down, defiant, and suspicious face, disengaged,
not breaking anything, destroying no furniture—
this was enough at once to fix suspicion. With
an habitual instinct, the governess's eyes
wandered to the various objects in the room, and
seeing mine fixed with a stupid persistence on
the sideboard, she flew to it. All was revealed;
the missing puff (they had been ordered by her).
The case was too serious to be dealt with; the
head of the house was called down, the wretched
malefactor was examined; the tiny flakes
about his lips—the general air of jam—a plum-
stone found on the carpet, &c., were circumstantial
evidence. Then it was, before committal,
that the solemn prophecy was again heard.

These two little scenes will help the reader
to an idea of the attitude I occupied towards
our family. I see myself at this far-off era—I
am speaking of the pre-boarding-school time—
trudging along the weary and monotonous
dunes of childish education: a red-cheeked, bold,
insubordinate urchin, a gamin wearing a very
green frock, glazed belt and buckle, and over
whom there was much periodical shaking of
heads, tears, and agonies of responsibility. It
was what might be called a purely female household;
three sisters, an anxious mother presiding,
and an imported governess assisting. The
little scene lay in an adjacent country, and the
district of this early probation was the outlying
portion, of a large city, where the more solid
metropolitan fabric began to fray off as it were,
and open into the still decent suburb. It was
the skirt touching the green fields of the country,
and yet was strictly town. This amphibious attitude
was specially chosen for the grand and absorbing
end of "bringing up the children," and
promoting their dear health both of mind and
body. Streets, sloping down a hill many ways,
led off fan-like, to soft green lanes, pleasant
country-roads, to the sea itself, and, a more
serious business still, to a great park. Our
walks came round every day at a fixed hour,
with Model Prison-like strictness, being preceded
by a rigorous enforcement of uniform. Then,
having passed the proper officer,
who reported "our being fit to be seen," we
were duly marshalled, and with the governess,
Miss Simpson, as sergeant of the little
force, set forth hand in hand. How I recal
the monotony of that road, ever the same—
Miller's Mall, it was called—which we paced
day after day, strictly in pursuit of health. It
was garnished with ditches on each side, richly
stocked with "pinkeens" and other noble fish,
while frogs and sticklebacks abounded. I could
have stopped the whole day engaged in the
fascinating and absorbing sport. But this
would have been a pastime the "low boys" of
the district followed. Was I not being correctly
brought up "as a gentleman?" and
the sergeant had her instructions accordingly.
When I looked to the green field or common
on one side of the road, and saw the juvenile
commons or plebs of the district engaged
uproariously in hunting the wild cat, which, driven
by cruelties from town life and town roofs and
tiles, had become savage; or when I heard the
roar and cheerful quarrel arising from the game
of "hurling;" I would have entered into an
arrangement on the spot with any capable magician
who would have secured me a like enjoyment.
No one can conceive the force of my
hungering and thirsting after rustic sports, the
cheap joys of nature; going out for the day
with contemporaries, getting thoroughly dirty
and hot all over, residing in ditches and bogs,
firing brass ordnance of a calibre nearly that of
a magnum bonum pen, and, above all, the
proprietorship of a knowing terrier with a love for
sport. None of these things were allowed to me.
I was looked on as a sort of street Arab, one
of the tares of bad tastes and inclinations, which
female hands were always busily plucking up.
I have no doubt a good deal of promising young
wheat was unintentionally grubbed up in the
process. This, I believe, was principally owing
to the baleful influence of an old friend—and
an elderly friend, too—of the family, a retired
clergyman, Mr. Bickers, who had known our
parent in a former and happier state; a sour dry
curmudgeon, but who possessed the most
extraordinary influence over her, which in angry
moments I was inclined to attribute to alliance
with evil spirits. This man, always coming to
give advice, and sitting for hours, during which
time he accepted sherry wine and cake profusely,
had taken a dislike to me, simply because
he knew I had sounded the depths of his
infamy. Rare but splendid banquets were given
in his honour, when he would graciously "fix
his own day," and name a friend or two whom
he would like to meet. Sometimes he would
have a banquet given to welcome one of his own
personal familiars, whom he wished thus
inexpensively to compliment. These awful festivities
left their mark on the establishment, and
cast their shadow, not only for weeks after,
but for a fortnight before, when the house
resounded with the din of preparation. The now-
recording Pariah, indeed, looked forward to
them with something of the zest with which
the brigand expects the coming diligence, for
during the banquet he was known to prowl,
escaping the sentries placed to watch him, and
intercept the descending delicacies.

Mr. Bickers's hostility could be more immediately
traced to one particular overt act.

When it was known that Mr. Bickers had
arrived below, and the usual express had come
to Miss Simpson to hurry her little force into
full uniform and send them down, it was
curious to observe how differently the news
affected us. The young ladies—already incipient
coquettes—got on their frocks with
alacrity, and offered their tiny heads to the
rough brush, and their soft hair to be tied up
with showy ribbons by the Mary or Jane then
in office. To them this going down to company
was a welcome treat. They scented the campaigns
of later years from afar. At that time
they reckoned but nine or ten years. But the
present Pariah had to be fetched from some
den in the roof or purlieu where his lair