y and evidently
pleased with the trouble that he took on our behalf." It may be added
that each new stealing enhances the value of all the previous ones,
and therefore creates an obligation to steal yet more. Thus does an act
which would, standing by itself, be criminal, become a virtue if often
enough repeated.

I am not arranging this narrative in chronological sequence; but I think
it was in this year that we went to Manchester to see the exposition.
The town itself was unlovely; but, as we had Italy in prospect, it
was deemed expedient to accustom ourselves in some measure to the
companionship of works of art, and the exhibition professed to contain
an exceptionally fine and catholic collection of them. My father made a
thorough study of them, going to learn and not to judge, and he learned
much, though not quite to believe in Turner or to like the old masters.
For my own part, when not taken on these expeditions, I busied myself
with the building of a kite six feet high, of engineer's cambric, with a
face painted on it, and used to go out and fly it on a vacant lot in the
rear of our lodgings, accompanied by a large portion of the unoccupied
population of Manchester. The kite broke its string one day, and I saw
it descend over the roofs of a remote slum region towards the south, and
I never recaptured it. But my chief energies were devoted to acquiring
the art of fencing with the small-sword from one Corporal Blair, of the
Fourth Dragoon Guards--a regiment which had distinguished itself in the
Crimean War. The corporal was a magnificent-looking creature, and he
was as admirable inwardly as outwardly--the model of an English
non-commissioned officer. He used to come to our lodgings in his
short scarlet jacket and black trousers, and my father once asked
him, remarking the extraordinary prominence of his chest, what kind of
padding was used to produce so impressive a contour. "There's nothing
here but my linen, sir," answered the corporal, modestly, and blushing
a good deal; a fact which I, having often taken my lessons at the
barracks, in the private quarters of the corporal, where he permitted
himself to appear in his shirt-sleeves, already knew. My experience of
the British army not being so large as that of some other persons, I
am unable to say whether there were many other soldiers in it fit to be
compared with Blair; but my acquaintance with mankind in general would
lead me to infer that there could not have b