s and picturesque in personal appearance, with whom he
contrived to become intimate directly. And here, to crown all, was
a Model, sitting for the chest and arms, who had been a great
prize-fighter, and with whom Zack joyfully cemented the bonds of an
eternal (pugilistic) friendship, on the first night of his admission to
Mr. Strather's Academy.

All through the second day of his probation as a student, he labored
at his drawing with immense resolution and infinitesimal progress. All
through the evening he daubed away industriously under Mr. Strather's
supervision, until the Academy sitting was suspended. It would have been
well for him if he had gone home as soon as he laid down his brushes.
But in an evil hour be lingered after the studies of the evening
were over, to have a gossip with the prize-fighting Model; and in an
indiscreet moment he consented to officiate as one of the patrons at an
exhibition of sparring, to be held that night in a neighboring tavern,
for the ex-pugilist's benefit.

After being conducted in an orderly manner enough for some little time,
the pugilistic proceedings of the evening were suddenly interrupted
by one of the Patrons present (who was also a student at the Drawing
Academy), declaring that his pocket had been picked, and insisting that
the room door should be closed and the police summoned immediately.
Great confusion and disturbance ensued, amid which Zack supported the
demand of his fellow-student--perhaps a little too warmly. At any rate,
a gentleman sitting opposite to him, with a patch over one eye, and
a nose broken in three places, swore that young Thorpe had personally
insulted him by implying that he was the thief; and vindicated his moral
character by throwing a cheese-plate at Zack's head. The missile struck
the mark (at the side, however, instead of in front), and breaking when
it struck, inflicted what appeared to every unprofessional eye that
looked at the injury like a very extensive and dangerous wound.

The chemist to whom Zack was taken in the first instance to be bandaged,
thought little of the hurt; but the local doctor who was called in,
after the lad's removal to Kirk Street, did not take so reassuring a
view of the patient's case. The wound was certainly not situated in a
very dangerous part of the head; but it had been inflicted at a time
when Zack's naturally full-blooded constitution was in a very unhealthy
condition, from the effects of much more ardent sp