insults I had often met with, and the fears
that had beset me during my penury, I had,
suffered from them bitterly at an age and
with a disposition that bore them very ill;
and I was eager to revisit the scenes of my
wretchedness in a better plight. I know it
was but a sorry ambition, but I am not a
philosopher, nor indeed a wise man of any kind:
how should it be expected of a mere mauvais
sujet and fast man like me ? Never, however,
shall I cease to be thankful for so much
of fastness as prompted me to follow the
drag upon the most spirited horses I could
get at St. Winifred's; for that part of my
university education had been useful to me indeed.
When house and land were gone and spent,
horse-breaking was most excellent.

A circumstance, slight in itself, which
occurred after I had been about five years my
own master, determined me still more upon
leaving the colony as soon as I had made a
sufficient fortune. A man came to my office
one day to apply for a groom's place, who
had been a servant of my father's and of my
half-brother Robert's. Jem had been sent
away (I dare say for no good, but I was
quite ready to think it a hard case), and had
come over to Sydney, as I had done, to try
his luck. Seeing my name about the streets,
he had applied to me in the hope that I
might turn out to be his young master,
Charlie. I engaged him, of course, at once,
and asked him all manner of questions about
the old house and its inmates.

Miss Susan had quarrelled with her
brother, and lived elsewhere. Mr. Robert, who
had now no cure of souls, saw a deal of
company, male and female, and there had
been talk of his going to be married at one
time, but nothing came of it.

In answer to my inquiry, of whether he
spoke of me at all? Jem said:

"Yes; he often does at dinner-time, while
I's waiting at table. You goes by a queer
name, which I can't mind now; but it means
a black sheep."

"A mauvais sujet?" I suggested.

"Ah, that's it. Yes; you be a mauvay
sujay, now, among the gentlefolks."

Whether it was my college education, or
my connection with the bill-discounter, or my
relationship to Robert, or my intercourse
with stable-grooms, which prompted me to
use such an expression, I cannot tell, but I
said:

"Curse the gentlefolks!" and bade Jem go
to his work. I was determined to show
them I was not what they were pleased to
call me.

In a few days I had well disposed of my
stock in hand, and of the goodwill of my
excellent business; and, upon reckoning all
savings from the hour I set foot in Sydney
seven years before, I found myself possessor
of twenty thousand pounds. I am not
exaggerating it by one shilling; and I doubt not
that, if I had remained there until now, my
yearly profits would have averaged about five
thousand pounds. But, I had enough and to
spare as it was, and took my passage in a
first-class steamer for Great Britain, with
as light a heart as a man might carry, and
with but seven-and-twenty years upon my
back. The contrast between this voyage
and the last was agreeable enough; but
my arrival at Southampton quite brought
tears of gratitude into my eyes. I was alone
as before, and occupied the very same room
in the very same hotel that I had slept in
previous to my emigration; but in the sight of
the world (and I fear in my own sight also)
I was a thousand times the better man. My
astonishing success at Sydney had of course
been much magnified, so that I had been
a star amongst my fellow-passengers; yet I
was scarcely prepared to see in the arrivals
of the next morning's paper, that the great
colonial capitalist, Charles Wroughton,
Esquire, had returned, after a short absence,
to his native land; but so it was.

I took a small well-furnished house in London
and found no difficulty in getting nice
people to come to it. I made myself real and
sterling friends: not because I was richer now
than before, but because I had opportunities
of making friends, which before could not
exist. Upon colonial matters, I am considered
so high an authority that I have been
more than once consulted by the government;
and of private applications from the families
of young men about to emigrate I have had
absolutely scores. They generally set forth
that the youths know several languages
(especially dead ones), have the gift of
teaching, and play excellently upon the cornet-à-
pistons; or sometimes, holding the popular
opinion of emigrant virtues, they warrant
them able to turn their hand to anything,
and with a taste for mechanics. But my
invariable reply to all is, " Can he ride ?"

I hope, however, that I do not shrink from
assisting all I can; that I have not forgotten
rny own hopeless condition only a few years
back; and that, especially, when I come
across a poor mauvais sujet I give him a helping
hand. As for such an expression being
applied to myself, May Fair would rise as one
man (and woman) in arms against it. If there
is a title that becomes me more than another
it is— from the haunts of business, a steady
young fellow, or— from the drawing-rooms, an
eligible young man. Nay to show what a
change my reformation (?) has made even in
my enemies, I possess this (unanswered)
letter:

Dear Charles, I am delighted to hear of your great
success in the colonies and of your safe return to
England. We, down in Berkshire, always prophesied as
much, from our knowledge of your determination and
shrewdness; whenever you shall think proper to come
home again, you will find a hearty welcome from many
an old friend, and especially from

Your affectionate brother,

ROBERT WROUGHTON.