we will at once go back to
London and get a tutor." Considering this was the first day of my
well-earned holidays, it was rather rough; but I was adamant about not
returning to school, so turned southwards with my few goods and chattels,
except my much-cherished prizes, which I left with the family, and
proceeded to London on the next day.

So I lost my holidays, but I got my way.

My father selected a man called Wolfram, who up to that time had been
master at several old-fashioned crammers', but was anxious to start an
establishment of his own, and I became his first pupil at Blackheath. As
I had practically only some five months odd to prepare for the only
examination that would be held before I reached my eighteenth birthday, I
entered into an agreement with Mr. Wolfram that I would work as hard as
ever he liked, and for as many hours as he wished, from each Monday
morning till each Saturday at noon, and that from that hour till Sunday
night I meant to enjoy myself and have a complete rest, so as to be quite
fresh to tackle the next week's work. This compact was carried out and
worked admirably, at any rate from my point of view. All went quite
satisfactorily, for when the results of the examination were published I
had come out twenty-second on the list out of some seventeen hundred
candidates, and as there were thirty-three vacancies to be filled, I was
amongst the fortunate ones. As I had found it so difficult to learn the
English language, I was surprised that I practically received full marks
in that subject.

There was generally an interval of six weeks from the time when the
actual examination was completed till the publication of the results. The
examination took place late in the year, and as my people generally went
to Spain for the winter, they decided to take me with them, which pleased
me immensely. We arrived back at Jerez, which I had not seen since our
departure from there in the family train some seven years before, and,
considering myself quite a grown-up young man, I looked forward to a lot
of fun. The journey took some time. We stayed in Paris, Bayonne, Madrid,
and finally reached Jerez. The Carlist War had then been going on for
three or four years (of this more anon), and caused us much delay in that
part of the journey which took us across the Pyrenees, as the railways
had been destroyed.

By the time we arrived in Jerez some five weeks had elapsed, with the
result that, a very few days aft