. I had hoped to have spent this
vacation with him in that way, but his school bill was higher than
usual, and after paying it, I had not a guinea to spare--obliged to come
here where they lodge and feed me for nothing; the boy's uncle on the
mother's side--respectable man in business--kindly takes him home for
the holidays; but did not ask me, because his wife--and I don't blame
her--thinks I'm too wild for a City clerk's sober household.'

"I asked Willy Losely what he meant to do with his son, and hinted that
I might get the boy a commission in the army without purchase.

"'No,' said Willy. 'I know what it is to set up for a gentleman on the
capital of a beggar. It is to be a shuttlecock between discontent and
temptation. I would not have my lost wife's son waste his life as I have
done. He would be more spoiled, too, than I have been. The handsomest
boy you ever saw-and bold as a lion. Once in that set' (pointing over
his shoulder towards some of our sporting comrades, whose loud laughter
every now and then reached our ears)--'once in that set, he would never
be out of it--fit for nothing. I swore to his mother on her death-bed
that I would bring him up to avoid my errors--that he should be no
hanger-on and led-captain! Swore to her that he should be reared
according to his real station--the station of his mother's kin--(I
have no station)--and if I can but see him an honest British
trader--respectable, upright, equal to the highest--because no rich
man's dependant, and no poor man's jest--my ambition will be satisfied.
And now you understand, sir, why my boy is not here.' You would say a
father who spoke thus had a man's honest stuff in him. Eh, Lionel!"

"Yes, and a true gentleman's heart, too!"

"So I thought; yet I fancied I knew the world! After that conversation,
I quitted our host's roof, and only once or twice afterwards, at
country-houses, met William Losely again. To say truth, his chief
patrons and friends were not exactly in my set. But your father
continued to see Willy pretty often. They took a great fancy to each
other. Charlie, you know, was jovial--fond of private theatricals, too;
in short, they became great allies. Some years after, as ill-luck would
have it, Charles Haughton, while selling off his Middlesex property, was
in immediate want of L1,200. He could get it on a bill, but not without
security. His bills were already rather down in the market, and he had
already exhausted most of the fr