," Ashton replied; "is not all God's universe a place of
+worship?"
+
+"Perhaps so," answered Hardy; "but I mean the appointed and proper
+place, where those who try to keep holy the Sabbath day are accustomed
+to meet--a church or chapel."
+
+"I side with Hardy," said George. "But I am willing to meet you halfway.
+If I go with you this morning, you must all promise to go with me in the
+evening. But bear in mind I am making a concession, and I go for a
+stroll under protest, because it is contrary to my custom."
+
+"All right, old chap," said Ashton. "I never knew anybody's conscience
+fit them so uneasily as yours does. But it always did; at school, you
+were a martyr to it, and I believe the blame lies at the door of dear
+old Dr. Seaward, who persisted in training us up in the way we should
+go, just as if we were all designed to be parsons."
+
+"Poor old Dr. Seaward!" said George. "If he only knew two of his old
+scholars were going out for a stroll on Sunday morning to hear nature
+preach, I believe his body would hardly contain his troubled spirit."
+
+"And he would appear before us to stop us on our way--"
+
+"Like the spirit before Balaam and his ass, seems the most appropriate
+simile," said Dixon, "for, if I recollect rightly, Balaam was going
+where he should not have gone, and his conscience gave him as much
+trouble as Weston's does."
+
+George did not think and say, as Balaam did, "I have sinned;" but he
+felt the sting of ridicule, and determined he would allow no
+conscientious scruple to bring it upon him again during that day.
+
+"After all," he argued with himself, "what is the use of my being
+conscientious, for I am so wretchedly inconsistent? I had better go all
+one way, or all the other, instead of wavering between the two, and
+perpetually showing my weakness."
+
+It would have puzzled any one to have told what sermon nature preached
+to that merry party, as they wandered through green fields and quiet
+lanes, talking upon a hundred different subjects, and making the calm
+Sabbath morn ring with the strains of their laughter.
+
+"Your idea of creation's voice is better in theory than in practice,"
+George said, when they returned home. "Can any of you tell me what the
+text was which nature took to preach from, for I have no distinct
+remembrance of it?"
+
+"The text seemed to me to be this," said Dixon, "that 'to everything
+there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens--a time
+to weep and a time to laugh--a time to keep silence and a time to
+speak;' and the application was, that we had chosen the right time for
+enjoying much speaking and much laughing."
+
+The afternoon was not spent as George had been accustomed to spend it.
+Light, frivolous conversation, and still more dangerous debate upon
+religious subjects, without religious feeling, occupied the time, and
+George felt glad when the evening came, and they started off together to
+hear a popular preacher, whose merits they had been discussing during
+the afternoon.
+
+On their way thither they passed a large building, into which several
+people were entering, and as the outside of the place was ornamented
+with handbills, they paused to read them. They ran thus:--
+
+    "HALL OF SCIENCE.--A Lecture will be delivered in this Hall on
+    Sunday evening, at half past six, by Professor Martin, on 'The Uses
+    of Reason.' Young men are cordially invited to attend.
+
+    "What is truth? Search and see."
+
+"Do you know anything of this Professor Martin?" asked Dixon. "Is he
+worth hearing?"
+
+"A friend of mine told me he had heard him, a little while ago, and was
+never better pleased with any lecture," Ashton answered. "Shall we put
+up here for the evening?"
+
+"Is he a preacher, or a mere lecturer?" asked George. The question
+attracted the attention of a person entering the Hall; and, turning to
+George, he answered:--
+
+"Professor Martin is one of those best of all preachers. He can interest
+without sending you to sleep, and his discourses are full of sound
+wisdom. He is a lover of truth, and advocates the only way to arrive at
+it, which is by unfettered thought. In his lectures he puts his theory
+into practice by freely expressing his unfettered thoughts. I have seats
+in the front of the lecture-room; if you will favour me by accepting
+them, they are at your service."
+
+The plausible and polite manner of the stranger was effectual with
+George.
+
+"I don't think we can do better than go in and hear what the lecturer
+has to say," he said to the others. And, assent being given, they
+followed the stranger, and were conducted to the proffered seats.
+
+The audience consisted principally of men, the majority of whom were
+young and of an inferior class, such as shopmen and mechanics. There was
+a large platform, with chairs upon it, but no pulpit or reading-desk.
+When the lecturer, accompanied by a chairman and some friends, entered,
+George and his companions were surprised to hear a clapping of hands and
+stamping of feet, similar to the plan adopted at public amusements.
+
+"This does not seem much like a Sunday evening service," said George.
+"We have time to leave, if you like; or shall we stay and see it out?"
+
+"Oh! let us stay," replied the others.
+
+No hymn was sung, no prayer was offered at the commencement, but the
+lecturer, with a pocket Bible in his hands, quoted a few passages of
+Scripture, as follows:--
+
+"Come now, and let us reason together,"--Isa. i. 18; "I applied mine
+heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and to know the
+reason of things,"--Eccles. vii. 25; "And Paul, as his manner was, went
+in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the
+Scriptures,"--Acts xvii. 2; "Be ready alway to give an answer to every
+man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you,"--1 Peter iii.
+15.
+
+The object of the lecturer was to show that no intelligent being could
+receive truth unless that truth commended itself to reason, because the
+two were never in opposition one with the other. Conscience, he said,
+was the soul's safeguard, and reason the safeguard of the heart and
+intellect. It was irrational to condemn any course of conduct which
+conscience approved, and it was equally irrational to believe anything
+that could not be understood. The Word of God might be useful in its
+way, but only as studied with unfettered thought. If that Word exalted
+reason and then taught inconsistencies and absurdities, reason must
+discriminate between the right and the wrong. "For example," he
+continued, "if that book tells me that there are three Gods, and yet
+those three are one, I reason by analogy and say, here are three
+fingers; each one has its particular office; but I cannot make these
+three fingers one finger, neither can I make three Gods one God."
+
+So the lecturer continued, but he did not put his case in so many plain
+words as these; every argument he clothed with doubtful words, so as to
+make falsehood look like truth, and blasphemy like worship. He was an
+educated and intelligent man, gifted with that dangerous power of
+preaching the doctrine of devils in the guise of an angel of light, and
+handling deadly sophistry with as firm a grasp as if it were the sword
+of the Spirit.
+
+At the conclusion of the lecture he announced his intention to speak
+from that platform again on the following Sunday, and invited all who
+were inquiring the way of truth to be present, and judge what he said,
+"whether it be right, or whether it be wrong."
+
+As George and his friends were leaving the hall, the stranger, who had
+accosted them before, came up, and bowing politely said--
+
+"Will you allow me to offer you the same seats, for next Sunday evening?
+If you will say yes, I will reserve them for you; otherwise you may have
+difficulty in obtaining admission, for the room will, in all
+probability, be more crowded than to-night, as Professor Martin was not
+announced to lecture until late in the week, and the friends who
+frequent the Hall had no notice of his being here."
+
+"I will certainly come," said Ashton. "I never heard a speaker I liked
+better. What say you?" he asked, turning to the others.
+
+"I am anxious to hear the conclusion of the argument," said George; "so
+we will accept your invitation," he added to the stranger, "and thank
+you for your kindness and courtesy."
+
+It was a long conversation the friends had as they strolled along that
+evening. To George every argument the lecturer had brought forward was
+new; and bearing, as they did, the apparent stamp of truth, he was
+utterly confounded. Although he was a good biblical scholar, as regarded
+the historical and narrative parts of the Scriptures, he was but ill
+informed on those more subtle points which the lecturer handled. He had
+never heard the doctrine of the Trinity, for example, disputed, and had
+always implicitly believed it; now, when the lecturer quoted Scripture
+to prove that truth was to be analysed by reason, and reason rejected
+the idea of a Trinity, he was as unable to reconcile the two as if he
+had never received any religious instruction at all.
+
+"If what he advances be true," said George, "how irrational many things
+in the Christian religion are! And how singular that men like him, who
+'search into the reason of things' for wisdom, and hold opinions
+contrary to the orthodox notions of those whom we call Christians,
+should be looked upon with suspicion and distrust."
+
+"No," replied Ashton; "he met that idea by saying that it was not more
+than singular, in the early stages of science, for people to be burnt as
+witches and magicians, because they made discoveries which are now
+developed and brought into daily use, than it is now for men to be
+scouted as infidel and profane, because they teach opinions which only
+require investigation to make them universally admitted."
+
+An unhappy day was that Sunday for George Weston. He had violated
+principle, made concessions against the dictates of conscience (how poor
+a safeguard for him!) and had learnt lessons which taught him to despise
+those instructions which had hitherto been as a lamp unto his feet and a
+light unto his path.
+
+"Blessed is the man that _walketh_ not in the counsel of the ungodly,
+nor _standeth_ in the way of sinners, nor _sitteth_ in the seat of the
+scornful." George little thought how rapidly he was passing through
+those different stages on the downward road. Had he never listened to
+the council of the ungodly, he would not have walked in the way of evil,
+but would have avoided even its very appearance; he would not have stood
+in the way of sinners, parleying with temptations, as he had done on so
+many occasions; nor would he have occupied that most dangerous of all
+positions, the fatal ease of sitting in the seat of the scornful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+GETTING ON IN THE WORLD.
+
+
+"Mr. Compton wishes to speak with you, Weston," said Mr. Sanders, the
+manager, to George one morning, during the visit of Mrs. Weston in the
+country.
+
+"Good morning, Weston," said Mr. Compton; "I want to have a few minutes'
+conversation with you: sit down. You have been in my office now more
+than a twelvemonth, and I promised that you should have an increased
+salary at the expiration of that time. Your services have been very
+valuable to me during the past year, and I am in every way satisfied
+with you. As a tangible proof of this, I beg your acceptance of this
+little present," (handing him a ten-pound note,) "and during this year
+on which you have entered, I shall have much pleasure in giving you a
+salary of two guineas a week."
+
+"I am exceedingly obliged to you sir," George stammered out, for he was
+flabbergasted at the kindness of his employer; "I hope I may always
+continue to do my duty in your office, and deserve your approbation."
+
+"I hope so, too;" said Mr. Compton, "both for your sake and for my own.
+If you continue as you have begun, there is a fair field before you, and
+I will advance you as opportunity occurs. Now, apart from business, I
+want one word with you. I kept you purposely last year upon a low
+salary, because I have found that sometimes it is beneficial to young
+men to have only a small income. With your increased salary, you will
+have increased means for entering that style of life which is,
+unfortunately, too universal with young men--I mean the gaieties and
+dissipations of a London life are now more open to you than they were
+before. But what is termed a 'fast' young man never makes a good clerk,
+and I do hope you will not allow yourself to fail into habits which will
+be obstacles to your future promotion."
+
+"I will endeavour, sir, always to maintain my position in your office,"
+said George; "and I feel very grateful to you for the interest you take
+in my personal welfare."
+
+George was in high spirits with his good fortune. He had not expected
+more than a guinea, or at the utmost thirty shillings a week increase
+for his second year, and had never dreamt of receiving so handsome a
+present as £10. By that night's post he sent off a long letter to his
+mother, giving her an account of the interview, and of his future
+prospects.
+
+But George had different ideas about his future now, to those he
+cherished a twelvemonth back. Then he thought only of himself and his
+mother; how happy they would be together, and how much he would
+endeavour to contribute to her enjoyment. Now he congratulated himself
+that he would be upon a footing with his friends, that he could do as
+they did, and that he had the means to follow up those recreations which
+were becoming habitual to him. For since Mrs. Weston had been away,
+George had gone step by step further on unhallowed ground. Even Ashton
+said, "Weston, you are coming it pretty strong, old fellow!" and Hardy
+had declared that he could not keep pace with him. Night after night, as
+he had no one at home to claim his presence there, he had been to
+theatres and other places of amusement. Sunday after Sunday he had
+attended the lectures at the Hall of Science, and abandoning himself to
+the tide which was hurrying him along, he floated down the dangerous
+stream.
+
+The principles of infidelity which had been inculcated, appealed to him
+with a voice so loud as to drown the appeals from a higher source. The
+one approved his conduct, the other condemned it--the one pointed to the
+world as a scene of enjoyment, the other as at enmity with God. George
+felt that if he would hold one he must resign the other. He had not that
+moral courage, or rather he had not the deep-rooted conviction of sin,
+or the earnest love and fear of God, to enable him to burst through the
+entanglements of the world and the world's god, and choosing whom he
+would serve: he loved darkness rather than light.
+
+When Mrs. Weston returned, after a month's absence, she could not but
+observe an alteration in George. Although he never told her of his
+attendance at the lectures on Sunday, or the arguments he had had with
+friends who held infidel opinions, she soon perceived that George's
+feelings were undergoing a rapid and dangerous change. Those subjects on
+which he was once in the habit of conversing with her, he now carefully
+shunned. He was affectionate and kind to his mother still, and loved her
+with all his old intense love, but that ingenuous confidence which he
+had always reposed in her was gone. Things that were dear to him now he
+could not discuss with her; instead of telling her how he spent his
+time, and what were his amusements, he avoided any mention of them. The
+deception which he first practised on that night when he yielded to
+Ashton's persuasion, was now a system. He reasoned the matter over with
+himself: there could be no good in telling her; their opinions were
+different; he would take his course, independently of hers.
+
+Uncle Brunton noticed the change; for to those who saw him seldom the
+change was sudden. But to George, every day there seemed an epoch, and
+he was unconscious of the rapidity with which old associations and ideas
+cherished from childhood were thrown down and trampled upon by the new
+feelings which had taken possession of him.
+
+"George," said Mr. Brunton to him one day, "I am growing uneasy about
+you. I feel that I am not the same to you, nor you to me, we used to be,
+only a few months back. I cannot tell the reason--cannot tell when the
+difference commenced or how--but for some months past--ever since your
+mother's visit to the country--there has been a want of that old
+confidential, affectionate intercourse between us there used to be."
+
+"I was younger then," said George, "and the freshness of youthful
+feeling and attachment may die away as we advance in years; but I am not
+aware that I have ever given you occasion to say I do not love you
+sincerely still, uncle. Your kindness to me never can, and never will be
+forgotten."
+
+"Well, George, I cannot explain what I mean. I have a kind of feeling
+about you that something is wrong which I cannot put into words. I fancy
+that if I offer you a word of counsel, you do not receive it as you once
+did; if I talk seriously with you, it does not make the same impression,
+or touch the spring of the same feelings. You do not talk to me with the
+old frankness and candour which made my heart leap, when I thanked God I
+had got some one in the world to love, and who loved me. But perhaps I
+wrong you, and expect too much from you."
+
+"No, not that, uncle. Frankness, candour, and love are due to you, and
+while I have them they shall always be yours; and to prove it, I will
+tell what I have never told any one before, what I have hardly spoken to
+my own heart. I think of the George Weston you brought away from Dr.
+Seaward's, who stood with you beside a father's deathbed, and who,
+eighteen months ago, went into Mr. Compton's office; then I think of
+George Weston of to-day, and I feel amazed at the change a few years has
+made. I have asked myself a hundred times, am I really the same? Oh,
+uncle! you do not know what I would give to be that boy again--to live
+once more in that old world of sunshine."
+
+Tears started to George's eyes as he spoke, and Mr. Brunton could only
+squeeze his hand, and say, "God bless you, my boy! God bless you!"
+
+A few days later Mr. Brunton and Mrs. Weston were one whole evening
+together talking about George. Both hearts were heavy, but Mr. Brunton's
+was the lighter of the two.
+
+"I tell you what I think will be the very best thing for you and for
+George," he said, "It is now the early spring, and the country is
+beginning to look fresh and green. Leave this house and take one in the
+country. I think George can easily be made to accede to this
+proposition--he was always fond of country life and recreations. He can
+have a season ticket on the railway, and come down every night. This
+will wean him from his associates, and induce him to keep earlier hours,
+and give us, too, a better opportunity to lure him back to his old
+habits of life."
+
+The arrangements were made. Mrs. Weston, with that loving self-denial
+which only a mother can exercise, gave up the house, and her circle of
+friends, and took up her residence in the country, about twenty miles
+from London. George was pleased with the change, and acquiesced in all
+the plans which were made.
+
+About this time, an event happened of considerable importance in the
+family history. An old relative of Mrs. Weston's, from whom she had
+monetary expectations, died; and upon examination of the will, it was
+found that a legacy had been left her of about three thousand pounds,
+which was safely invested, and would bring to her an income of nearly a
+hundred and fifty pounds a year.
+
+This was a cause of fear and rejoicing to Mrs. Weston--fear, lest it
+should be a snare to George, as he would now have the whole of his
+salary at his own disposal, there being no longer any necessity for her
+to share it; rejoicing, that she should be able to give him that start
+in life which had always been the desire and ambition of Mr. Weston.
+
+A few months' trial of Mr. Brunton's plan for weaning George from the
+allurements of society in London, by taking a house in the country,
+proved it to be a failure. For the first month, George went down almost
+immediately after leaving business, but it was only for the first month.
+Gradually it became later and later, until the last train was generally
+the one by which he travelled. Then it sometimes occurred that he lost
+the last train, and was obliged to stay at an hotel in town for the
+night. At length, this occurred so frequently, that sometimes for three
+nights out of the week he never went home at all. On one of these
+occasions, a party of gentlemen in the commercial room of the hotel
+where he was staying proposed a game of cards, and asked George to make
+one at a rubber of whist. George had often played with his own friends,
+but never before with total strangers. However, without any hesitation,
+he accepted the invitation, and yielded to the proposition that they
+should play sixpenny points. The game proceeded, rubber after rubber was
+lost and won, and when George rose from the card-table at a late hour he
+was loser to the amount of thirty shillings.
+
+"There is no playing against good cards," said George; "and the run of
+luck has been in your favour to-night; but I will challenge you to
+another game to-morrow evening, if you will be here?"
+
+The next night George played again, and won back a pound of the money
+he had lost on the preceding evening. This was encouraging. "One more
+trial," said George to himself, "and nobody will catch me card-playing
+for money again with strangers." But that one more trial was the worst
+of all. George lost three pounds! He could ill afford it; as it was he
+was living at the very extent of his income, and three pounds was a
+large sum. He was obliged to give an I O U for the amount, and in the
+meantime borrow the sum from one of his friends.
+
+"Hardy, have you got three pounds to lend me?" he asked, next morning;
+"you shall have it again to-morrow."
+
+"I have not got that sum with me," said Hardy, "but I can get it for
+you. Is it pressing?"
+
+"Yes; I had a hand at cards last night, and lost."
+
+"What! with Ashton?"
+
+"No; with some strangers at the hotel where I have hung out for the last
+night or two."
+
+"You shall have that sum early this evening, George; and twice that
+amount, if you will make me one promise. I ask it as an old friend, who
+has a right to beg a favour. Give up card-playing, don't try to win back
+what you have lost; no good can possibly come of it"
+
+"Is Saul among the prophets?" asked George, with something like a
+sneer.
+
+"No, George Weston: but a looker-on at chess sees more of the game than
+the player; and I have been looking at your last few moves in the game
+of life, without taking part with you, and I see you will be checkmated
+soon, if you do not alter your tactics. I can't blame you, nor do I wish
+to, if I could; but when I first heard you had taken to card playing, I
+did feel myself among the prophets then, and prophesied no good would
+come of it."
+
+"When you first heard of my card playing?" asked George. "When did you
+hear of it?"
+
+"A few days since. My father came up from the country by a late train
+one night, and stayed at the hotel you patronize. There he saw you, and
+told me about it."
+
+"Confound it! a fellow can't do a thing, even in this great city,
+without somebody ferretting it out. But I don't mean to play again. I
+have made a fool of myself too many times already; and it serves me
+right that I have lost money."
+
+That evening, while George was making his way to the hotel, a lady was
+journeying towards the railway station. An hour later, she was at the
+house of Mrs. Weston, and was shown into the drawing-room.
+
+"I must apologise," said Mrs. Hardy, for it was she, "in calling upon
+you at this hour: but I am very anxious to have some conversation with
+you."
+
+"It is strange," said Mrs. Weston, "that as our sons have been intimate
+so long, we should have continued strangers; but I am very delighted to
+see you, Mrs. Hardy, for I have heard much of you."
+
+"It is with regard to the intercourse between your son and mine that I
+have called. I do not wish to alarm you; but I feel it right that you
+should be in possession of information I have of your son."
+
+Mrs. Hardy then narrated the circumstances connected with her husband's
+visit to the hotel on the evening when he found George there card
+playing.
+
+"This evening," she continued, "my son returned home earlier than usual,
+and went to his drawer, where I saw him take out some money--two or
+three sovereigns. I asked him what he was going to do with it, and after
+some difficulty I ascertained he intended lending it to your son. It
+occurred to me at once that George Weston was in trouble with those men;
+and I thought it only right that you should know."
+
+It was kind of Mrs. Hardy to shew this interest, and Mrs. Weston
+esteemed her for it. But had they stood beside the table at which George
+was seated while they were talking, or could they have seen the flush of
+excitement as he threw down the cards, exclaiming, "By Jove! I've lost
+again!" and have watched the flashing eye and heaving breast, they would
+have felt, even more keenly than they did, how futile were words or
+sympathies to check the evil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+A TEST OF FRIENDSHIP.
+
+
+We pass over two years of George Weston's life--years full of strange
+experiences--and look into the office in Falcon-court one morning in the
+summer of 18--.
+
+Mr. Compton is away on the Continent for a holiday tour, Mr. Sanders is
+still the manager, and nearly all the same old faces are in the office.
+George, who is now verging on the legal age of manhood, has risen to a
+good position in the establishment, and is regarded as second only to
+Mr. Sanders. He is wonderfully altered from when we saw him first in
+that office. He is still handsome; but the old sparkling lustre of his
+eye has gone, and no trace of boyishness is left.
+
+Hardy is still there. Two years have not made so much difference in him
+as George. He looks older than he really is; but there is no mistaking
+him for the quiet, gentlemanly Charles Hardy of former days. Lawson and
+Williams are there, coarse and bloated young men, whose faces tell the
+history of their lives. Hardy rarely exchanges a word with them. George
+does more frequently, but not with the air of superiority he once did.
+
+A close observer would have noticed in George that morning a careworn
+anxious look; would have heard an occasional sigh, and have seen him at
+one time turning pale, and again flushing with a crimson red.
+
+"You are not well," said Hardy. "You have not done a stroke of work all
+this morning; quite an unusual thing for you, George."
+
+"I am not well," he replied; "but it is nothing of importance. I shall
+get Mr. Sanders to let me off for an hour's stroll when he comes in from
+the Bank."
+
+Mr. Sanders came in from the Bank, but he was later than usual. His
+round generally occupied an hour; this morning he had been gone between
+two and three. George watched him anxiously as he took off his hat,
+rubbed his nose violently with his pocket handkerchief, and stood gazing
+into the fire, ejaculating every now and then, as was his custom if
+anything extraordinary or disagreeable had happened, "Ah! umph!"
+
+"The old boy has found out that the wind has veered to the northeast,
+or has stepped upon some orange peel," whispered Lawson to Williams, who
+saw that something had gone wrong with the manager.
+
+"Your proposed stroll will be knocked on the head," said Hardy to
+George. "Mr. Sanders is evidently in an ill humour."
+
+"I shall not trouble him about it," said George; "shirking work always
+worries him, and he seems to be worried enough as it is."
+
+When Mr. Sanders had gazed in the fire for half an hour, and had walked
+once or twice up and down the office, as his manner was on such
+occasions, he turned to George and said, "I want to speak with you in
+the next room."
+
+"I wish you a benefit, Weston," said Williams as he passed. "Recommend
+him a day or two in the country, for the good of his health and our
+happiness."
+
+"Mr. Weston," said the manager, when George had shut the door and seated
+himself, "I am in great difficulties. This event has happened at a most
+unfortunate time, Mr. Compton is away, and I don't know how to act for
+the best. Will you give me your assistance in the matter?"
+
+"Cannot you make the accounts right, sir?" asked George. "I thought you
+had satisfactorily arranged them last night."
+
+"No, Weston; I have been through them over and over again, but I cannot
+get any nearer to a balance. I have been round to the Bank this morning
+again, and have seen Mr. Smith about it, but he cannot assist me.
+However, inquiries will be made this afternoon, and all our accounts
+carefully checked and examined; in the meantime, I wish you would have
+out the books and go through them for me. Hardy can assist you, if you
+like."
+
+"I will do all I can for you, to make this matter right," said George;
+"but I can do it better alone. If you will give Hardy the job I was
+about, I will check the books here by myself."
+
+All that afternoon George sat alone in Mr. Compton's room surrounded
+with books and papers. But he did not examine them. Resting his head
+upon his hands, he looked upon them and sighed. Now the perspiration
+stood in big drops upon his forehead and his hands trembled. Then he
+would walk up and down the room, halting to take deep draughts of water
+from a bottle on the table.
+
+Mr. Sanders occasionally looked in to ask how he was going on, and if he
+had discovered the error.
+
+"No," said George; "the accounts seem right; but I cannot make them
+agree with the cash-book. There is still a hundred pounds short; but I
+will go through them again if you like."
+
+"Perhaps you had better. I expect Mr. Smith here by six o'clock; will
+you remain with me and see him? He may assist us."
+
+"Certainly," said George; "I feel as anxious as you do about the matter,
+for all the bills and cheques have passed through my hands as well as
+yours; and I shall not rest easy until the missing amount is
+discovered."
+
+Mr. Smith arrived just as the clerks were leaving the office, and Mr.
+Sanders and George were alone with him.
+
+"Well," said Mr. Smith, "we have gone carefully over every item to-day,
+and at last the defalcation is seen. This cheque," he continued,
+producing the document, "is forged. The signature is unquestionably Mr.
+Compton's, but the rest of the writing is counterfeit."
+
+"A forged cheque!" exclaimed Mr. Sanders, aghast; "impossible!"
+
+"There must be some mistake here," said George, "the accounts in our
+books, if I recollect rightly, correspond with the cheques; but--"
+
+"It is a clumsily arranged affair, although the forgery is a
+masterpiece of penmanship," said Mr. Smith; "and if it passes first
+through your office, and is entered in your books with the false amount,
+it is clear that some one in your employ has committed the offence. I
+leave the matter now with you for the present," he added, to Mr.
+Sanders; "of course you will put the case at once into the proper medium
+and find out the offender."
+
+When Mr. Smith had gone, George sat down again in the seat he had
+occupied during that long afternoon, pale and exhausted.
+
+"This is a lamentable business," said Mr. Sanders, pacing the room, "a
+lamentable business, indeed! I confess I am completely baffled. Mr.
+Weston, I look to you for assistance. Can you form any idea how this
+matter has come about? Have you suspicion of any of the clerks?"
+
+"I am equally at a loss with you how to manage in this case. I have no
+reason to doubt the integrity of any one in this office. Except one,"
+said George, as if a sudden idea had come to his mind. "Yes, I have a
+suspicion of one; but I cannot tell even you who it is, until I have
+made inquiries sufficient to warrant the suspicion. Can you let the
+affair rest over to-night, and in the meantime I will do what I can, and
+confer with you in the morning."
+
+"That seems the only plan," answered Mr. Sanders. "If I can render any
+assistance in making these inquiries, I will."
+
+"No, thank you, you will have trouble enough in the matter as it is; and
+I can do what I have to do better alone."
+
+Half an hour after this conversation, a cab was travelling at the utmost
+speed along the Clapham road. It stopped at the house of Harry Ashton,
+and George alighted.
+
+"Ashton," said he, "I want to speak to you for two minutes. I have got
+into trouble; don't ask me how, or in what way. Unless I can borrow a
+hundred pounds to-night, I am ruined. Can you get it for me?"
+
+"My dear George, sit down and calm yourself, and we will talk the matter
+over," said Ashton. "It strikes me you are up to some joke, or you would
+never suppose that I, an assistant surveyor with a present limited
+income, could fork out a hundred pounds down as a hammer.
+
+"I am not joking. I dare not explain more. I require your confidence for
+what I have already said; but I know you have money, and moneyed
+friends. Can you get it for me anyhow, from anywhere?"
+
+"No, I cannot, and that's plump," answered Ashton; "it is the end of the
+quarter, and I have not more than ten pounds in my pocket You are
+welcome to that, if it is any good; but I cannot go into the country to
+my father's to-night, that is very certain; and if I could, he would not
+advance so much without knowing exactly what it was for; nor should I
+care to lend that sum, even to you, George, unless I knew what you were
+going to do with it, and when I should see it back. If it is so
+pressing, you might have my ten, ten more from Dixon, and I could get a
+pound or two from other sources."
+
+"No, that would take too long, and I have but an hour or two to make the
+arrangements." As he spoke, George fell into a chair, and buried his
+face in his hands.
+
+"What, George, my old pippin, what is the matter?" said Ashton, going to
+him. "You have lost at cards again, I suppose: but take heart, man,
+never get out of pluck for such a thing as that. But you are ill, I know
+you are, you are as white as a sheet. Here, take tins glass of brandy."
+
+"I only feel faint." said George, rising. "I shall be all right when I
+get out into the open air. Good-bye, Ashton, my old school-chum, we
+shall never meet again after to-night; but I shan't forget our happy
+days together--I mean the days at Dr. Seaward's--they were the happy
+ones, after all."
+
+"George, you are ill, and your brain is touched. Not meet again after
+to-night? Nonsense, we don't part so easily, if that is the case;" and
+Ashton locked the door, and put the key in his pocket.
+
+"Unfasten that door!" almost shouted George; "you do not know my
+strength at this moment, and I might do you some harm; but I should not
+like to part with my oldest friend like that. Open the door!"
+
+"Not a bit of it," answered Ashton. "Tell me more particulars, and I
+will try what I can do in getting the money."
+
+"No; you have told me you cannot. I have one more chance elsewhere; let
+me try that. Ashton, do not be a fool; open that door, and let me go."
+
+"Then I will go with you," answered Ashton; and he unlocked the door.
+But while he turned to get his hat, George rushed from the room, opened
+the hall-door, and, closing it again upon Ashton, jumped into the cab
+awaiting him, and giving the word, "Islington, quick!" drove off,
+leaving his friend in the road, running after the vehicle, and calling
+upon the driver to stop.
+
+"Don't mind him," George called to the man; "an extra five shillings for
+driving quickly."
+
+Ashton was at his wit's end. He ran on, till he could run no longer.
+Just then, an empty cab passing, he hailed the driver.
+
+"Drive after that cab in front," said Ashton, as he got in; "follow it
+wherever it goes. Sharp's the word, man!"
+
+It was a long time before the traffic in the roads allowed Ashton's cab
+to overtake the one ahead; but both came up nearly abreast in the
+Waterloo road, and then the one he was pursuing turned abruptly towards
+the railway station.
+
+"Ah! George, my old fellow," said Ashton to himself, "you little think I
+have been so closely on your scent; but I knew I had not seen the last
+of you."
+
+Both cabs drew up at the station steps together. Ashton jumped out, and
+ran to meet George; but blank was his astonishment to see an oldish lady
+and her attendant alight from the vehicle, which he had imagined
+contained his friend!
+
+We will leave Ashton at the Waterloo station in a mortified and
+disconsolate state, quarrelling with the driver for having pursued the
+wrong cab, and follow George Weston to Islington.
+
+"Hardy," he said, as soon as he found himself alone with his friend,
+"are you willing to help me, to save me, perhaps, from ruin? I want to
+raise a hundred pounds to-night. I must have it. Do you think you can get
+it for me?"
+
+"Me get a hundred pounds? Why, George, my friend, you know the thing is
+a clear impossibility. I could not get it, if it were to save my own
+life. But why is it so urgent?" he asked.
+
+"You will know in a day or two. I have now one resource left, and only
+one. Will you go to-night to my uncle, Mr. Brunton. Tell him that I want
+to save a friend from ruin, and want to borrow a hundred and fifty
+pounds, which shall be faithfully repaid. Do not give him to understand
+I want it for myself, but that it is for a friend dear to him and to me.
+Use every argument you can, and above everything persuade him not to
+make any inquiries about it at present. Say I shall have to take part of
+it into the country to-morrow morning, and I will see him or write to him
+in the evening. Say anything you like, so that you can get the money
+for me, and prevent him coming to the office to-morrow morning."
+
+"George, I am afraid you have got into some bad business again," said
+Hardy. "You know I am willing to help you; but I cannot do so, if it is
+to encourage you in getting yourself into still greater trouble."
+
+"This is the last time, Hardy, I shall ever ask a favour of you. Do
+assist me; you cannot guess the consequences if you do not."
+
+"Then tell me, George, what it is that is upsetting you. I never saw you
+look so wild and excited before. You can confide in me, old fellow; we
+have always kept each other's counsel."
+
+"To-morrow you shall know all. Now, do start off at once, and see what
+you can do. If you cannot bring all the money, bring what you can. Put
+the case urgently to my uncle; he cannot refuse me. I will be here again
+in about three hours' time; it will not take you longer than that."
+
+Hardy took a cab, and drove off at once. George remained in the street;
+he paced up and down, and took no rest--he was far too excited and
+nervous for that. He had got a dangerous game to play, and his plans
+were vague and shadowy. He had promised Mr. Sanders he would make
+inquiries about the person he suspected had forged the cheque, and let
+him know in the morning. His plan was to try and raise the money, pay it
+to Mr. Sanders on account of the transgressor, and induce him to take no
+further steps until Mr. Compton returned home. On no other ground would
+he refund the money on behalf of the forger; and unless Mr. Sanders
+would agree to these terms, George was determined the matter might take
+its own way, and be placed in the hands of the magistrates or police.
+
+The hours seemed like days to George while Hardy was on his mission. At
+length he returned.
+
+"What success?" asked George running to meet him as soon as he came in
+view.
+
+"Your uncle is in a terrible state of alarm on your account," replied
+Hardy, "and I fear he will be at the office some time to-morrow, although
+I tried to persuade him not to do so, because it was no matter in which
+you were so deeply interested as he supposed. But he cannot lend you the
+money, nor can he get the amount you want until to-morrow afternoon.
+However he had fifty pounds with him, and he has sent that."
+
+George took it eagerly. "My plan must fail," he said to Hardy; "but it
+would only have been a question of time after all. Hardy, you will hear
+strange reports of me after to-morrow; do not believe them all; remember
+your old friend as you once knew him, not as report speaks of him.
+Good-night, old fellow, you have been a good friend to me. I wish we
+could have parted differently."
+
+"Parted!" ejaculated Hardy; "what do you mean? where are you going?"
+
+"I cannot tell, but I shall see you at the office to-morrow morning as
+usual; I will tell you more then. Do not say a word to anybody about
+what has occurred to-night. I know I may trust you; may I not?"
+
+"Yes, always," answered Hardy; "but I wish you would trust me a little
+more, and let me share this trouble with you. We have been old friends
+now for years, George; shared ups and downs, and joys and sorrows
+together; been brothers in everything which concerned each other's
+welfare: and now you are distressed, why not relieve yourself by letting
+me bear part of it with you? Recollect our old and earliest days of
+friendship, and show that they are still dear to you, as they are to me,
+by telling me what has gone wrong with you, and how I can serve or
+soothe you in the emergency."
+
+George could not bear this last touch of kindness. Had Hardy reproached
+him for having acted foolishly, or warned him from getting into future
+trouble; had he even accused him of having sought to lead others astray,
+besides wandering in downward paths himself, George could have listened
+calmly and unmoved! but this out-going of his friend's heart overcame
+him, and he burst into tears.
+
+"Good night, Hardy," he said, wringing his friend's hand. "If a prayer
+may come from my lips, so long unused to prayer, I say God bless you,
+and preserve you from such a lot as mine." George could not utter
+another word; he could only shake hands again, and then hurried away to
+the hotel where he sometimes slept.
+
+It was past midnight when he arrived there. Calling for some spirits and
+water, and writing materials, he seated himself dejectedly at a table
+and wrote. The first letter ran as follows:--
+
+    "MY DEAREST MOTHER,
+
+    "I have some painful news to tell you--so painful that I would rather
+    you should have received intelligence of my death, than that which
+    this letter contains. I know you will not judge me harshly, dear
+    mother; I know you will stretch out to me your forgiveness, and
+    still pray for me that I may receive pardon from _your_ heavenly
+    Father--would I could say _mine_.
+
+    "Step by step I have been going wrong, as you know--as I might have
+    known--and now I have sunk to the lowest depths, from which I shall
+    never rise again. Mother, I know the sorrow you will feel when you
+    hear what has happened. I grieve more for you than I do for myself;
+    I would give all the world, if I had it, to save your heart the
+    misery which awaits it, from the conduct of a worthless, rebellious
+    son.
+
+    "I cannot bear to see that sorrow. My heart seems nearly broken as
+    it is, and it would quite break if I were to see you suffering as
+    you will suffer.
+
+    "I could not bear to see again any whom I have known under other
+    circumstances. I could not bear to be taunted with all the
+    remembrances of the past. Dear mother, I have resolved to leave
+    you--leave London--perhaps leave England. I _may_ never see you
+    again; it is better for you that I never should.
+
+    "My tears blind me as I write; if tears could cleanse the past, my
+    guilt would be soon removed. God bless you, dearest mother! I will
+    write to you again; and some day, after I have been into new scenes,
+    started anew in life, and won back again the character I have
+    lost--then, perhaps, I may once more see you again.
+
+    "Uncle Brunton will tell you more. He will comfort you; he must be
+    husband, brother, and son to you now.
+
+    "God bless you, my dearest mother! I have so wronged you, have been
+    such a continual trouble to you, instead of the comfort poor father
+    thought I should have been, and so unworthy of your love, that I
+    hardly dare hope you will forgive and forget the past, and still
+    pray for
+
+    "Your erring Son--
+
+    "GEORGE WESTON."
+
+George then wrote two letters to Mr. Brunton. In one of them he thanked
+him for all his care and kindness, passionately regretted the causes of
+anxiety he had given him, and the disgrace which now attached to his
+name. In the other, he begged the loan of the £50 sent to him through
+Hardy, which, he said, he hoped to pay back in a few years. He also
+requested that Mr. Brunton would arrange all his accounts, and pay them
+either from his mother's income, or by advancing the money as a loan.
+
+When the morning dawned, it found George still writing. As the clock
+struck seven, he packed up what few things he had with him, paid his
+hotel bill, and drove off to Falcon-court. He was there by eight
+o'clock, before any of the clerks had arrived.
+
+"Have the letters come?" he asked the housekeeper.
+
+"Yes, sir, they are in Mr. Compton's room," was the answer.
+
+George hastened into the room, looked through the packet, and alighting
+upon a letter with a foreign post-mark addressed to Mr. Sanders in Mr.
+Compton's handwriting, he broke the seal. The note was short, merely
+saying that he had arrived in Paris, on his way home, and expected to be
+back in a day or two; therefore any communications must be forwarded at
+once, or he would have left Paris.
+
+George went direct to the Electric Telegraph Office. A form was handed
+to him, on which the message he desired to send must be written, and he
+filled it up thus:--
+
+    "_From Mr. Sanders to Mr. Compton_.
+
+    "Come back at once. A cheque has been forged in your name for
+    _£100._ George Weston is the forger. It is a clear and aggravated
+    case. Shall he be arrested? Will you prosecute? Answer at once."
+
+In an incredibly short space of time an answer was returned. George was
+at the Telegraph Office to receive it.
+
+    "_From Mr. Compton to Mr. Sanders._
+
+    "I will return to-morrow. Take no steps in the matter; let it be
+    kept silent, I am deeply grieved, but I will not prosecute under any
+    circumstances."
+
+"Well, Mr. Weston," said Mr. Sanders, when George entered the office,"
+I expected you would have been here before; but I suppose you have had
+some difficulty in your investigations?"
+
+"I have had difficulty," George answered. "I have been endeavouring to
+borrow a hundred pounds to pay the deficiency, and then I would have
+screened the forger; but my plan has failed, and it is better that it
+should, because the innocent would have been sure to have suffered for
+the guilty. I am now bound to tell you the name of the criminal upon his
+own confession."
+
+"Who is it? who is it?" asked Mr. Sanders, eagerly.
+
+"I--George Weston," he answered. "No matter how I did it, or why; I
+alone am guilty."
+
+Mr. Sanders caught hold of the back of a chair for support. His hands
+trembled, and his voice failed him.
+
+"It is a shock to you, sir," said George; "and it will be a shock to Mr.
+Compton. Give him this letter when he comes home, it will explain the
+circumstances to him. I deeply regret that I should have caused you so
+much anxiety as I have during the past week, while this inquiry has been
+pending. I knew the truth must come out sooner or later--but I would
+rather you should know it from me; crushed and ruined as I am, I have no
+hope that you will look with any other feelings than those of abhorrence
+on me, but you do not know the heavy punishment I have already suffered,
+or you would feel for me."
+
+"Are you aware, George Weston, that there is a yet heavier punishment,
+and that, as Mr. Compton's representative, I shall feel it my painful
+duty to--"
+
+"No, sir; here is Mr. Compton's opinion upon the case," said George,
+handing the telegraphic message to Mr. Sanders, who listened with
+astonishment as he explained the circumstances. "But should Mr. Compton,
+upon a careful examination into the case, wish to prosecute," he
+continued, "I will appear whenever and wherever he pleases. And now, Mr.
+Sanders, I leave this office, ruined and disgraced, the result of my own
+folly and sin."
+
+George spoke hoarsely, and his face was pale as Death. Mr. Sanders was
+moved; and put out his hand to shake hands with him, and say good-bye,
+but George held his back.
+
+"Remember, sir, you are an honest man; you cannot shake hands with me,"
+said George.
+
+"Weston, I am not your judge; there is One who will judge not only this
+act, but all the acts that have led to it," said Mr. Sanders, solemnly.
+"I have had more interest and greater hopes in you than in any young man
+who ever came into this office; and I feel more sorrow now, on your
+account, than I can put into words. Do not let this great and disastrous
+fall sink you into lower depths of sin. If you have forfeited man's
+respect and esteem, there is a God with whom there is mercy and
+forgiveness. Seek Him, and may He bless you! Good-bye, George Weston,"
+and the manager, with tears in his eyes, wrung the cold, trembling hand
+that was stretched out to his.
+
+George took up his carpet-bag, which he had brought from the hotel, and
+was about to leave, but he paused a moment.
+
+"Will you send Hardy in here?" he asked Mr. Sanders. "I must have a word
+with him before I go."
+
+Hardy had been expecting all the morning to have some explanation from
+George, and had been uneasy at his absence. When he went into Mr.
+Compton's room he was surprised to see George, with his bag in his hand,
+ready to make a departure.
+
+"Hardy," said George, "I told you last night I should soon have to bid
+you good-bye, and now the time has arrived. I am going away from the
+office, and perhaps from England, but I cannot tell you where I am
+going. I leave in disgrace; my once good name is now blighted and
+withered; my old friends will look upon me with abhorrence."
+
+"No, George, I am one of your old friends; I never shall," interrupted
+Hardy. "I do not know what you have done, nor do I wish to know, but I
+cannot believe your heart and disposition are changed, or will ever
+change so much as to make me regard you in any other light than that of
+a dear and valued friend. But where are you going, George? Do tell me
+that."
+
+"No, Hardy, I cannot. I am going away, God only knows where; it may be
+abroad, it may not. I am going somewhere where I shall not be known, and
+where I can try to work back for myself a character and a good name,
+which I can never redeem in London. Some day I may let you know where I
+am."
+
+"But, George, does your mother know where you are going?"
+
+"No," said George, and his voice was tremulous as he spoke. "No; I have
+no mother now. I am too fallen to claim relationship with one so good
+and noble and holy as my mother is."
+
+"Oh, George, give up this wild scheme! Have you thought that you are
+going the most direct way to break your mother's heart, and to make her
+life, as well as your own, blank, solitary, and miserable? Whatever
+wrong you have done, do not add to it by breaking that commandment which
+bids us honour our parents. Your mother has claims upon you which you
+have no right to disregard in this way."
+
+"I have thought it all well over, Hardy. I believe it is for her good
+as well as for mine that our paths should run differently, but I cannot
+explain all now. I am in dread lest my uncle should call here before I
+get away. Hardy, good-bye, old fellow."
+
+"No, I cannot say good-bye yet. George, give me your address; promise to
+let me see you again, and I will promise to keep your secret sacredly."
+
+"I do not know where I am going; I have no fixed plan; but I do promise
+to write to you, Hardy."
+
+"And now, George, make me one other promise. If you are in difficulties,
+and I can assist you, or do anything for you in any way, at any time,
+you will let me know--remember I shall always be Charles Hardy to you,
+and you will always be George Weston to me. Do you agree?"
+
+"Yes, Hardy, I agree. I cannot thank you. I cannot say what I would, or
+tell you what I feel. May you be blessed and be happy, and never know
+what it is to have a heavy, broken heart like mine. And now one promise
+from you. Go and see my mother; try and comfort her; tell her how I
+grieve to part from her."
+
+George could not continue; the nervous twitching of his face showed the
+struggle within, and it was a relief when the hot tears broke through
+and coursed down his cheek. Hardy was greatly affected. He loved George
+with an intensity of love like that which knit together the soul of
+Jonathan and David; he had been to him more than a brother ever since
+they had been acquainted; in hours of business and recreation, in joys
+and sorrows, in plans and aims, they had been one; and now the tie was
+to be severed, and severed under such sad circumstances.
+
+There is a solemnity about sorrow which speech desecrates. Not another
+word was spoken by either--both hearts were too full for that; but as
+the tears ran thickly down their cheeks, they grasped each other's hand,
+and then, fairly sobbing, George hurried from the office.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+IN EXILE.
+
+
+George went direct from the office to the railway station, and took a
+ticket to Plymouth. He had but a short time to wait before the train
+left, and bore him away. The green fields and smiling country were
+nothing to him; he felt no pleasure in seeing the merry, happy children
+playing in the lanes, as the train whizzed past. The greetings of
+friends on the platforms at the different stations only made him sigh.
+Who would greet him on his journeys? Tired and worn out with sleepless
+nights and anxious days, he tried to doze, but the attempt was vain. He
+feared lest some one might have tracked his steps to the station, and
+have telegraphed for him to be stopped at the terminus. Then, when he
+had thought and pondered over such probabilities as these, and
+endeavoured to dismiss them, he tried to form some plans for the future;
+but all the future was dark--no ray of light, however faint or distant,
+could be seen, and every plan he would make must be left to
+circumstances. When the passengers alighted at one of the stations to
+take refreshments, George got out too, for the purpose of breaking his
+long fast. He tried to eat a biscuit, but he could not get it down,--all
+appetite was gone; so, drinking a glass of ale, he wandered to the book
+stall, and purchased a newspaper to read during the remainder of the
+journey. The train started off again, and George settled himself to
+read. The first thing that met his eye was an account of the assizes,
+and the first case was headed, "Forgery by a Banker's Clerk." This
+brought back to remembrance, more vividly than ever, the sad scenes of
+the past few days; he threw the paper out of the window, and abandoned
+himself to thought.
+
+At last the train arrived at Plymouth. George hastened on to the
+platform, and walked rapidly into the town, fearing lest any one should
+recognize him, or lest any official should wish to detain him. With his
+bag in hand, he wandered through the streets, uncertain what to do or
+where to go. Presently he came to a small house, in an obscure street,
+with a placard in the window stating that apartments were to let. He
+knocked, and was answered by the landlady, a respectable looking woman,
+who told him that she had a bedroom and sitting-room to let, and would
+accommodate him on reasonable terms. George said he should not require
+the room more than a few days, or a week, as he was about to leave by
+one of the vessels in the port. The terms were arranged, and he at once
+took possession. As it was very late, he thought he would go to bed
+without delay.
+
+"Will you not have some supper first?" asked the landlady.
+
+"No, thank you," said George: "I am tired with my journey, and shall be
+glad to get to sleep as soon as I can."
+
+"But, sir, you really look ill," persisted the landlady, who was a kind,
+motherly woman; "will you let me make you a little spirits and water?"
+
+"I will not refuse that," said George, "for I do feel ill. Parting with
+friends and relatives is at all times a disagreeable matter, and I have
+bidden good-bye to them in London to-day, rather than bring them down
+here."
+
+"Ah, sir! parting is a sad thing," answered the woman. "It is two years
+since my son went to sea; he was much about your age, sir, and he went
+away against my wish, and I have never seen or heard from him since. He
+has nearly broken my heart, poor boy, and left me all alone in this
+wide, hard world."
+
+George was glad to have some one to talk to, but he was distressed by
+this narration of his landlady. If she mourned for her son, who had been
+absent for two years, how would his mother mourn?
+
+George passed a restless, anxious night; when he dozed off to sleep, it
+was only to be tormented with harrowing dreams, in which he fancied
+himself at one time standing before a judge in a court of justice,
+answering to the crime of forgery. At another, gazing upon a funeral
+procession moving slowly and solemnly along, with his Uncle Brunton
+following as sole mourner. Then he would start up, half with joy and
+half with sorrow, as he fancied he heard voices like those of his mother
+and uncle calling to him from the street. His head ached, and his heart
+was heavy. He felt thankful when the morning dawned, and it was time to
+rise. He bathed his hot, feverish head in water, and dressed; but as he
+passed by the looking-glass and caught a glance at his pale, haggard
+countenance, so changed within a few short hours, he started.
+
+"Oh, God! give me strength! give me strength!" he said. "If I should be
+ill, if anything should happen to me, what should I do? I am all alone;
+there is no one to care for me now!" And he sank down in a chair,
+burying his face in his hands as if to hide the picture his mind had
+drawn.
+
+After breakfast, he strolled to the docks, looked over some of the
+vessels, and made inquiries about the shipping offices. He learned that
+a ship was about to sail immediately to Port Natal, and that all
+information could be obtained of the agents. Thither George repaired;
+the agent gave him an exaggerated account of the signal prosperity which
+all enterprising young men met with in Natal, praised Pietermaritzburg,
+the capital of the colony, and offered to give him letters of
+introduction to residents there, who would advise him as to the best
+ways of making a comfortable living. The agent then took him down to the
+vessel, told him that he must take a passage at once, if he wished to
+leave by her, as she would sail in two or three days at the latest. It
+was a matter of comparative indifference to George where he went--the
+large, lonely world was before him, and Port Natal might make him as
+good a home as anywhere else. George went back with the agent to the
+office, and paid a deposit of fifteen pounds on the passage money.
+
+"What is your name, sir?" asked the agent, with pen in hand, ready to
+make the entry.
+
+George coloured as he answered, "Frederick Vincent."
+
+"Then, Mr. Vincent, you will be on board not later than nine o'clock on
+Tuesday morning; the vessel will go out of harbour by twelve. You can
+come on board as much earlier as you like, but I have named the latest
+time. You had better send your luggage down on Monday."
+
+"Luggage?" said George. "Oh, yes! that shall be sent in time."
+
+As George returned to his lodgings, he felt even more wretched than when
+he started out It was Wednesday morning, and the vessel would not leave
+till the following Tuesday. The excitement of choosing a vessel was
+over; there was now only the anxiety and suspense of waiting its
+departure. True, he had his outfit to purchase, but this would have to
+be done furtively; he could not bear to be walking in the streets in
+broad daylight, noticed by passers-by, every one of whom he fancied knew
+his whole history, and was plotting either to prevent his departure, or
+to reveal his secret.
+
+Mrs. Murdoch (that was the name of his landlady) endeavoured to make him
+as comfortable as possible in his apartments; but external comfort was
+nothing to George--he wanted some word of love, some one to talk to, as
+in days of old. He avoided conversation as much as possible with Mrs.
+Murdoch, for she would talk of her absent son, and every word went as an
+arrow to George's heart.
+
+That first day seemed a week. Hour after hour dragged wearily along, and
+when six o'clock in the evening came, George thought all time must have
+received some disarrangement, for it seemed as if days had elapsed since
+the morning. He went out after dark to a neighbouring shop and made some
+purchases of outfit; but he was thankful when he had completed his task,
+for he had noticed a man walking backwards and forwards in front of the
+shop, and he felt a nervous dread lest it should be some spy upon him.
+He resolved that he would remain in his rooms, and not go out again
+until he left for the voyage on Tuesday, but would ask Mrs. Murdoch to
+make the remainder of the necessary purchases for him.
+
+How lonely and desolate George felt that night! More than once he half
+determined rather to bear shame and reproach, and have the society of
+those he loved, than continue in that dreadful isolation. He was
+thoroughly unmanned. "Oh, that Hardy or Ashton were here, or any friend,
+just to say, 'George Weston, old fellow,' once more; what a weight of
+dreariness it would remove!" Then he would wonder what was going on at
+home, whether his mother was plunged in grief, or whether she was
+saying, "He has brought it all on himself, let him bear it." But George
+could not reconcile this last thought; he tried hard to cherish it; he
+felt he would infinitely rather know his mother was filled with anger
+and abhorrence at his crime, than that she mourned for him, and longed
+to press him to her bosom and bind up the wounded heart. But he could
+not shake off this last idea. It haunted him every moment, and added to
+the weight of sorrow which seemed crushing him.
+
+Thursday, Friday, and Saturday passed, and George was still the victim
+to anxiety and corroding care. He had paced his room each day, and
+tossed restlessly in his bed each night; had tried reading and writing,
+to while away the time, and had found every attempt futile.
+
+Mrs. Murdoch was anxious on his account.
+
+"Mr. Vincent," she said to him, "you eat nothing, you take no exercise;
+you don't sleep at night, for I can hear you, from my room, tossing
+about; and I am doctor enough to know that you are ill, and will be
+worse, if you do not make some alteration. Do be persuaded by me, and
+take some little recreation, or else you will not be in a fit state to
+go on board on Tuesday."
+
+"You are very kind, Mrs. Murdoch," replied George, "but I have no bodily
+ailment. If I could get a change of thought, that is the best physic for
+a mind diseased."
+
+"It is, sir," replied the landlady; "and now will you think me rude if I
+tell you how you may have that change of thought? You are about to start
+on a very dangerous voyage; for long months you will have the sky above
+and the sea below, and only a few planks between you and death. Have
+you, sir, committed your way to the Lord, and placed your life in His
+hands? I know it is a strange thing to ask you, but I hope you will not
+be offended. You have seemed so sad for the past day or two, that I
+could not help feeling you wanted comfort, and none can give it but the
+Heavenly Friend."
+
+"I do want comfort and support, Mrs. Murdoch, but--"
+
+"No, sir, there is no _but_ in the case. 'Come onto Me, all ye that are
+weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest'--is said to all; and
+we only have to go to Him to find all we want."
+
+"Well, Mrs. Murdoch, I will see if I cannot combine both your
+suggestions; and as to-morrow will be Sunday, it will be a recreation to
+go to some church or chapel. Can you recommend me a good preacher?"
+
+"Yes, sir, that I can. If you will go to my pew at chapel to-morrow
+morning, I am sure you will like the gentleman who preaches there."
+
+"Then I will go," said George.
+
+When he went up to his room again, those few words of Mrs. Murdoch were
+still speaking to him.
+
+"'Weary and heavy laden!' he thought; surely that is my lot. I so young,
+once so happy, to feel weary and heavy laden; how strange! But no, it is
+not strange--it is natural. Sin brings its punishment, and it is hard
+work, bearing its burden! oh! that I could find some spot where I could
+rest."
+
+There was a spot, not far from George, where he could have rested, but
+he did not know it. He was oppressed with his weariness, and he longed
+for peace and ease of mind to come to him. He did not consider the
+words, "Come unto ME."
+
+There was an old Family Bible on the book-case in his room, and George
+took it down. It was a long time since he had read the Word of God: and
+when he had it was only to compare it with the dangerous opinions he had
+received, and find out what he imagined to be its discrepancies and
+contradictions. A feeling of remorse came over him as he put the book on
+the table.
+
+"What right have I to open this book, or attempt to find anything here
+for encouragement?" he asked himself. "I have mocked and ridiculed it in
+days of prosperity, and yet I am willing to take it up in trouble, as if
+it were an old friend. Ah! it was an old friend once, but that has all
+gone by now."
+
+He sat a long time looking at the book. Perhaps there is nothing that
+brings back the memories of the past more vividly than the sight of a
+Family Bible to one who has long ceased to read and love it. There are
+old scenes of childhood associated with it which time can never erase.
+Who cannot remember sitting on his mother's knee, or with chair drawn up
+beside his father, hearing its sweet music sounded in the home circle on
+the Sabbath night? Who can forget the last evening of the holidays
+before going back to school, when the old book was brought out, and some
+useful text was selected as a monitor and remembrancer? Who can forget
+the time when some loved one was ill, and as friends and relatives sat
+round the bed of the invalid, the Book was laid upon the table, and
+words of comfort were proclaimed to all.
+
+Many and many a scene moved past George in the mental panorama which the
+sight of Mrs. Murdoch's book created. He seemed not to be remembering,
+but to be living in the former days. There was his father seated in the
+old arm-chair, with Carlo, the faithful dog at his feet, and his elbows
+rented upon the table, and his head upon his hand--a favourite
+attitude--as he read the Sacred Word. There was dear old Dr. Seaward,
+with his spectacles stuck up on his forehead, in his study at
+Folkestone, and a party of boys round him, listening eagerly to the
+words of instruction and advice which fell from his lips.
+
+And then the past merged into the present, and George started to find
+himself alone in a strange room, in a strange town, with a strange Bible
+before him.
+
+He opened the Book and read. The fifty-first Psalm was the portion of
+Scripture to which he inadvertently turned, commencing, "Have mercy upon
+me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness; according unto the
+multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions."
+
+He read the Psalm through in amazement. Again he read it, with
+increased wonder and astonishment, that any one should have made a
+prayer so exactly like that which he felt in his heart he wanted to
+pray; and at last he went to the door and locked it, for fear of
+interruption, took the Bible from the table and placed it on a chair,
+and kneeling down read the prayer again; and repeating it aloud,
+sentence by sentence, offered it up as his petition to the throne of
+Mercy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On Sunday morning, when the bells were ringing their glad peals, and the
+people were already in the streets, on their way to the different places
+of worship, George started off, directed by Mrs. Murdoch, to the chapel
+of which she had spoken to him.
+
+He felt very sad as he walked along; it was the last Sunday, perhaps, he
+should ever spend in England, and he must spend it alone, an alien from
+all whom he loved. The temporary calm which he had experienced on the
+previous evening had gone; no prayer for assistance through the day had
+issued from his lips that morning, but there was the old feeling of
+shame, and chagrin, and disgrace, which had haunted him for the past
+week, and with it the dogged determination to bear up against it until
+it should be lost in forgetfulness. But George had resolved to go to
+chapel that morning, because he felt he wanted a change of some sort,
+and there was a melancholy pleasure in spending a part of his last
+Sunday in England after his once customary manner.
+
+The preacher was an old gentleman, of a mild, benevolent countenance,
+and with a winning, persuasive manner. When he gave out the first hymn,
+reading it solemnly and impressively, George felt he should have
+pleasure in listening to the sermon. The congregation joined in the hymn
+of praise, with heart and voice lifted up to the God of the Sabbath in
+thanksgiving. The singing was rich and good, and George, who was a
+passionate lover of music, was touched by its sweet harmony. He did not
+join in the hymn, his heart was too full for that; but the strains were
+soothing, and produced a natural, reverential emotion which he had been
+long unaccustomed to feel.
+
+The minister took for his text the words, "'Lord, if thou wilt, thou
+canst make me clean.' And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him,
+saying, 'I will, be thou clean.'"
+
+A rush of joy thrilled through George as he heard the words. His
+attention was rivetted as he listened to the simple story of the leper
+being restored to health; and when the preacher drew the comparison
+between leprosy and sin, and revealed Jesus as the Great Physician to
+the sick soul, who, in reply to the heartfelt wish, could say, "Thy
+sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee," George felt the whole
+strength of his soul concentrated in that one desire, "Lord, if thou
+wilt, thou canst make _me_ clean." He looked into his own heart--he was
+almost afraid to look--and saw the ravages of disease there. He thought
+of his past life; there was not one thing to recommend him to God.
+NEVER before had he seen his sin in the light in which it was now
+revealed by God's Word. He had viewed it in relation to man's opinion,
+and his own consciousness; but now the Holy Spirit was striving within
+him, and showing him his position in the sight of God.
+
+The preacher went on to unfold the sweet story of the Cross, to tell of
+the simple plan of salvation, and to point to Jesus, the Lamb of God,
+"who taketh away the sins of the world." It seemed to George as if he
+had never heard the glad tidings before; it had never made the hot tear
+run down his cheek, as he thought of the Saviour suffering for sins not
+His own, until now; it had never before torn the agonised sigh from his
+heart, as the truth flashed before him that it was he who had helped to
+nail the Holy One to the accursed tree; he had never realised before
+that earth was but the portal to the heavenly mansions--that time was
+but the herald of eternity. Now, all these things came crowding upon his
+mind, and when the sermon concluded he was in a bewilderment of joy and
+sorrow.
+
+A parting hymn was sung--that glorious old hymn--
+
+     "There is a fountain filled with blood,
+         Drawn from Emmanuel's veins."
+
+When it came to those lines--
+
+     "The dying _thief_ rejoiced to see
+         That fountain in his day;
+     And there may I, though vile as he,
+         Wash all my sins away:"
+
+he could bear it no longer: he could not restrain the torrent of tears
+which was struggling to get free; he could not stay in that assembly of
+people; he must be alone, alone with God, alone with his own heart.
+
+When he reached his apartments, he went immediately to his room, and
+there, beside his bed, he knelt and poured out his soul to God. Words
+could not tell his wants, words could not express his contrition; but
+there he knelt, a silent pleader, presenting himself with all the dark
+catalogue of a life's sin before his dishonoured God.
+
+George thought he had experienced the extremity of sorrow during the few
+days he had been in Plymouth, but it was as nothing compared with that
+he now felt. He had grieved over name and reputation lost, prospects
+blighted, and self-respect forfeited, but now he mourned over a God
+dishonoured, a Saviour slighted, a life mis-spent. Is there any sorrow
+like unto that sorrow which is felt by a soul crushed beneath the sense
+of sin?
+
+How that day passed, George hardly knew. He felt his whole life
+epitomised in those few hours spent in solemn confession. Oh, how he
+longed to realise a sense of pardon--to know and feel, as the leper knew
+and felt, that he was made clean. But he could not do so: he only felt
+himself lost and ruined, and found expression but in one cry, "Unclean!
+unclean!"
+
+He was aroused in the evening by the ringing of church bells again; and,
+taking a hasty cup of tea, at Mrs. Murdoch's solicitation, he once more
+bent his steps to the place of worship he had visited in the morning,
+with the earnest desire and prayer that he might hear such truths
+taught as would enable him to see Jesus.
+
+How often does God "_devise means_ that His banished be not expelled
+from Him," and in His providential mercy order those events and
+circumstances to occur, which are instrumental in preparing the mind for
+the reception of His truth! It was no chance, no mere coincidence, that
+the preacher took for his text those words which were associated with so
+many recollections of George, "_for me to live is Christ_."
+
+Simply, but earnestly, he drew pictures of life, in its many phases, and
+contrasted them with the one object worth living for. Upon all else was
+written, vanity of vanities--living for pleasure was but another name
+for living for future woe: living for wealth was losing all; living for
+honour was but heaping condemnation for the last day: while living for
+Christ gave not only pleasure, and riches, and honour here, but
+hereafter. Then he spoke of the preciousness of Jesus to those who
+believe, as the sympathising Friend, and the loving Brother; of the
+honour and joy of living for Him who had died to bring life and
+immortality to light; and of that "peace which passeth understanding."
+
+That night there was joy in the presence of the angels of God over a
+new-born soul. As George listened to the voice of the preacher, there
+fell from his eyes as it had been scales, and he saw the Father running
+to embrace the returning prodigal, and felt the kiss of His forgiving
+love. The words which his earthly father had last spoken to him, were
+those chosen by his heavenly Father to show him his new blissful
+relationship as a son. And at what a gracious time! George was a
+wanderer, an outcast, without father or friend, without object or aim in
+life, and the doors of heaven were thrown open to him; the sympathy of
+Divine love was poured into that aching heart, and the words of
+rejoicing were uttered, "This, MY SON, was dead, and is alive again; was
+lost, and is found."
+
+The weary one was at rest, the heart of stone palpitated with a living
+breath, "The dead one heard the voice of the Son of God, and lived."
+
+Who can sympathise with George as he sat in his room that night,
+overwhelmed with joy unspeakable? He was a new creature in a new world;
+old things had passed away, behold all things had become new. He looked
+up to heaven as his home, to God as his Father, to Jesus as his great
+elder Brother; and he realised his life as hidden with Christ in God,
+redeemed and reconciled, henceforth not his own, but given to Him who
+had washed him, and made him clean in His own blood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Great joy is harder to bear than great sorrow. George had suddenly gone
+from one to the other extreme, and at a time when he was suffering from
+physical prostration, the result of such strong mental struggles.
+
+"Mr. Vincent, it is nine o'clock," Mrs. Murdoch called out, as she
+knocked at his door next morning. No answer was returned.
+
+"Mr. Vincent, will you come down to breakfast, sir?" she repeated more
+loudly, but with no greater success.
+
+Again she knocked, wondering that George should sleep so soundly, and be
+so difficult to arouse, as he was accustomed to answer at the first
+call.
+
+"Mr. Vincent, breakfast is waiting!"
+
+No answer coming, Mrs. Murdoch was anxious; she knew George had been
+really ill for several days past, and had noticed his strange manner on
+the previous evening. Without further hesitation, she opened the door,
+and there on the floor lay George Weston, insensible, having apparently
+fallen while in the act of dressing.
+
+Calling for assistance, she at once laid him upon the bed, applied all
+the restoratives at hand, and without a moment's delay despatched a
+messenger to the chemist in the next street, with instructions for him
+to attend immediately.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+MAKING DISCOVERIES.
+
+
+"Will you grant me leave of absence for to-day?" Charles Hardy asked Mr.
+Sanders, a few minutes after George had left the office, on the gloomy
+and eventful morning when he disclosed the secret of his guilt.
+
+"I hardly know what to say--what to do," answered Mr. Sanders, puffing
+and blowing; "business will come to a stand-still--the shutters had
+better go up at once. But if you want particularly to be off to-day, I
+suppose I must manage to spare you."
+
+"I may want several days, sir; but if that should be the case, I will
+return to the office to-morrow in time to see Mr. Compton immediately he
+comes back"
+
+It was but the work of five minutes for Charles to write a short note,
+change his office coat, and prepare to start The note was addressed to
+Mr. Brunton, care of Mr. Sanders till called for, and ran as follows:--
+
+    "MY DEAR SIR,
+
+    "Do not be more uneasy than necessary about George. I think I have a
+    clue by which his address may be ascertained. If so, I will report
+    progress to you to-night; but I leave this note for you, in order to
+    allay the distress you will feel in learning he is not here. Rest
+    assured of my earnest desire to serve my dear friend, and to relieve
+    him if possible. My time and services you may command in this cause.
+    In haste,
+
+    "Yours very faithfully,
+
+    "CHARLES HARDY."
+
+Hardy had a clue, it is true; but it was a very faint one. He had
+noticed, upon the table of Mr. Compton's room, a "Bradshaw's Railway
+Guide;" and as he had not seen one there previously, he imagined it must
+have been brought in by George, with his carpet-bag and other things,
+and there left. One page of the book was turned down; Hardy had eagerly
+opened it, and found it referred to the departures from the Great
+Western Station.
+
+"I'll go on at once to that station," he thought. "He told me he might
+be leaving England; perhaps he has gone to Liverpool, Plymouth, or Cork,
+or some shipping place that can be reached by this line. At all events,
+I have no other chance but this."
+
+With all speed Charles drove off to Paddington. Diligently he conned
+over the intricate mysteries of "Bradshaw" as he journeyed along,
+endeavouring to ascertain when trains would be leaving for any of the
+places to which he had imagined his friend might be going. It is hardly
+necessary to say he could not find what he wanted; but his anxiety and
+suspense were relieved by the search.
+
+Before alighting at the station, Hardy carefully glanced all around to
+ascertain that George was not in sight; for it was not his intention to
+speak to him or endeavour to turn him from his purpose, knowing that, in
+his present excited state he would stand no chance whatever of
+frustrating his friend's plans, but would rather be adopting the most
+certain means of destroying his own. Hardy's present object was only to
+try and find out to what part George would travel, and then communicate
+with Mr. Brunton and get his advice how to proceed.
+
+Cautiously he walked along the platform, looking into every
+waiting-room, and making inquiries of the porters it they had seen any
+one answering to the description he gave of George. This course proving
+futile, he went to the ticket-office, and consulted a time-table, to
+find whether any train had recently left for any of the places which, he
+felt convinced, were the most probable for George to choose. An hour or
+two had elapsed since the last train left, and George had not had more
+than twenty minutes' start ahead of him. He took down in his pocket-book
+the time for the departure of the next train; and then choosing a
+secluded spot in the office, where he would be out of observation, and
+yet able to see all who came up for tickets, he waited patiently until
+the slow, dawdling hand of the clock neared the hour.
+
+Hardy felt the chances were fifty to one that while he was waiting there
+George might be at some other station, leaving London without a trace to
+his whereabouts; he thought whether, after all, George might not have
+purposely, instead of accidentally, left the "Bradshaw" with that
+particular page turned down, in order that, should he be sought, a wrong
+scent might be given; and even if he intended to travel by this line and
+to one of these particular places, might he not choose nighttime as the
+most desirable for his object? But Hardy had _purpose_ in him; he would
+not throw away the strongest clue he had, although that was faint, and
+he resolved to stay there until midnight, it need be, rather than
+abandon his design,
+
+His patience was not put to such a test as this. While he was standing,
+with palpitating heart, behind that door in the booking office, George
+was in the porters' room, not a hundred yards off, waiting with deeper
+anxiety for the clock to point to the hour when the train should start.
+Presently, the first bell rang. A number of people, with bags and
+packages in hand, came crowding up to the ticket office, but George was
+not there. Hardy could scarcely refrain from rushing out to look around.
+What if he should get into a train without a ticket, or send a guard to
+procure one for him? A hundred doubts and fears were pressing upon him,
+and--the second bell rang. Two or three minutes more, and the train
+would be off. At the moment he was consulting his pocket-book to see how
+long a time must elapse before the next train would leave, he started
+with joyful surprise to see George walk hurriedly up to the office and
+obtain a ticket. As hurriedly he disappeared. "Now is my chance,"
+thought Hardy.
+
+"Where did that young man take his ticket for?" he asked the clerk, as
+soon as he had elbowed his way past the few remaining persons who were
+before the window.
+
+"Which one?" said he; "two or three young men have just taken tickets."
+
+"I mean the last ticket but one you issued?"
+
+"Plymouth."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Hardy, to the astonishment of the clerk, who probably
+would not have given the information, had he not thought the inquirer
+wanted a ticket for the same place.
+
+Hardy was too cautious, even in the moment of his surprise, to let his
+object be lost by over-haste; he knew it would not be wise to let
+himself be seen, and though he longed to rush after George and say,
+"Good-bye, cheer up, old chap!" he only allowed himself the painful
+pleasure of looking through the window of a waiting-room, and seeing his
+old friend and chum, sad and solitary, get into the carriage. Shriek
+went the whistle, and away went the train. Whether it whizzed along so
+rapidly, or the smoke and steam enveloped it, or from whatever cause it
+was, Charles Hardy found his sight growing dimmer, until a mist shut out
+the scene.
+
+From the station Hardy went home. He wanted to tell his parents some of
+the occurrences of the day, and let them know of his expected absence.
+He knew that he had difficulties to meet. George had always been kindly
+received by Mr. and Mrs. Hardy; they both liked him, and were glad when
+he came to spend an evening at their house. But latterly they had been
+rather anxious about the growing intimacy between him and their son, and
+often had a word of caution been given that Charles should be very
+careful how far he allowed his friend to influence him.
+
+Now Hardy could only tell his parents that George had got into worse
+trouble than ever--such trouble that he was obliged to leave his
+situation, and had decamped, no one except himself knew where. Of course
+Mr. and Mrs. Hardy would not put a good construction upon the affair. He
+anticipated they would say, "Well, I always feared he would come to
+this;" and would try to dissuade Charles from having anything more to do
+with him. It was not to be expected they would look with such leniency
+upon the matter as he would. Therefore, it was with no small difficulty
+he proceeded, immediately upon reaching home, to tell them of what had
+occurred. It was a short story, and soon told.
+
+"Now, father," said Hardy, before allowing him time to bring objections
+to the part he had performed that day, "I have promised Mr. Brunton to
+assist in finding George, and I have told Mr. Sanders I may be away some
+days from the office. I know Mr. Compton will not object to this; if
+that is all, I can have this leave of absence instead of the holiday he
+promised me next mouth. George must be found; if I can help it, he shall
+not leave England--at all events, not in this way. I know it will kill
+Mrs. Weston, if he does."
+
+"Well, Charles, I know your kindheartedness, and I appreciate it; but I
+cannot give my consent to the plan. Recollect, by associating yourself
+with your former friend now, you do injury to yourself; he has got
+himself into disgrace--he must bear the burden of it. What will Mr.
+Compton think, when he hears that you--you who have always maintained
+such strict integrity--have gone off after a dishonest, runaway clerk?"
+
+"I never wish to run counter to your opinions, father, if I can help it;
+but I must do so now, George Weston is my friend--not _was_ my friend,
+as you said just now--and I would not act such a cowardly part as to
+desert him. Don't be vexed at what I say; I know you advise for my good;
+but you do not know how I feel in this matter. Suppose our positions
+were changed, and I had done as George has done--there is no
+impossibility in such a case--I am too weak against temptation to doubt
+that had I been placed in the circumstances similar to his, I might have
+done the same, Suppose I had, what would you have thought of me? Should
+I have been your dishonest, runaway son, to whom all friendship must be
+denied, and who might be left to bear any burden alone, because I had
+brought it upon myself? No, father; you would be the first to seek and
+comfort me, and the first to cry 'Shame!' upon any of my friends who
+turned and kicked me the moment I had fallen."
+
+Mr. Hardy could not resist the force of his son's argument, nor could he
+refrain from admiring the genuineness of his friendship for George, and
+the manly determination he had formed to assist him.
+
+"Well, Charles," he said, "I do not blame you for taking this course. I
+hope it may be serviceable to your friend, and without any injury to
+yourself."
+
+"Do not fear, father. And now I must pack up a few necessaries in my
+bag, and be off to Mr. Brunton's. If I do not return home to-morrow, do
+not be uneasy about me, and I will write to you every day to say how
+things are going on."
+
+When Hardy arrived at the house of Mr. Brunton, he found him, as he
+anticipated, in a high state of nervous anxiety.
+
+"I am so thankful you have arrived, Mr. Hardy," he said, shaking him
+warmly by the hand: "and I need not tell you Mrs. Weston has been
+waiting with great impatience to see you."
+
+"Mrs. Weston! is she here?"
+
+"Yes; not many minutes after you had left the office I called there, and
+received the sad news about--about George. I at once telegraphed to Mrs.
+Weston to come up to town, and it needed no urging to hasten her, for
+she had only a short time before received a letter from him, which had
+filled her with alarm. But let us go to her at once," said Mr. Brunton,
+leading the way to the drawing-room; "she entreated I would bring you to
+her the moment you arrived."
+
+As Hardy entered, Mrs. Weston sprang to meet him.
+
+"Have you found George?--where is he?" she asked, and the look of
+struggling hope and despair was touching to witness.
+
+"I have not found him, Mrs. Weston, but I know the place of his present
+destination. He has gone to Plymouth;" and then Hardy briefly explained
+the incidents of the morning.
+
+"I cannot tell you how thankful I am to you, Mr. Hardy," said Mrs.
+Weston, as he concluded. "May God bless you for your kindness to my pool
+George!"
+
+"George would have done more for me, Mrs. Weston," Hardy replied; "but,
+at present, little or nothing has been done. Have you any plans, and can
+I help you in them?"
+
+"We must go on as soon as possible to Plymouth, and find out where he
+is. He may perhaps be on the eve of starting away by some of the vessels
+in the port. Not a minute should be lost."
+
+"Then, sir, I will go down to Plymouth by the mail train which leaves in
+about a couple of hours, if you will let me; and I promise you that I
+will do my best to find him," said Hardy.
+
+This unexpected proposition removed an infinite burden from Mr.
+Brunton's mind. He felt that it was his duty to see Mr. Compton at once,
+and he had other engagements which made it impossible for him to leave
+that night. He did not like Mrs. Weston travelling alone, in her present
+anxious and desponding state, and had been at his wit's end all day to
+know how to manage.
+
+"But, Mr. Hardy, can you go? Have you consulted your friends at home?
+Can you manage to get leave of absence from the office?--remember they
+will be short of hands there," asked Mr. Brunton.
+
+"I have made all arrangements at home, sir and my only difficulty is
+about Mr. Compton. But if you will please see him as soon as he returns,
+and explain why I have left, I am sure he will not be displeased. He was
+so fond of George, I know he would have said 'Go, by all means,' had he
+been at home."
+
+"I will undertake to set the matter right with him about you," said Mr.
+Brunton; "but I doubt whether he will ever allow me to mention poor
+George's name. Oh! Hardy, this is a sad, sad business!"
+
+"It is, sir; but it is sadder for George than for his friends," replied
+Hardy. "I cannot bear to think of the trouble he is passing through at
+this moment. It has cost him much to take the step he has taken, and
+everything must be done to get him back from his voluntary banishment"
+
+"And everything shall be done that can," said Mr. Brunton. "God grant he
+is still in England! I feel sure the sight of his mother and his friends
+sorrowing for him, instead of turning against him as he supposes, will
+alter his determination."
+
+"Mr. Hardy, may I place myself under your protection until my brother
+joins us at Plymouth?" said Mrs. Weston, abruptly. "I will go down by
+the mail train to-night; I cannot rest until he is found."
+
+Arrangements were speedily made, and that night the train bore off Mrs.
+Western and Charles Hardy to Plymouth.
+
+On the following morning Mr. Brunton called at Falcon-court. Mr. Compton
+had not yet arrived, but was expected hourly. Not wishing to lose time,
+which that morning was particularly precious to him, he asked for some
+writing materials, and seating himself in Mr. Compton's room, intended
+to occupy himself until his arrival. After he had been there about
+half-an-hour, his attention was arrested by hearing the door of the
+clerk's office open, and an inquiry made.
+
+"Is Mr. George Weston here?"
+
+"Mr. Weston has left the office," answered Williams, who came forward to
+answer the inquiry. "Left yesterday morning."
+
+"Indeed! Where has he gone to? why did he leave?"
+
+"I don't think anyone knows where he has gone to," answered Williams;
+"and I am not disposed to say why he left."
+
+Williams did not know why he had left, nor were the circumstances of the
+case known to any of the clerks; but many surmises had been made which
+were unfavourable to him, and it was with the exultant pleasure a mean
+spirit feels in a mean triumph, that Williams had at last an opportunity
+of speaking lightly of the once good name of George Weston, to whom he
+had ever cherished feelings of animosity.
+
+"Is Mr. Compton in, or the manager?" asked the visitor. "I am
+exceedingly anxious to know what has become of my friend."
+
+"Between ourselves," said Williams, "the less you say about your friend
+the better. It strikes me--mind, I merely give you this confidentially
+as my impression--that, when Weston turns up again, his friends will not
+be over-anxious to renew their acquaintance."
+
+"What do you mean? I do not understand you."
+
+"What I mean is this. When a clerk is dismissed from an office during
+the absence of the principal, leaves suddenly and has to hide
+himself--more particularly when accounts at the banker's do not quite
+balance--one cannot help thinking there is a screw loose somewhere."
+
+Mr. Brunton overheard all this; he who had never before heard an
+unfavourable sentence spoken against his nephew. He had not fully
+realised until that moment the painful position in which George's crime
+had placed him, nor the depth of his nephew's fall in position and
+character. He longed to have been able to stand up in vindication of
+George against the terrible insinuations of Williams; he would have been
+intensely thankful if he could have accosted the stranger, and said,
+"That man is guilty of falsehood who dares to speak against the good
+name of my nephew." But there he stood, with blood boiling and lips
+quivering, unable to contradict one sentence that had been uttered.
+
+"If Weston _does_ turn up," continued Williams, "will you leave any
+message or letter, or your name, and it shall be forwarded?"
+
+"My name is Ashton," said the stranger; "but it is unnecessary to say
+that I called. It does not do to be mixed up with matters like these. I
+half feared something of the sort was brewing, but I had no idea tilings
+would have taken so sudden a turn."
+
+Mr. Brunton could restrain his impatience no longer.
+
+"Mr. Ashton," he said, coming suddenly upon the speakers, "will you
+favour me by stepping inside a minute or two? I shall be glad to speak
+to you."
+
+Ashton was taken by surprise at seeing Mr. Brunton where he least
+expected to see him.
+
+"I have been placed in the uncomfortable position of a listener to your
+conversation in the next room," said Mr. Brunton, closing the door; "and
+I cannot allow those remarks made by the clerk with whom you were
+talking to pass unqualified."
+
+"They need little explanation, sir," said Ashton. "George Weston has
+been on the verge of a catastrophe for some months, and I believe I can
+fill in the outline of information which you heard given me."
+
+"I am in ignorance of the causes which have led to my nephew's
+disgrace," answered Mr. Brunton; "nor am I desirous to hear them from
+any lips but his. You were one of his most intimate friends, I believe,
+Mr. Ashton?"
+
+"Yes; I think I may say his most intimate friend."
+
+"And you knew he was on the 'verge of a catastrophe.' I have no doubt
+you acted the part of a friend, and sought to turn his steps from the
+fatal brink?"
+
+"Well, as to that, he was fully competent to manage his own affairs
+without my interference. I did tell him he would come to grief, if he
+did not give up playing."
+
+"And did you add to that advice that he should quit those associates
+who had assisted to bring him to such a pass?"
+
+"Certainly not; why should I meddle with him in his companionships? You
+speak, Mr. Brunton, as if I were your nephew's keeper. If George Weston
+liked to live beyond his means, he was at liberty to do it for me. I am
+sorry he made such a smash at last, but it is all that could be
+expected. If ever you see George again, sir, you will oblige me by
+conveying one message. I did not think when he came to me, two nights
+ago, to try and borrow a hundred pounds, that he intended to mix me up
+in any disgraceful business like that of this morning. Had I known it,
+instead of fretting myself about his welfare, he should have--"
+
+"Made the discovery," interrupted Mr. Brunton, "that he never had a
+friend in you. My idea of a friend is one who seeks the well-being of
+another; speaks to him as a second conscience in temptation; loves with
+a strength of attachment which cannot be broken; and, though sorrowing
+over error, can still hope and pray for and seek to restore the erring.
+Mr. Ashton, I do not wish to say more upon this matter; it is painful
+for me to think how my nephew has been led downward, step after step, by
+those whom he thought friends, and how sinfully he has yielded. When
+you think of him, recollect him as the boy you knew at school, and try
+to trace his course down to this day. You know his history, his
+companionships, his whole life. Think whether _you_ have influenced it,
+and how; and if your conscience should say, 'I have not been his
+friend,' may you be led by the remembrance to consider that no man
+liveth to himself: and that for those talents and attractions with which
+you are endowed, you will have hereafter to give account, together with
+the good or evil which has resulted from them."
+
+To Ashton's relief the door opened, and Mr. Compton entered. Hastily
+taking up his hat, he bade adieu to Mr. Brunton, glad of this
+opportunity to beat a retreat.
+
+"Confound those Methodists!" he uttered to himself, as he walked up
+Fleet-street; "speak to them, they talk sermons; strike them, and they
+defend themselves with sermons; cut them to the quick, and I believe
+they would bleed sermons. But why should he pounce upon me? What have I
+done? A pretty life George would have led if it hadn't been for me, and
+this is all the thanks I get. I wish to goodness he had not made such a
+fool of himself; I shall have to answer all inquiries about him, and it
+is no honour to be linked in such associations."
+
+The meeting between Mr. Compton and Mr. Brunton was one of mingled
+feelings of pain and mortification. One had lost a valuable clerk, for
+whom he cherished more than ordinary feelings of regard, and upon whom
+he had hoped some day the whole management of the business would
+devolve; the other had lost almost all that was dear to him on earth,
+one whom he had watched, and loved, and worked for, and to whose bright
+future he had looked forward with increasing pleasure, until it had
+become a dream of life. Both were aggrieved, both were injured; but both
+felt, in their degree, such strong feelings in favour of George, despite
+his disgrace and crime, that they could look with more sorrow than anger
+on the offender, and deal more in kindness than in wrath.
+
+Mr. Compton could not but agree with Mr. Brunton that he must be
+discovered, if possible; and although he could never receive him under
+any circumstances into his office again, nor could ever have for him the
+feelings he once entertained, still he felt free to adhere to his first
+determination not to prosecute or take any steps in the case, nor allow
+it to have more publicity than could be helped.
+
+"He is still young," said he; "let him try to redeem the past. But it
+is right he should feel the consequences of his actions, and no doubt he
+will, as he has to encounter the difficulties which will meet him in
+seeking to retrieve the position he has lost. You know me too well,
+Brunton, to imagine that I do not estimate aright the extent of his
+guilt; and you will give me credit for possessing a desire to do as I
+would be done by in this case. I believe many a young man has been
+ruined through time and eternity, by having been dealt with too
+harshly--though in a legal sense quite justly; at the same time it has
+been the only course to check a growing habit of crime in others. I know
+well that in some instances it would be a duty to prosecute, if only as
+a protection from suspicion of upright persons. But there are
+exceptional cases, and I consider this to be one of them, although
+perhaps many of our leading citizens might think me culpable in my
+clemency; but I think I know your nephew sufficiently well to be
+warranted in the belief that he feels his criminality, and will take a
+lasting warning from this circumstance. And now, what do you intend to
+do, since you know my determination?"
+
+Mr. Brunton explained the plans he had formed, and the valuable
+assistance which Hardy had rendered him. He was pleased to hear from his
+injured friend the heartily expressed wish that the end in view might be
+accomplished. Mr. Brunton had surmounted one great difficulty, and he
+could not feel sufficiently thankful at the issue. Although he had known
+Mr. Compton for many years, and had seen innumerable evidences of his
+benevolence and good nature, he knew, too, that he was the very
+personification of honesty and uprightness; and he dreaded lest,
+incensed against George for his ingratitude, and fearing the influence
+of his conduct might spread in the office, he would take measures
+against him which, although perfectly just, would, by their severity,
+prove deeply injurious in such a case, and reduce George, who was
+naturally sensitive of shame, to a position from which he might never be
+restored.
+
+At the very earliest opportunity Mr. Brunton went down to Plymouth.
+Business of the greatest importance, which he could not set aside, had
+detained him in London until Friday, and his uneasiness had been
+increased during that time by two notes he had received--one from Mrs.
+Weston, and the other from Hardy--telling him of the unsuccessful issue
+of their search. With an anxious heart he alighted at the station at
+Plymouth, and walked to the hotel, where his sister and Hardy were
+staying. The look of despair he read in Mrs. Weston's countenance, as
+they met, told him that no favourable result had been obtained.
+
+"We have been everywhere, and tried every possible plan to find poor
+George," she said, when Mr. Brunton sat down beside her and Hardy to
+hear the recital of their efforts. "I should have broken down long ago,
+had it not been for our dear friend here, who has been night and day at
+work, plotting schemes and working them out, and buoying me up with
+hopes in their result. But I feel sure George cannot be in Plymouth, and
+our search is vain."
+
+"So Mrs. Weston has said all along," said Hardy; "but I cannot agree
+with her; at all events, I will not believe it until we find out where
+he has gone. He has not taken a passage in any of the vessels, as far as
+we can ascertain; he is not in any of the inns in the town, I think, for
+we have made the most searching inquiries at all of them; but in this
+large place it is difficult to find any one without some positive clue."
+
+"Have you been able to find out whether he really arrived here?" asked
+Mr. Brunton.
+
+"I think I have. One of the porters rather singularly recollected a
+person, answering to the description, arriving by the train in which
+George left London. It seems he was hastening away from the station
+without giving up his ticket No doubt he was nervous and absent in mind;
+and when the porter called to him, he started and seemed as if he were
+alarmed: but in a minute he produced his ticket and went out The porter
+looked suspiciously, I suppose, at the ticket, and evidently so at
+George, for he was able to give a full description of him."
+
+"That is so far satisfactory," said Mr. Brunton; "but have you made any
+more discoveries to render you tolerably sure he is still in Plymouth."
+
+"Yes, I have been to every shop where they fit out passengers for a sea
+voyage, and have found out one where he purchased some articles of
+clothing. But the clearest trace I have of him is from the shipping
+agents. He was certainly looking over vessels on the morning after his
+arrival here, for one or two captains have described him to me. I have
+been a great many times down among the shipping, but have not made more
+discoveries, and I cannot get any information from the shipping offices;
+but in this you will probably meet with more success, sir, than I have,
+for a young man is not of sufficient importance to command attention
+from business men."
+
+Mr. Brunton was fully conscious of the difficulties which were in the
+way of finding George, even supposing he was still in Plymouth: but he
+was not without hope. He could not find words enough to express his
+strong approbation of all that Hardy had done, and he felt sure that he
+could have no better assistant in the undertaking than he. A series of
+plans were soon formed: Hardy was to keep watch upon those vessels which
+he thought it probable George might choose, and offer rewards to sailors
+and others for information. Mr. Brunton was to try and discover the
+names and descriptions of passengers booked at the shipping offices; and
+Mrs. Weston was to keep a general lookout on outfitters' warehouses, and
+other places where it might be probable George would visit.
+
+But every plan failed. Saturday night came, and, worn out with fatigue,
+the anxious trio sat together to discuss the incidents of the day, and
+propose fresh arrangements for the morrow. Sunday was not a day of rest
+to them; from early morning they were all engaged in different
+directions in prosecuting their search, and not until the curtain of
+night was spread over the town, and the hum of traffic and din of bustle
+had ceased, did they return to the hotel.
+
+After supper, Mr. Brunton took out his pocket Bible, and read aloud some
+favourite passages. They seemed to speak with a voice of hope and
+comfort, and inspired fresh faith in the unerring providence of Him who
+doeth all things well.
+
+Very earnest were the prayers offered by that little party, as they
+knelt together and commended the wanderer, wherever he might be, to the
+care and guidance of the good providence of God. They felt how useless
+were all plans and purposes unless directed by a higher source than
+their own; and while they prayed for success upon the efforts put forth,
+if in accordance with His will, they asked for strength and resignation
+to bear disappointment Nor were their prayers merely that he whom they
+were seeking might be found, but that he might find pardon and
+acceptance with God, and that the evil which they lamented might, in the
+infinitely wise purposes of Providence, be controlled for good.
+
+With fresh zeal and renewed hope the three set forth on the following
+morning to prosecute their several plans. Hardy had learned that one or
+two vessels would sail that day, and he was full of expectation that he
+might meet with some tidings.
+
+Mr. Brunton felt rather unwell that morning--the press of business which
+had detained him in London, the excitement of the journey, and the
+fatigue of the previous days, had told upon his health. As he was
+passing through a quiet part of the town, he called in at an
+apothecary's to get a draught, which he hoped might ward off any serious
+attack of sickness. While the draught was being prepared, Mr. Brunton,
+who was intent upon his object and never left a stone unturned,
+interrogated the apothecary, a gentlemanly and agreeable man, upon the
+neighbourhood, the number of visitors in that locality, and other
+subjects, ending by saying he was trying to discover the residence of a
+relative, but without any knowledge of his address.
+
+In the midst of the conversation, a servant-girl, without bonnet or
+shawl, came hurriedly into the shop, out of breath with running.
+
+"Oh, sir, if you please, sir, missus says, will you come at once to see
+the young gentleman as stays at our house?--he's taken bad."
+
+"Who is your mistress, my girl?" asked the chemist.
+
+"Oh, sir, it's Mrs. Murdoch, of ---- Street; and the young gentleman is
+a lodger from London, and he's going away to-morrow to the Indies or
+somewheres; but do come, sir, please--missus'll be frightened to death,
+all by herself, and him so dreadful bad."
+
+Mr. Brunton had been an anxious listener. Was it possible that the young
+gentleman from London could be George?
+
+"How long has your lodger been with you?" he asked the girl.
+
+"A week come Wednesday--leastways, come Tuesday night,"--was the
+accurate answer.
+
+Mr. Brunton, with eyes flashing with excitement, turned to the medical
+man. "Will you allow me to accompany you on this visit?" he asked; "I
+have reason to believe that your patient may be the relative for whom I
+am searching."
+
+"Then come, by all means," answered the doctor; and, preceded by the
+girl, who was all impatience to get home, and kept up a pace which made
+Mr. Brunton puff lustily, they reached the house of Mrs. Murdoch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE SICK CHAMBER.
+
+
+The sun had gone down, and the twilight was fast losing itself in night.
+The pale moon was struggling to look out upon the world through the
+dark, heavy clouds which had collected around, as if expressly to
+prevent this purpose. The hum of traffic in the street had ceased, and
+the only sounds that came in at the open window were strains of music,
+and the confused clamour of voices from a neighbouring tavern. The room
+was a picture of neatness. The bed was draped in snowy furniture, and
+the coverlid bore evidence of good taste and the ingenuity of
+industrious hands. The mantlepiece was adorned with a few photographs
+and a vase of fresh-gathered flowers.
+
+Upon a table in the corner of the room stood a lamp, with a green shade
+over it to screen the light from the bed. Beside it were bottles,
+phials, and other appliances of a sick chamber.
+
+A group stood round the bed, watching, with thrilling anxiety, the face
+of the doctor as he held the inanimate hand of George Weston.
+
+You might have heard the ticking of his watch as he stood there and
+gazed in the face of the patient, while Mrs. Weston and Mr. Brunton and
+Charles Hardy waited motionless, almost breathless, to hear his verdict.
+
+"It is a more serious case than I imagined at first," said the doctor;
+"I do not wish unnecessarily to alarm you, but it is my duty to say that
+the condition of the patient is one of great danger, but I trust not
+past recovery."
+
+"What is the nature of the illness--tell me candidly?" asked Mr.
+Brunton, when he could command speech.
+
+"Brain fever," was the laconic answer.
+
+For a long time George Weston lay in that awful state which is neither
+death nor life--when the spirit seems to be hovering round the body,
+uncertain whether to wing its flight for ever from the tenement of
+earth, or return to sojourn still longer in its old familiar
+dwelling-house. Sometimes he would rave in the frenzy of madness, and
+then sink in exhaustion with scarcely the power to draw a breath.
+
+Never was a sick-bed tended with greater care than his. Night after
+night Mrs. Weston sat beside him, bathing the fevered head and cooling
+the parched lips. Nor would she leave that post for a moment, until Mr.
+Brunton was obliged to insist upon her taking rest.
+
+"Reserve your strength," he said; "we know not what is before us; it may
+be--but we have nothing to do with the future," he added, interrupting
+himself; "that must be left in His hands."
+
+Hardy was not able to remain in Plymouth longer than Wednesday. Mr.
+Compton had written to him to say that, being short of hands, he was
+very much pressed in business, and now that the main object of his
+journey had been attained--for Mr. Brunton communicated with him almost
+immediately--he should be glad if he would return as soon as possible.
+
+As he stood beside the bed of George Weston on the morning of his
+departure, and gazed into those pale and haggard features, which had
+always beamed with a friendly smile for him, but which he might never
+see again, he could not restrain the impulse of clasping his hand, and
+uttering solemnly the prayerful wish, "God preserve and bless you,
+George!"
+
+The words were not heard by George--his ears were closed in dull
+insensibility--but they were caught by Mr. Brunton and Mrs. Weston, who
+that moment entered the room, and Hardy was startled to hear the earnest
+response to his prayer in their united "Amen!"
+
+"And that prayer shall ever be offered for you, Charles," said Mrs.
+Weston; "I owe you a debt of gratitude which can never be repaid. I
+shudder to think of what would have happened, had it not been for your
+kind, noble, manly friendship. Poor George would have suffered in this
+lonely place, away from all who loved him, and without proper care,
+perhaps have died--died afoot."
+
+"You do not know how thankful I feel, Mrs. Weston, that our efforts have
+not been in vain. Pray write to me every day, to say how he is going
+on--if it is only just one line; and should there be any change for
+the--for the better, do let me know at once, that I may come down again,
+if only for a day, just to congratulate him."
+
+"And if there is another change--a change for the worse?" asked Mrs.
+Weston, tearfully.
+
+"Write, telegraph--pray let me know somehow," answered Hardy. "I could
+not bear to part with him without telling and showing him there was one
+of his old friends who loved him to the last. Good-bye, dear Mrs.
+Weston; do not over-tax your strength, and keep up a good heart; depend
+upon it, there are yet happy days for you and for George."
+
+Mrs. Weston sadly missed her young friend after his departure. His
+hopeful spirits had helped to buoy up her expectations and assuage the
+sorrows of the present. It seemed as if the sun had hidden itself and
+the stars had refused their light during those long days when the mother
+sat watching at the bedside of her son. Mr. Brunton tried in every way
+to relieve her, but his own heart was heavy, and the two felt more at
+home in talking dolefully over the bad symptoms of the patient than in
+looking forward to the future.
+
+But a day came when the strength of the fever abated, and reason
+returned to her long vacant throne.
+
+It was toward evening: Mrs. Weston was sitting beside the bed, busily
+stitching away at her work, and Mr. Brunton was resting his head upon
+his hands as he turned over the pages of a book which he was trying to
+deceive himself into the belief he was reading, when a deep sigh caused
+them both to suspend their occupation.
+
+George raised himself up in bed, and gazed round the room. The
+furniture screened the two watchers, and he fancied himself alone. He
+raised a pillow at his back, and reclining upon it in the placid calm of
+exhaustion, with his face turned toward the open window, watched the
+clouds as they crossed the blue expanse, and indulged in a half
+conscious reverie. Where had he been? Where was he? Had he passed the
+dark valley of the shadow of death, and were there angel forms in those
+snow-white clouds beckoning him away? What was that confused sound which
+rang in his ears? Was it the murmuring of the dark stream as it washed
+upon the untrodden shore?
+
+No: there was the little room where he had taken his lodgings; there was
+the green paper on the wall with the large grape clusters; there was the
+sound of human voices in the street And the consciousness that he was
+alive, restored, flashed upon him with something of the bewildering
+astonishment and joy which Lazarus must have felt when he heard the
+words, "Come forth."
+
+Too weak to rise, he was not too weak to pray. Clasping his hands
+together, and gazing up into the clear blue sky, from whence all clouds
+were now dispersing, he poured out his overflowing heart in
+thanksgiving.
+
+He spoke with God. The tremulous voice gained strength, the power of
+faith and hope grew intensified, and he prayed with that love and
+fervour which the grateful child of a heavenly Parent can only feel.
+
+Mrs. Weston and Mr. Brunton were paralyzed with astonishment;
+instinctively they shrank from disturbing that solemn time by coming
+forward to speak with George and letting him recognise them; but with a
+united impulse, both quietly and solemnly knelt down and joined in the
+song of thanksgiving.
+
+Theirs was joy unspeakable; tears poured down both faces, and hushed
+sobs of rejoicing burst from their hearts. All their prayers and earnest
+longings had been answered; all their sorrow was turned into joy; and
+that Friend of friends, whose delights are with the children of men, had
+ordered, according to the tender mercy of His loving heart, all the evil
+into overwhelming good.
+
+Presently the voice ceased; and, exhausted with the effort, George lay
+down in calm and blissful tranquillity to sleep.
+
+As Mrs. Weston rose from her knees, her dress touched a book on the
+table, which fell to the ground. George was roused by the sound, and,
+trying to draw aside the curtain, said,--
+
+"Is that you, Mrs. Murdoch?"
+
+Mrs. Weston, although dreading the consequences of excitement, could
+restrain no longer the yearning of her motherly heart to embrace her
+son.
+
+"No, George, my dearest boy, it is your mother."
+
+"Mother! mother!" cried George, with the old former-day voice of love
+and joy, passionately kissing the face of beaming happiness bent over
+him, "Thank God you are here!"
+
+From that day George began rapidly to improve. The excitement produced
+by the discovery that he had been sought and found, instead of doing him
+injury, relieved his already-oppressed mind from a weight of care. Every
+day brought fresh strength, and as he sat up in bed, carefully propped
+up by pillows, with his uncle on one hand and his mother on the other,
+he told them all the sorrowful and joyful details of his strange
+experiences until the eventful morning when his strength gave way.
+
+"This is beginning life afresh, in every sense," he said; "here am I, a
+poor mortal, almost helpless, just strong enough to know how weak I am;
+and before me--if my life is spared--lies an untrodden path. But I begin
+my restored life, through God's infinite mercy, with a new inner life;
+and He who has given me that, will, I know, freely give me all things
+that shall be for my good."
+
+Mrs. Weston never knew the fulness of joy before those days. Her only
+son, in whom all her brightest earthly hopes were centred, had ever been
+a source of deep anxiety to her. Her never-ceasing prayer had been that
+he might be what he now was--a child of her Father; and in the
+realization of her heart's desire she found such joy unspeakable, that
+all the cares and troubles of long, weary years seemed as though they
+had not been.
+
+George was soon sufficiently restored to be able to leave his bed and
+sit up for a few hours on the sofa. The day for this trial of strength
+having been definitely fixed by the doctor, Mrs. Weston wrote at once to
+Hardy, inviting him, if he could manage to get away, to come down and
+celebrate the event.
+
+The meeting between the two friends was as joyful as their parting had
+been sorrowful.
+
+"George, my dear old boy," said Hardy, as he shook him by the hand, "it
+does my eyesight good to see you again."
+
+"And it does my heart good to see you, old fellow," replied George, as
+he returned the pressure. "You don't know how I have longed for your
+coming, that I might tell you how deeply grateful I am to you for all
+your brotherly love--"
+
+"Good-bye, George," said Hardy, taking up his hat and buttoning his
+coat; "I won't stay another minute unless you give over talking such
+stuff What I've done! Why, if my pup, Gip, were to run away, I should do
+for him what I have done for you--no more, no less. So let us drop the
+subject, that's a good fellow, and then I'll sit down and chat with
+you."
+
+Never was there a pleasanter chat by any little party than by that which
+assembled in Mrs. Murdoch's best parlour that evening. All hearts were
+full of thankfulness, and though there were some painful subjects
+discussed, yet the joyful ones far more than counterbalanced them.
+
+Mr. Brunton found out, in the course of the evening, that he had
+something very important to do, and probably Mrs. Weston discovered her
+assistance was needed as well, for the friends found themselves, after a
+while, alone, which was what they both wanted.
+
+"You have heard, Hardy, of all the strange things that have happened to
+me?" George began, hesitatingly. "I should like to be able to tell you
+all about them; but, somehow, I don't know how to put such matters into
+words."
+
+"You mean, George, that one great, solemn, joyful event which has made
+your life now something worth living for," said Hardy, relieving him of
+a difficulty. "I cannot tell you how glad I am to know it. The past two
+years have been funny ones to both of us. Religion has been ground on
+which we have not been able to tread together, as you know: but, thank
+goodness, that has all gone by. Now, I must tell you my mind, George,"
+he continued, in that frank, manly way which was so natural to him; "I
+never gave you credit for sincerity when you took up with those strange
+notions which were so dangerous to you. I believed then that they were
+convenient principles, which might be stretched and made to agree with
+the dictates of your inclination. I do not say you did not believe what
+you professed, but I always thought that you forced yourself into that
+belief by self-deception. Now, wait, don't interrupt me. I know what you
+are going to say; but whatever harm you did to others--God only knows
+that--I do not think your change in sentiment did any harm to me! For
+this reason--I saw you were not straightforward with your own heart, and
+I felt sure you slighted that pure and holy religion in which we had
+been instructed from childhood, not because in your heart of hearts you
+disbelieved it, but because it condemned that course of conduct which
+you were pursuing. Now, was it not so?"
+
+"Yes, Hardy, you are right. I can trace out now the processes of thought
+through which I passed, to lead me to think and act as I did; and I
+never knew before what a wretchedly poor thing a morally endowed,
+intelligent human being is in his own strength. I did not know how weak
+I was. I did feel sometimes oppressed with the idea that I was willingly
+blindfolding myself--but, somehow, an argument was always at hand to
+weigh down this feeling. But tell me why you think my endeavours to make
+you believe as I did never did you injury? God grant they may not to
+others."
+
+"Why, when I observed you, as I tell you I did, it was impossible for me
+not to be on my guard. Nay, more, this question tormented me daily, 'You
+believe George disregards religion, because it condemns him; if you
+regard that religion, but do not practise it, does it not condemn you?'
+Now this was a home-thrust, George, which I could not parry off. I tried
+to determine not to be such a cowardly, mean-spirited creature as to try
+and cheat God by pretending to believe Him, and yet fight under false
+colours against Him; and so I gave up many of my old habits, and tried
+to start afresh. And now, George, you don't know how thankful I am that
+you are different to what you were. We have studied many things
+together, joined in many plans and purposes; and now I hope we shall be
+able to study the highest and best thing in earth or heaven--what God's
+will is, and how to do it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That desire became the watchword of their lives.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life in London, by Edwin Hodder
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