Life in London | Page 4

Compton had said I should not have anything for the first six
months. I can't make ends meet if I attempt to do what I have planned,
that's very certain; so I shall quietly wait till the first Saturday night
comes, and I feel the half-guinea in my hand, and then I shall better
realize what it is worth."
That was a pleasant evening Mrs. Weston and George spent together in
discussing the events of the day, and when it became time to separate
for the night, she said--
"This is one of the happiest days we have spent for a long time, George.
How your poor father would have enjoyed sharing it with us!" and the
widow sighed.
"Mother," said George, "I have thought of poor father so many times

to-day, and I have formed a resolution which I mean to try and keep.
He was a good man. I don't think he ever did anything really
wrong--and I recollect so well what he used to tell me, when I was a
boy"--(George had jumped into manhood in a day, he fancied)--"I mean
to take him for a model; and if I find myself placed in dangers and
difficulties, I shall always ask myself, 'What would father have done if
he had been in this case?' and then I should try and do as he would."
"May you have strength given to you, my deal boy, to carry out every
good resolution! But remember, there is a model which must be taken
even before that of your father. I mean the pure, sinless example of our
Lord; follow this, and adhere to the plain directions of God's word, and
you cannot go wrong. And now, good night; God bless you, my son!"
It was a long time before George went to sleep; again and again the
events of the day came to his memory, and he travelled in thought far
into the future, peering through the mist which hung over unborn time,
and weighing circumstances which might never have a being.
"I shall be quite accustomed to my duties by next Monday," he said to
his mother in the morning; "for I was all night long busy in the office,
counting money, posting books, and when I awoke I was just signing a
deed of partnership in the name of Compton and Weston."
CHAPTER II.
SCHOOL-BOY DAYS.
George Weston was an only son, and, at the time our story commences,
was nearly seventeen years of age. His early years had been spent at
home, under the watchful care of kind and good parents. When he was
ten years old he was sent to a boarding school at Folkestone, and placed
in the charge of Dr. Seaward, a good man, who superintended his
education, and, besides imparting secular instruction, endeavoured to
train his character and make him good as well as clever. George was a
sharp, shrewd boy, a keen observer, who would know the why and the
wherefore of everything, and his lessons always came to him more as
an amusement than a task. He had a horror of being low down in his

class, and if he did not retain his place at the top, it was rarely through
inattention or want of study on his part.
George was a great favourite with the whole school; he was a merry,
joyous fellow, who always had sunshine in his face and a kind word on
his lips; a ringleader in any harmless fun, and a champion on the side of
all the younger boys who met with oppression or injustice from the
elder classes. At cricket or football, swimming or boating, George had
few superiors; and as he was one of those boys who seem determined,
whatever they do, to do it with all their might, he went heart and soul
into all the spoils with such a zest and earnestness that he acquired the
name of the "Indefatigable." Nor did this name merely apply to his zeal
in sports. There was not in the whole school a more diligent student
than George: there was for him "a time to work and a time to play," and
he never allowed one to trespass upon the other. He would rather go
without a game at cricket for a fortnight than be behindhand in one of
his lessons. The boys would laugh at him for this, but George could
bear to be laughed at on such points, because he knew he was in the
right. "I came to school to learn," he would say, "and I don't see any fun
in making my parents pay heavy fees for me every year to play cricket
at the expense of study." Every boy knew there was wisdom in this, and
they secretly admired George for