come to
them direct from King's College, in the Strand, or from the London
University. Down at Stratton a certain amount of honor had been paid to
him. They had known there who he was, and had felt some deference for
him. They had not slapped him on the back, or poked him in the ribs, or
even called him old fellow, before some length of acquaintance justified
such appellation. But up at Mr. Beilby's, in the Adelphi, one young man,
who was certainly his junior in age, and who did not seem as yet to have
attained any high position in the science of engineering, manifestly
thought that he was acting in a friendly and becoming way by declaring
the stranger to be a lad of wax on the second day of his appearance.
Harry Clavering was not disinclined to believe that he was a "lad of
wax," or "a brick," or "a trump," or "no small." But he desired that
such complimentary and endearing appellations should be used to him only
by those who had known him long enough to be aware that he deserved
them. Mr. Joseph Walliker certainly was not as yet among this number.

There was a man at Mr. Beilby's who was entitled to greet him with
endearing terms, and to be so greeted himself, although Harry had never
seen him till he attended for the first time at the Adelphi. This was
Theodore Burton, his future brother-in-law, who was now the leading man
in the London house--the leading man as regarded business, though he was
not as yet a partner. It was understood that this Mr. Burton was to come
in when his father went out; and in the meantime he received a salary of
a thousand a year as managing clerk. A very hard-working, steady,
intelligent man was Mr. Theodore Burton, with a bald head, a high
forehead, and that look of constant work about him which such men
obtain. Harry Clavering could not bring himself to take a liking to him,
because he wore cotton gloves, and had an odious habit of dusting his
shoes with his pocket-handkerchief. Twice Harry saw him do this on the
first day of their acquaintance, and he regretted it exceedingly. The
cotton gloves, too, were offensive, as were also the thick shoes which
had been dusted; but the dusting was the great sin.

And there was something which did not quite please Harry in Mr. Theodore
Burton's manner, though the gentleman had manifestly intended to be very
kind to him. When Burton had been speaking to him for a minute or two,
it flashed across Harry's mind that he had not bound himself to marry
t