mpel him to earn his daily bread by dint of
methodical effort such as was torture to his indolent disposition, but,
moreover, in pursuance of Mrs. Peckover's crafty projects, he was
constrained to an assiduous hypocrisy in his relations with Michael and
Jane which wearied him beyond measure. Joseph did not belong to the
most desperate class of hungry mortals; he had neither the large
ambitions and the passionate sensual desires which make life an
unending fever, nor was he possessed with that foul itch of
covetousness which is the explanation of the greater part of the
world's activity. He understood quite sufficiently the advantages of
wealth, and was prepared to go considerable lengths for the sake of
enjoying them, but his character lacked persistence. This defect
explained the rogueries and calamities of his life. He had brains in
abundance, and a somewhat better education would have made of him
either a successful honest man or a rascal of superior scope--it is
always a toss-up between these two results where a character such as
his is in question. Ever since he abandoned the craft to which his
father had had him trained, he had lived on his wits; there would be
matter for a volume in the history of his experiences at home and
abroad, a volume infinitely more valuable considered as a treatise on
modern civilisation than any professed work on that subject in
existence. With one episode only in his past can we here concern
ourselves; the retrospect is needful to make clear his relations with
Mr. Scawthorne.

On his return from America, Joseph possessed a matter of a hundred
pounds; the money was not quite legally earned (pray let us reserve the
word honesty for a truer use than the common one), and on the whole he
preferred to recommence life in the old country under a pseudonym--that
little affair of the desertion of his child would perhaps, in any case,
have made this advisable. A hundred pounds will not go very far, but
Joseph took care to be well dressed, and allowed it to be surmised by
those with whom he came in contact that the resources at his command
were considerable. In early days, as we know, he had worked at
electroplating, and the natural bent of his intellect was towards
mechanical and physical science; by dint of experimenting at his old
pursuit, he persuaded himself, or at all events attained plausibility
for the persuading of others, that he had discovered a new and valuable
method of plating with