The people of Piccadilly thought it was the same as Wapping. It was degrading, he said, for a man of Mr. Sterling's substance to live there.

The two changes then, of the school and the residence, were constant themes between uncle George and his sister, when Mr. Sterling was not by; and, as to the school, it was warmly seconded by young Robert himself; who, young as he was, had found out that scarcely any of his schoolfellows had seen St. James's, nor ever went to the other end of the town; and that the Hackney stages were incommodious, dirty, and vulgar. This too had been much noticed and complained of by two young gentlemen, the only persons whose family did not reside in the City, and who, being the sons of a baronet, were treated with greater consideration than the other boys, particularly by Robert Sterling.

All this was urged again and again; and Mrs. Sterling being brought to listen, the transition was not difficult to her good husband; who, though of a sufficiently decided temper in all matters that concerned himself and his business, had, even in these, consideration and affection enough for his wife sometimes to listen to her, though he never gave her a voice. But, on

the other hand, on subjects wherein she was equally concerned (as in all matters of household regulation, and the management of her children), as a just man, he not only thought he was bound to consult her, but found it convenient sometimes to yield to her sway. It is certain, he said, he had never repented it.

On her part, on the present occasion she had studied her husband enough to know, that to propose the changes meditated, as suggestions of uncle George-who was fit, in his brother-inlaw's opinion, only for what he was, a gentleman usher daily waiter-would ruin the whole design. So she lay by, and approached the subject by degrees, as arising entirely out of her own observation.

Report indeed says, that the good lady herself had caught a little of her brother's fashionable propensities, and had begun to think there were politer places than St. Swithin's, for men of her husband's fortune; and though, from the time of her marriage, she had never felt, much less exhibited, any discontent at being so buried, yet now and then, when chatting with a friend whose husband had removed to Bedford Row, she would confess that buried she was. At the same

time, being of a moderate temper, and a woman who, in regard to a husband,

"If she rules him, never shews she rules,"

she trusted to time and favourable changes to bring about her wishes.

These, in the end, were both of them gratified; for though Mr. Sterling, having been at Hackney himself, made a stout defence of it, saying it was worth all the public schools put together, and would therefore on no account listen to a proposal to send his son to Westminster; he so far yielded to his wife's wishes (especially as his fortune was growing more and more flourishing) as to consent that Robert should have a university education; and as a preparation for this, he was placed with a clergyman who took but few pupils, and those only of the genteelest families.

Then, as to the change of abode, having himself no objection (as he could afford it) to get into a purer air, Mrs. Sterling was gratified by a remove to Bloomsbury Square.

Mr. Barker, the tutor who took pupils from none but the genteelest families, was not quite calculated to second Mr. Sterling's views in regard to his son. From having been educated at Eton and Cambridge, he had the most sovereign

contempt for all the little academies (as they are called) that throng the suburbs of London; and from having a sister married to a baronet, who lived in Mount Street, the was equally fastidious in regard to the City. But, as two hundred pounds a-year was not to be despised, he condescended to give his time to the preparation of young Robert for the University; and it is only fair to both tutor and pupil to say, that the prejudices of the one wore away before the progress of the other, and, what was better, the display of many natural good qualities, which shewed themselves pleasantly, whenever not obscured by an uneasiness (the plague-spot of his mind) which arose whenever he thought of, or was thrown into company with, young men in a more brilliant situation than himself.

This spot, though not of much moment in the quiet house of a private tutor in the country, afterwards enlarged, and became of serious consequence to his happiness, when transplanted to Oxford, where in due time he arrived, with a fair, nay, a considerable, portion of Greek and Latin, some knowledge of books, and none at all of the world.

CHAPTER II.

MISERIES OF A FRESHMAN.

"How green are you, and fresh in this old world?"

SHAKSPEARE.-King John.

"You all look strangely on me!"

Hen. IV., Pt. ii.

As Sir Robert Sterling's acquaintance with the world out of his own sphere was very limited, and in the literary world might be said to be none at all, in sending his son to college he had never thought of procuring for him any thing like letters of recommendation to any of the leading characters at Oxford.

He had, indeed, inquired after all the expenses necessary to establish him at one of the best colleges, and these he had provided for liberally through the Oxford Bank-the only connexion he thought necessary in the place. All the rest, he said, might be safely left to take care of itself. "If his abilities are what his tutor has always assured us they are," said he to Lady