endure to hear of anybody sitting and looking at a
wail, it's no use my going on with my story."

"I only meant that I could imagine how miserable he was that day," said
I; "but go on, please."

"Two or three days after, Charlie Newcome called. Tom was alone, but he
refused to see him. He cursed to himself when he heard the name.
Charlie went back disappointed, but Tom made a great boast to his
`friends' that same night of his `cold shoulder to the prig,' as he
called it, and they highly applauded him for his sense.

"Again, a week later, Charlie called once more, but with the same
result. He wrote letters, but Tom put them in the fire unread; he sent
books, but they were all flung into a corner. In a thousand different
ways he contrived to show Tom that, though ill-used and in suited, he
was still his friend, and ready to serve him whenever opportunity should
offer.

"All this while Tom was sinking lower and lower in self-respect. He was
contracting a habit of drinking, and in a month or two after you had
left he rarely came home sober."

"And what about his bad friends?" asked I.

"There you are! why can't you let me tell my story in peace? His bad
friends visited him daily at first, made a lot of him, and praised him
loudly for his resolution in dismissing Charlie, and for his `growing a
man at last.' They lent him money, they lost to him at cards and
billiards, and they made his downward path as easy for him as possible.

"At last, about six months ago, Tom was found tipsy in the dissecting-
room at the hospital, and cautioned by the Board. A fortnight later he
was found in a similar state in one of the wards, and then he was
summarily expelled from the place, and his name was struck off the roll
of students."

"Has it come to that?" I groaned.

"Come to that? Of course it has; I shouldn't have said so if it
hadn't," replied the testy pin, who seemed unable to brook the slightest
interruption. "He took a fit of blues after that; he went to the Board,
and begged to be allowed to return to his studies, representing that all
his prospects in life depended on his finishing his course there. They
gave him one more chance. In his gratitude he resolved to discard his
companions, and actually sat down and wrote a letter to Charlie, begging
him to come and see him."

"Did he really?" I exclaimed, trembling with eagerness.

"All right, I shall not tell you of it again. Stop me once more, and
you'l