fall into a
troubled doze, full of unpleasant dreams one after the other, till it
was time to rise, get his breakfast alone, and hurry off to the office.
For breakfast was late, and aunt, uncle, and cousin did not put in an
appearance till long after Tom had climbed upon his stool in Gray's Inn.

CHAPTER FOUR.

That day and many following Tom sat over his books or copying, musing
upon the injustice of the treatment he was receiving, and feeling more
and more the misery of his new life. He looked with envy at nearly
every boy he met, and thought of the happy, independent life they seemed
to lead. But he worked hard all the same.

"I won't give up," he would say through his set teeth. "Uncle shall see
that if I'm not clever I can persevere, and master what I have to
learn."

But in spite of his determination he did not progress very fast, for the
simple reason that he expected to learn in a few months the work of many
years.

The weeks did not pass without plenty of unpleasant encounters with his
cousin, while pretty well every day there was a snubbing or downright
bullying from his uncle.

"But never you mind, Mr Tom," Pringle would say; "things always come
right in the end."

One of Tom's greatest troubles was his home life, and the evident
aversion shown to him by his aunt. She had received him coldly and
distantly at the first, and her manner did not become warmer as the
months wore on. Possibly she had once been a sweet, amiable woman, but
troubles with her husband and son had produced an acidity of temper and
habit of complaining which were not pleasant for those with whom she
lived. Her husband escaped, from the fact that she held him in fear,
while Sam was too much idolised to receive anything but the fondest
attentions.

Tom's perceptions were keen enough, and he soon saw for himself that his
uncle repented his generosity in taking him into his home; while his
aunt's feeling for him was evidently one of jealousy, as if his presence
was likely to interfere with her darling's prospects.

She resented his being there more and more; and though Tom tried hard to
win her love and esteem, he found at the end of six months that he was
as far from his object as ever.

"I'm only in the way there," he often said to himself; "I wish I could
live always here at the office."

But as he thought this he looked round with a slight shiver, and thought
of how dreary it would be shut up there with the law-b