ntended to be, 'draw
upon me to a like amount, if you please;' and it was three weeks
before we could make that out! But let me go on--where was I? Oh, at
'guidance.' 'Recent information has, however, shown me that nothing
could have been more unfortunate than our choice of this young man, his
father being one of the most dangerous individuals known to the police,
a man familiar with the lowest haunts of crime, a notorious swindler,
and a libeller by profession. In the letter which I send off by this
day's post to your tutor I have enclosed one from his father to myself.
It is not very likely that he will show it to you, as it contains the
most insolent demands for an increase of salary--as some slight,
though inadequate, compensation for an office unbecoming my son's rank,
insulting to his abilities, and even damaging to his acquirements." I
give you this in his own choice language, but there is much more in the
same strain. The man, it would appear, has just come out of a lunatic
asylum, to which place his intemperate habits had brought him; and I
may mention that his first act of gratitude to the benevolent individual
who had undertaken the whole cost of his maintenance there was to
assault him in the open street, and give him a most savage beating.
Captain Hone or Holmes--a distinguished officer, as I am told--is still
confined to his room from the consequences.'"

"How very dreadful!" said Mrs. Morris calmly. "Shocking treatment! for
a distinguished officer too!"

"Dreadful fellow he must be," said the boy. "What a rare fright he must
have given my old guardian! But the end of it all is, I 'm to leave
Alfred, and go back to England at once. I wish I was going to sea again;
I wish I was off thousands of miles away, and not to come home for
years. To part with the kind, good fellow, that was like a brother to
me, this way,--how can I do it? And do you perceive, he has n't one word
to say against Alfred? It's only that he has the misfortune of this
terrible father. And, after all, might not that be any one's lot? You
might have a father you couldn't help being ashamed of."

"Of course," said she; "I can fancy such a case easily enough."

"I know it will nearly kill poor Alfred; he 'll not be able to bear
it. He's as proud as he is clever, and he'll not endure the tone of the
Earl's letter. Who knows what he 'll do? Can _you_ guess?"

"'Not in the least. I imagine that he 'll submit as patiently as he can,
and loo