f-angry Jerome.

"Please, sir, I am the tother chambermaid."

Finding it easier to give shillings than half-crowns, Jerome handed the
woman a shilling, and again restored his purse to his pocket, glad that
another woman was not to be seen.

Scarcely had he commenced congratulating himself, however, before three
men made their appearance, one after another.

"What have _you_ done for me?" he asked of the first.

"I am the boots, sir."

The purse came out once more, and a shilling was deposited in the
servant's hand.

"What do I owe you?" he inquired of the second.

"I took your honor's letter to the post, yesterday, sir."

Another shilling left the purse.

"In the name of the Lord, what am I indebted to you for?" demanded
Jerome, now entirely out of patience, turning to the last of the trio.

"I told yer vership vot time it vas, this morning."

"Well!" exclaimed the indignant man, "ask here who o'clock it is, and
you have got to pay for it."

He paid this last demand with a sixpence, regretting that he had not
commenced with sixpences instead of half-crowns.

Having cleared off all demands in the house, he started for the railway
station; but had scarcely reached the street, before he was accosted by
an old man with a broom in his hand, who, with an exceedingly low bow,
said,--

"I is here, yer lordship."

"I did not send for you; what is your business?" demanded Jerome.

"I is the man what opened your lordship's cab-door, when your lordship
came to the house on Monday last, and I know your honor won't allow a
poor man to starve."

Putting a sixpence in the old man's hand, Jerome once more started
for the depot. Having obtained letters of introduction to persons in
Manchester, he found no difficulty in getting a situation in a large
manufacturing house there. Although the salary was small, yet the
situation was a much better one than he had hoped to obtain. His
compensation as out-door clerk enabled him to employ a man to teach him
at night, and, by continued study and attention to business, he was soon
promoted.

After three years in his new home, Jerome was placed in a still higher
position, where his salary amounted to fifteen hundred dollars a year.
The drinking, smoking, and other expensive habits, which the clerks
usually indulged in, he carefully avoided.

Being fond of poetry, he turned his attention to literature. Johnson's
"Lives of the Poets," the writings of Dryden, Addison, Pope, Cl