layed the young ape to those
who aroused his admiration.

One day when Jane entered the back-parlour he sprang from his seat and
advanced with outstretched hand to meet her: "My dear Lady Jane, how
good of you to come! Do let me clear a chair for you."

"What are you playing at?" asked Jane.

"That's the way to receive a lady when she calls on you.

"Oh!" said Jane.

He practised on her each newly learned social accomplishment. He minced
his broad Lancashire, when he spoke to her, in such a way as to be
grotesquely unintelligible. By listening to conversations he learned
many amazing social facts; among them that the gentry had a bath every
morning of their lives. This stirred his imagination to such a pitch
that he commanded Jane to bring up the matutinal washtub to his
bedroom. By instinct refined he revelled in the resultant sensation of
cleanliness. He paid great attention to his attire, modelling himself,
as far as he could, on young Rowlatt, the architect, on whom he
occasionally called to report progress. He bought such neckties and
collars as Rowlatt wore and submitted them for Jane's approval. She
thought them vastly genteel. He also entertained her with whatever
jargon of art talk he managed to pick up. Thus, though the urchin gave
himself airs and invested himself with affectations, which rendered him
intolerable to all of his own social status, except the placid Mrs.
Seddon and the adoring Jane, he was under the continuous influence of a
high ambition. It made him ridiculous, but it preserved him from
vicious and vulgar things. If you are conscious of being a prince in
disguise qualifying for butterfly entrance into your kingdom, it
behoves you to behave in a princely manner, not to consort with lewd
fellows and not to neglect opportunities for education. You owe to
yourself all the good that you can extract from the world. Acting from
this point of view, and guided by the practical advice of young
Rowlatt, he attended evening classes, where he gulped down knowledge
hungrily. So, what with sitting and studying and backward and forward
journeying, and educating Jane, and practising the accomplishments of a
prince, and sleeping the long sound sleep of a tired youngster, Paul
had no time to think of evil. He was far too much absorbed in himself.

Meanwhile, of Bludston not a sign. For all that he had heard of search
being made for him, he might have been a runaway kitten. Sometimes he
wondered what steps