ch the hounds were assembled. The fire had become too hot for him,
and he thought it best to escape. Had it been Vavasor alone he would
have turned upon him and snarled, but he could not afford to exhibit
any ill temper to the king of the club. Mr Grindley was not popular,
and were Maxwell to turn openly against him his sporting life down at
Roebury would decidedly be a failure.

The lives of such men as Mr Grindley,--men who are tolerated in the
daily society of others who are accounted their superiors, do not
seem to have many attractions. And yet how many such men does one see
in almost every set? Why Mr Grindley should have been inferior to Mr
Maxwell the banker, or to Stone, or to Prettyman who were brewers, or
even to Mr Pollock the heavy-weight literary gentleman, I can hardly
say. An attorney by his trade is at any rate as good as a brewer, and
there are many attorneys who hold their heads high anywhere. Grindley
was a rich man,--or at any rate rich enough for the life he led. I
don't know much about his birth, but I believe it was as good as
Maxwell's. He was not ignorant, or a fool;--whereas I rather think
Maxwell was a fool. Grindley had made his own way in the world, but
Maxwell would certainly not have made himself a banker if his father
had not been a banker before him; nor could the bank have gone on
and prospered had there not been partners there who were better men
of business than our friend. Grindley knew that he had a better
intellect than Maxwell; and yet he allowed Maxwell to snub him, and
he toadied Maxwell in return. It was not on the score of riding that
Maxwell claimed and held his superiority, for Grindley did not want
pluck, and every one knew that Maxwell had lived freely and that his
nerves were not what they had been. I think it had come from the
outward look of the men, from the form of each, from the gait and
visage which in one was good and in the other insignificant. The
nature of such dominion of man over man is very singular, but this is
certain that when once obtained in manhood it may be easily held.

Among boys at school the same thing is even more conspicuous, because
boys have less of conscience than men, are more addicted to tyranny,
and when weak are less prone to feel the misery and disgrace of
succumbing. Who has been through a large school and does not remember
the Maxwells and Grindleys,--the tyrants and the slaves,--those who
domineered and those who submitted? Nor was i