relatives, and that if they wished to
win fame and fortune, there was nothing for it but hard work. Bertie
was the first to realise the great change in his position. Mr. Gregory
was not unkind, but he was stern and cold, and after introducing him to
the head clerk (who showed him a corner in the office where he might
sit, and explained his work), Mr. Gregory took no more notice of him
than of the other lads. After the first day, he found that he would have
to go to the City by himself, and return alone; his uncle gave him a
second-class season ticket, and desired him to catch the half-past eight
train every morning. He also told him where he was to have his dinner,
and for the first month desired one of the older clerks to see to him,
and pay only a certain sum; then he was to return to Kensington at
half-past five every evening, have his tea in the school-room, and read
or amuse himself as best he could till bed-time. His aunt, he rarely
saw; she was not up when he left in the morning, and always was either
entertaining visitors at home or going out to parties in the evening.
His two cousins were quite grown-up young ladies, who seldom
condescended to notice the little office-boy, as they called him, and
two other cousins, about his own age and Eddie's, were away at Eton. So
that poor Bertie would not have had a very lively time, had he not
possessed a wonderful capacity for enjoyment, and a perfect genius for
finding occupation and amusement for himself. He had undisturbed
possession of the deserted school-room, and before long it was a sort of
little museum. He had a number of pets; then he begged corks from the
butler, and manufactured ingenious flower-pots and stands, in which he
grew dainty little mosses and ferns; he made cork frames for some of
Agnes' pretty little pictures, and his grandest achievement was a boat
that he built and rigged entirely himself. Often in the early mornings
he would go for a walk as far into the country as he could, and
sometimes, before going home in the evenings, he would have a run in the
park, and those were all his pleasures. Mr. Gregory scarcely ever
thought of him out of the office; there he always observed every one
closely, and he saw that Bertie was quiet, attentive, industrious, and,
best of all, quick: he never had to be told to do anything a second
time. On Saturdays and Sundays he might go and see his brother, provided
he returned in good time, for he dined with the family