’I am not living in this place of my free will.  I am not devoting myself to works of charity.  I am—­no, no, I was—­merely a poor gentleman, who, on a certain day, found that he had wasted his substance in a foolish speculation, and who, ashamed to take his friends into his confidence, fled to a life of miserable obscurity.  You see that I have added disgrace to misfortune.  I will not tell you how very near I came to something still worse.

    ’I have been serving an apprenticeship to a certain handicraft which
    will, I doubt not, enable me so to supplement my own scanty resources
    that I shall be in better circum than hitherto.  I entreat you to
    forgive me, if you can, and henceforth to forget
                Yours unworthily,
                ‘S.  V. TYMPERLEY.’

MISS RODNEY’S LEISURE

A young woman of about eight-and-twenty, in tailor-made costume, with unadorned hat of brown felt, and irreproachable umbrella; a young woman who walked faster than any one in Wattleborough, yet never looked hurried; who crossed a muddy street seemingly without a thought for her skirts, yet somehow was never splashed; who held up her head like one thoroughly at home in the world, and frequently smiled at her own thoughts.  Those who did not know her asked who she was; those who had already made her acquaintance talked a good deal of the new mistress at the High School, by name Miss Rodney.  In less than a week after her arrival in the town, her opinions were cited and discussed by Wattleborough ladies.  She brought with her the air of a University; she knew a great number of important people; she had a quiet decision of speech and manner which was found very impressive in Wattleborough drawing-rooms.  The headmistress spoke of her in high terms, and the incumbent of St. Luke’s, who knew her family, reported that she had always been remarkably clever.

A stranger in the town, Miss Rodney was recommended to the lodgings of Mrs. Ducker, a churchwarden’s widow; but there she remained only for a week or two, and it was understood that she left because the rooms ’lacked character.’  Some persons understood this as an imputation on Mrs. Ducker, and were astonished; others, who caught a glimpse of Miss Rodney’s meaning, thought she must be ‘fanciful.’  Her final choice of an abode gave general surprise, for though the street was one of those which Wattleborough opinion classed as ‘respectable,’ the house itself, as Miss Rodney might have learnt from the incumbent of St. Luke’s, in whose parish it was situated, had objectionable features.  Nothing grave could be alleged against Mrs. Turpin, who regularly attended the Sunday evening service; but her husband, a carpenter, spent far too much time at ’The Swan With Two Necks’; and then there was a lodger, young Mr. Rawcliffe, concerning whom Wattleborough had for some time been too well informed.  Of such comments upon her proceeding Miss Rodney made light; in the aspect of the rooms she found a certain ‘quaintness’ which decidedly pleased her.  ’And as for Mrs. Grundy,’ she added, ’je m’en fiche? which certain ladies of culture declared to be a polite expression of contempt.