being over, I should be sent to London to complete my
education and to receive those finishing touches in manners and
deportment 'which a metropolis of wealth and fashion alone can give.'

"Never having left home before, I looked forward to my journey with some
feeling of excitement and not a little of foreboding and dread. I could
not quite make up my mind whether I was really sorry or glad. The quiet
home life to which I had been accustomed, varied only by occasional
visits from the more old-fashioned of the local country families, made
me long for the larger life, which I knew must belong to the biggest
city in the world (life which I was simple enough to think I might see a
great deal of even from the windows of a boarding-school), and made me
look forward with joyful anticipation to my journey; while the fear of
flying from the humdrum that I knew, to discipline I knew not of, made
me temper my anticipations with misgivings and cloud my hopes with
fears. To put the matter practically, I think I was generally glad when
I got up in the morning and sorry when I went to bed at night.

"My father's house stood about a hundred yards from the main road, some
three miles west of Salisbury, and in order to take my passage for
London, it was necessary that I should be driven into Salisbury in the
family buggy to join the Exeter mail. I well remember the start. My
carpet-bag and trunk had been locked and unlocked a great many times
before they were finally signed, sealed, and delivered to the old
man-servant who acted as gardener, coachman, and general factotum to our
household, and when we started off my father placed a book in my hands,
that I might have something with me to beguile the tedium of the
journey. My father accompanied me as far as Salisbury to bespeak the
care and attention of the guard on my behalf, but finding that the only
other inside passenger was an old gentleman of whom he had some slight
knowledge, he commended me to my fellow-passenger's protection, and with
many admonitions as to my future conduct, left me to pursue the journey
in his company.

"I was feeling rather dull after my companion had exhausted the
commonplaces of conversation, and experienced a strange loneliness when
I saw that he had fallen fast asleep in his comfortable corner enveloped
in rugs and furs. Driven in upon my own resources I opened my book, and
began to read, though the faint light of the coach lamp did not offer me
much e