whom I might have appealed, but a boy's pride held me back. I would make
my way alone, win my place in the world by myself. To Hal, knowing he
would sympathise with me, I confided the truth.

"Had your mother lived," he told me, "I should have had something to say
on the subject. Of course, I knew what had happened, but as it is--well,
you need not be afraid, I shall not offer you help; indeed, I should
refuse it were you to ask. Put your Carlyle in your pocket: he is not
all voices, but he is the best maker of men I know. The great thing to
learn of life is not to be afraid of it."

"Look me up now and then," he added, "and we'll talk about the stars,
the future of Socialism, and the Woman Question--anything you like
except about yourself and your twopenny-half-penny affairs."

From another it would have sounded brutal, but I understood him. And
so we shook hands and parted for longer than either of us at the time
expected. The Franco-German War broke out a few weeks later on, and
Hal, the love of adventure always strong within him, volunteered his
services, which were accepted. It was some years before we met again.

On the door-post of a house in Farringdon Street, not far from the
Circus, stood in those days a small brass plate, announcing that the
"Ludgate News Rooms" occupied the third and fourth floors, and that the
admission to the same was one penny. We were a seedy company that every
morning crowded into these rooms: clerks, shopmen, superior artisans,
travellers, warehousemen--all of us out of work. Most of us were young,
but with us was mingled a sprinkling of elder men, and these latter were
always the saddest and most silent of this little whispering army of
the down-at-heel. Roughly speaking, we were divided into two groups:
the newcomers, cheery, confident. These would flit from newspaper to
newspaper with buzz of pleasant anticipation, select their advertisement
as one choosing some dainty out of a rich and varied menu card, and
replying to it as one conferring favour.

"Dear Sir,--in reply to your advertisement in to-day's _Standard_, I
shall be pleased to accept the post vacant in your office. I am of good
appearance and address. I am an excellent--" It was really marvellous
the quality and number of our attainments. French! we wrote and spoke it
fluently, _a la Ahn_. German! of this we possessed a slighter knowledge,
it was true, but sufficient for mere purposes of commerce. Bookkeeping!
arithm