be told to the reader of Cousin George and the
ways of his life. As Lady Elizabeth had said to her daughter, that
question of admitting black sheep into society, or of refusing them
admittance, is very difficult. In the first place, whose eyes are
good enough to know whether in truth a sheep be black or not? And
then is it not the fact that some little amount of shade in the
fleece of male sheep is considered, if not absolutely desirable,
at any rate quite pardonable? A male sheep with a fleece as white
as that of a ewe-lamb,--is he not considered to be, among muttons,
somewhat insipid? It was of this taste which Pope was conscious
when he declared that every woman was at heart a rake. And so it
comes to pass that very black sheep indeed are admitted into society,
till at last anxious fathers and more anxious mothers begin to be
aware that their young ones are turned out to graze among ravenous
wolves. This, however, must be admitted, that lambs when so treated
acquire a courage which tends to enable them to hold their own, even
amidst wolfish dangers.

Cousin George, if not a ravenous wolf, was at any rate a very black
sheep indeed. In our anxiety to know the truth of him it must not
be said that he was absolutely a wolf,--not as yet,--because in his
career he had not as yet made premeditated attempts to devour prey.
But in the process of delivering himself up to be devoured by others,
he had done things which if known of any sheep should prevent that
sheep from being received into a decent flock. There had been that
little trouble about his commission, in which, although he had not
intended to cheat either Jew, he had done that which the world would
have called cheating had the world known it. As for getting goods
from tradesmen without any hope or thought of paying for them, that
with him was so much a thing of custom,--as indeed it was also with
them,--that he was almost to be excused for considering it the normal
condition of life for a man in his position. To gamble and lose money
had come to him quite naturally at a very early age. There had now
come upon him an idea that he might turn the tables, that in all
gambling transactions some one must win, and that as he had lost
much, so possibly might he now win more. He had not quite yet reached
that point in his education at which the gambler learns that the
ready way to win much is to win unfairly;--not quite yet, but he was
near it. The wolfhood was coming on him