“You will like it well enough by and by,” said Godfrey.  “I suppose the stingy one at home only drinks Adam’s ale?”

“What is that?”

“Water.  A mess only fit for dogs and felons.  Gentlemen, Anthony, rich gentlemen like you and me, always drink wine.”

“I shall never like it,” said the child.  “I love milk.”

“Milk!  What a baby!  Papa, he says that he never means to like wine.  Is not that a shabby notion?”

“You, you young dog, are too fond of it already.”

“I like everything that you like, pa!” said the spoilt youth.  “If wine is good for you, it must be good for me.  Remember, you told me yesterday that I must obey you in all things.”

“Imitation is not obedience, Godfrey.  I did not tell you to imitate me in all things.  Wine in moderation may be good for a man, and help to beguile a weary hour, and yet may be very hurtful to boys.”

“Well, I never can understand your philosophy, pa.  A boy is a half-grown man; therefore a boy may take half as much wine as a man, and it will do him good.  And as to imitation, I think that is a sort of practical obedience.  Jacob Glen says, ’As the old cock crows, so crows the young one.’”

“You had better not quote my servants’ sayings to me, Godfrey,” said his father, frowning and pushing the wine from him.  “I have treated you with too much indulgence, and am now reaping the fruit of my folly.”

“Surely you are not angry with your Freddy, pa,” said the beautiful boy, hanging upon Algernon’s arm, and looking imploringly into his face.  “It is all fun.”

This was enough to calm the short-lived passion of the Colonel.  One glance into that sparkling animated face, and all the faults of the boy were forgotten.  He was, however, severely mortified by his impertinent remarks, and he determined to be more strict with him for the future, and broke his resolution the next minute.

Algernon Hurdlestone’s life had been spent in making and breaking good resolutions.  No wonder that he felt such a difficulty in keeping this.  If we would remedy a fault, the reformation must be commenced on the instant.  We must not give ourselves time to think over the matter, for if we do, nine chances out of ten, that we never carry our intentions into practice.  Algernon often drank to excess, and too often suffered his young son to be a spectator of his criminal weakness.  Godfrey was his constant companion both in hunting-parties and at the table; and the boy greatly enjoyed the coarse jokes and vulgar hilarity of the roystering uproarious country squires, who, to please the rich father, never failed to praise the witticisms of the son.

Thus the disposition of the child was corrupted, his tastes vitiated, his feelings blunted, and the fine affections of the heart destroyed at the age of ten years.

Algernon was so fond of him, so vain of his fine person and quick parts, that it blinded him to his many faults.  He seldom noticed his habitual want of respect to himself, or the unfeeling and sarcastic remarks of the audacious lad on his own peculiar failings.  To a stranger, Godfrey Hurdlestone presented the painful anomaly of the address and cunning of the man animating the breast of a child.