stepfather to the house of a woman of whom she was jealous. The boy
possessed great natural abilities, and in good hands would have turned
out something different than a life-long prison drudge. He was handsome,
genteel in appearance, an apt scholar, though very self-willed and
headstrong, and as he grew up his naturally hot temper became
uncontrollable. At an early age he had discovered that by threats of
self-injury he could bend his parents to his wishes, but found in his
stepfather one who would put up with no nonsense; even when he cut
himself so as to bleed freely, instead of the coveted indulgence it only
procured him an additional thrashing.

At 15 he had become ungovernable at home, and his father had him put in
the county insane asylum, where he remained a year and a half. While
there he caused so much trouble that the attendants were only too glad
when he escaped and went to Liverpool. Here he succeeded in getting a
situation with a dealer in bric-a-brac, rare books and antiquities. In a
short time the proprietor placed so much confidence in his integrity
that he gave him the charge of his place during his own absences, and
young Heep was not long in taking advantage of his position to rob his
employer by taking a book or other article which he sold to some one of
his master's customers. This went on for some time until on one occasion
he took the book to a shop kept by a woman to whom he had previously
sold several articles and offered it for a sovereign. She examined it
and found that it was an ancient, illuminated Greek manuscript, worth
fifty times more than the price young Heep asked for it, and, suspecting
something wrong, she told him to come again for the money the next
evening. At the appointed time he entered the place and was confronted
by his master, who contented himself with upbraiding him for his perfidy
and discharging him from his service.

At this period of his career he had contracted vicious habits, the most
pernicious for him being that of drink, for when sober he was in his
right mind, but the moment the drink was in his common sense departed,
and he became a raving maniac, ready to fight or perpetrate any other
act of folly. Up to this time he had never been tempted to steal only in
order to supply means for improper indulgences.

Not long after being discharged from his situation he was found by the
police acting in so insane a manner under the influence of drink that
the magistrate