"A young fellow of your age should not want steadying. You have a
strong constitution, but you must not play tricks with it. You must
have been very late last night. It was nearly one before I went to
bed."

"I was playing cards with Major Clutterbuck and one or two others.
We kept it up rather late."

"With Major Clutterbuck?"

"Yes."

"I don't care about your consorting so much with that man. He drinks
and gambles, and does you no good. What good has he ever done himself?
Take care that he does not fleece you." The merchant felt
instinctively, as he glanced at the shrewd, dark face of his son, that
the warning was a superfluous one.

"No fear, father," Ezra answered sulkily; "I am old enough to choose my
own friends."

"Why such a friend as that?"

"I like to know men of that class. You are a successful man, father,
but you--well, you can't be much help to me socially. You need some one
to show you the ropes, and the major is my man. When I can stand alone,
I'll soon let him know it."

"Well, go your own way," said Girdlestone shortly. Hard to all the
world, he was soft only in this one direction. From childhood every