do."

That afternoon Reginald paced the streets more like a hunted beast than
a human being. All the bad side of his nature--his pride, his conceit,
his selfishness--was stirred within him under a bitter sense of shame
and indignity. He forgot how much his own intractable temper and stupid
self-importance had contributed to his fall, and could think of nothing
but Durfy's triumph and the evil fate which at the very moment, when he
was able to snap his fingers in the tyrant's face, had driven him forth
in disgrace with the tyrant's fingers snapped in his face. He had not
spirit or resolution enough to wait to see Gedge or any one that
evening, but slunk away, hating the sight of everybody, and wishing only
he could lose himself and forget that such a wretch as Reginald Cruden
existed.

Ah! Reginald. It's a long race to escape from oneself. Men have tried
it before now with better reason than you, and failed. Wait till you
have something worse to run from, my honest, foolish friend. Face round
like a man, and stand up to your pursuer. You have hit out straight
from the shoulder before to-day. Do it again now. One smart round will
finish the business, for this false Reginald is a poor creature after
all, and you can knock him out of time and over the ropes with one hand
if you like. Try it, and save your running powers for an uglier foeman
some other day!

Reginald did fight it out with himself as he walked mile after mile that
afternoon through the London streets, and by the time he reached home in
the evening he was himself again.

He met his mother's tears and Horace's dismal looks with a smile of
triumph.

"So you've heard all about it, have you?" said he.

"Oh, Reginald," said his mother, in deep distress, "how grieved I am for
you!"

"You needn't be, mother," said Reginald, "for I've got another situation
far better and worth three times as much."

And then he told them, as far as he felt justified in doing so, of the
advertisement and what it had led to, finishing up with a glowing
description of Mr Medlock, whom he only regretted he had not had the
courage to ask up to tea that very evening.

But there was a cloud on the bright horizon which his mother and Horace
were quicker to observe than he.

"But, Reg," said the latter, "surely it means you'd have to go to
Liverpool?"

"Yes; I'm afraid it does. That's the one drawback."

"But surely you won't accept it, then?" said the younger bro