g.

Jack looked at it--he had never seen anyone so attired.

"He looks very affected," he said.

"Oh, that is the fault of the artist," the foreman answered. "Gentlemen
look just as natural in these clothes as in any other. They are quite
simple, you see--all black, with open vest, white shirt, white tie and
gloves, and patent leather boots."

A quiet smile stole over Jack's face. Humour was by no means a strong
point in his character, but he was not altogether deficient in it.

"I had better have them," he said; "it would look strange, I suppose,
not to be dressed so when others are?"

"It would be a little marked in the event of a dinner or evening party,"
the foreman answered, and so Jack gave the order.

It was two weeks later before he paid his first visit to Mr. Merton; for
the pretty little house which the latter had taken a mile out of the
town had been in the hands of the workmen and furnishers, Mr. Merton
having drawn on his little capital to decorate and fit up the house, so
as to be a pretty home for his daughter.

It was, indeed, a larger house than, from the mere salary attached to
his post, he could be able to afford, but he reckoned upon considerably
increasing this by preparing young men for the university, and he was
wise enough to know that a good establishment and a liberal table go
very far in establishing and widening a connection, and in rendering
people sensible to a man's merits, either in business or otherwise.

As Mr. Merton, M.A., late of St. John's, Cambridge, and third wrangler
of his year, he had already been received with great cordiality by his
colleagues, and at their houses had made the acquaintance of many of the
best, if not the wealthiest men in Birmingham, for at Birmingham the
terms were by no means more synonymous than they are elsewhere.

Jack had ordered his clothes to be sent to a small hotel near the
railway station, and had arranged with the landlord that his portmanteau
should be kept there, and a room be placed at his service on Saturday
afternoon and Monday morning once a month for him to change his things.
He had walked with Mr. Merton and seen the house, and had determined
that he would always change before going there on a Saturday, in order
to avoid comments by servants and others who might be visiting them.

In thus acting Jack had no personal thoughts in the matter; much as he
always shrank from being put forward as being in any way different from
others