.

"I'll write, mother, as often as ever I can," said Reginald, trying to
speak as if the words did not stick in his throat.

"Tell us all about your quarters, and what you have to do, and all
that," said Horace.

Mrs Cruden had no words. She stood with her eyes fixed on her boy, and
felt she needed all her courage to do that steadily.

"Horrors," said Reg, as the guard locked the carriage door, and the
usual silence which precedes the blowing of the whistle ensued, "keep
your eye on young Gedge, will you? there's a good fellow."

"I will, and I'll--"

But here the whistle sounded, and amid the farewells that followed,
Reginald went out into his new world, leaving them behind, straining
their eyes for a last look, but little dreaming how and when that little
family should meet again.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

HORACE LEARNS AN ART, PAYS A BILL, AND LENDS A HELPING HAND.

"I say, Cruden," said Waterford to Horace one morning, shortly after
Reginald's departure from London, "I shall get jealous if you don't pull
up."

"Jealous of me?" said Horace. "Whatever for?"

"Why, before you came I flattered myself I was a bit of a dab at the
scissors-and-paste business, but you've gone and cut me out completely."

"What rot!" said Horace, laughing. "There's more than enough cutting
out to do with the morning papers to leave any time for operating on
you. Besides, any duffer can do work like that."

"That's all very well," said Waterford. "There's only one duffer here
that can do as much as me and Booms put together, and that's you. Now,
if you weren't such a racehorse, I'd propose to you to join our
shorthand class. You'll have to learn it some time or other, you know."

"The very thing I'd like," said Horace. "That is," he added, "if it
won't take up all a fellow's evenings. How often are the classes?"

"Well, as often as we like. Generally once a week. Booms's
washerwoman--"

"Whatever has she to do with shorthand?" asked Horace.

"More than you think, my boy. She always takes eight days to wash his
collars and cuffs. He sends them to her on Wednesdays, and gets them
back on the next day week, so that we always practise shorthand on the
Wednesday evening. Don't we, Booms?" he inquired, as the proud owner of
that name entered the office at that moment.

"There you are," sighed he. "How do I know what you are talking about?"

"I was saying we always worked up our shorthand on Wednesday evenings."