circumstances of birth and education, developed here and there by
the experience of life, yet rigidly limited in the upshot by the
control of material ease, the fatal lordship of the comfortable
commonplace. Of such was Hubert Eldon. In him, despite his birth and
breeding, there came to the surface a rich vein of independence,
obscurely traceable, no doubt, in the characters of certain of his
ancestors, appearing at length where nineteenth-century influences
had thinned the detritus of convention and class prejudice. His
nature abounded in contradictions, and as yet self-study--in itself
the note of a mind striving for emancipation--had done little for
him beyond making clear the manifold difficulties strewn in his path
of progress.

You know already that it was no vulgar instinct of sensuality which
had made severance between him and the respectable traditions of his
family. Observant friends naturally cast him in the category of
young men whom the prospect of a fortune seduces to a life of riot;
his mother had no means of forming a more accurate judgment. Mr.
Wyvern alone had seen beneath the surface, aided by a liberal study
of the world, and no doubt also by that personal sympathy which is
so important an ally of charity and truth. Mr. Wyvern's early life
had not been in smooth waters; in him too revolt was native,
tempered also by spiritual influences of the most opposite kind. He
felt a deep interest in the young man, and desired to keep him in
view. It was the first promise of friendship that had been held out
to Hubert, who already suffered from a sense of isolation, and was
wondering in what class of society he would have to look for his
kith and kin. Since boyhood he had drawn apart to a great extent
from the companionships which most readily offered. The turn taken
by the circumstances of his family affected the pride which was one