tance, and his musings suggested no practicable issue into a
more congenial world.

The death of his father when he was sixteen had left him with a certain
liberty for shaping a career. What he saw definitely before him was a
small share in the St. Kitts property of Messrs. Sherwood Brothers, a
small share in the London business of the same firm, and a small sum of
ready money--these things to be his when he attained his majority. His
mother and sister, who lived in a little country house down in
Huntingdonshire, were modestly but securely provided for, and Will
might have gone quietly on with his studies till he could resolve upon
a course in life. But no sooner was he freed from paternal restraint
than the lad grew restive; nothing would please him but an adventure in
foreign lands; and when it became clear that he was only wasting his
time at school, Mrs. Warburton let him go to the West Indies, where a
place was found for him in the house of Sherwood Brothers. At St.
Kitts, Will remained till he was one-and-twenty. Long before that, he
had grown heartily tired of his work disgusted with the climate, and
oppressed with home sickness, but pride forbade him to return until he
could do so as a free man.

One thing this apprenticeship to life had taught him--that he was not
made for subordination. "I don't care how poor I am," thus he wrote to
his mother, "but I will be my own master. To be at other people's
orders brings out all the bad in me; it makes me sullen and bearish,
and all sorts of ugly things, which I certainly am not when my true
self has play. So, you see, I must find some independent way of life.
If I had to live by carrying round a Punch and Judy show, I should
vastly prefer it to making a large income as somebody's servant."

Meanwhile, unfortunately for a young man of this temperament, his
prospects had become less assured. There was perturbation in the sugar
world; income from St. Kitts and from Whitechapel had sensibly
diminished, and it seemed but too likely, would continue to do so. For
some half-year Will lived in London, "looking about him," then he
announced that Godfrey Sherwood, at present sole representative of
Sherwood Brothers, had offered him an active partnership in Little
Ailie Street, and that he had accepted it. He entered upon this
position without zeal, but six months' investigation had taught him
that to earn money without surrendering his independence was no very
easy thing; he p