without it. Returning from her wretched journey to
her wretcheder home, the lady had to listen to a mild reproof from
easy-going Diaper,--a reproof so mild that he couched it in blank verse:
for, seldom writing metrically now, he took to talking it. With a
fluent sympathetic tear, he explained to her that she was damaging her
interests by these proceedings; nor did he shrink from undertaking to
elucidate wherefore. Pluming a smile upon his succulent mouth, he told
her that the poverty she lived in was utterly unbefitting her gentle
nurture, and that he had reason to believe--could assure her--that an
annuity was on the point of being granted her by her husband. And
Diaper broke his bud of a smile into full flower as he delivered this
information. She learnt that he had applied to her husband for money.
It is hard to have one's prop of self-respect cut away just when we
are suffering a martyr's agony at the stake. There was a five minutes'
tragic colloquy in the recesses behind the scenes,--totally tragic to
Diaper, who had fondly hoped to bask in the warm sun of that annuity,
and re-emerge from his state of grub. The lady then wrote the letter Sir
Austin held open to his sister. The atmosphere behind the scenes is
not wholesome, so, having laid the Ghost, we will return and face the
curtain.

That infinitesimal dose of The World which Master Ripton Thompson had
furnished to the System with such instantaneous and surprising effect
was considered by Sir Austin to have worked well, and to be for the time
quite sufficient, so that Ripton did not receive a second invitation to
Raynham, and Richard had no special intimate of his own age to rub his
excessive vitality against, and wanted none. His hands were full enough
with Tom Bakewell. Moreover, his father and he were heart in heart.
The boy's mind was opening, and turned to his father affectionately
reverent. At this period, when the young savage grows into higher
influences, the faculty of worship is foremost in him. At this period
Jesuits will stamp the future of their chargeling flocks; and all who
bring up youth by a System, and watch it, know that it is the malleable
moment. Boys possessing any mental or moral force to give them a
tendency, then predestinate their careers; or, if under supervision,
take the impress that is given them: not often to cast it off, and
seldom to cast it off altogether.

In Sir Austin's Note-book was written: "Between Simple Boyhood and
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