or two who knew him intimately to cherish an
insane affection for some unknown damsel, whose parentage, education,
and future were not likely to assist his views in the outer world.
Some said that he was educating this damsel for his wife,--moulding
her, so that she might be made fit to suit his taste; but Augustus,
though he knew the secret of all this, was of opinion that it would
come right at last. "He'll meet some girl in the world with a hatful
of money, a pretty face, and a sharp tongue; then he'll bestow his
moulded bride on a neighbouring baker with two hundred pounds for her
fortune;--and everybody will be happy."

Felix Graham was by no means a handsome man. He was tall and thin,
and his face had been slightly marked with the small-pox. He stooped
in his gait as he walked, and was often awkward with his hands and
legs. But he was full of enthusiasm, indomitable, as far as pluck
would make him so, in contests of all kinds, and when he talked on
subjects which were near his heart there was a radiance about him
which certainly might win the love of the pretty girl with the sharp
tongue and the hatful of money. Staveley, who really loved him, had
already selected the prize, and she was no other than our friend,
Sophia Furnival. The sharp tongue and the pretty face and the hatful
of money would all be there; but then Sophia Furnival was a girl who
might perhaps expect in return for these things more than an ugly
face which could occasionally become radiant with enthusiasm.

The two men had got away from the thickness of the Birmingham smoke,
and were seated on the top rung of a gate leading into a stubble
field. So far they had gone with mutual consent, but further than
this Staveley refused to go. He was seated with a cigar in his mouth.
Graham also was smoking, but he was accommodated with a short pipe.

"A walk before breakfast is all very well," said Staveley, "but I
am not going on a pilgrimage. We are four miles from the inn this
minute."

"And for your energies that is a good deal. Only think that you
should have been doing anything for two hours before you begin to
feed."

"I wonder why matutinal labour should always be considered as so
meritorious. Merely, I take it, because it is disagreeable."

"It proves that the man can make an effort."

"Every prig who wishes to have it believed that he does more than his
neighbours either burns the midnight lamp or gets up at four in the
morning. Good whole