Now, in many of these cases, all this might have been spared had the men made adequate use of those opportunities which youth and youthful charms afford once--and once only.

There is no road to wealth so easy and respectable as that of matrimony; that, is of course, provided that the aspirant declines the slow course of honest work.

But then, we can so seldom put old heads on young shoulders! In the case of Mr Moffat, we may perhaps say that a specimen was produced of this bird, so rare in the land.

His shoulders were certainly young, seeing that he was not yet six-and-twenty; but his head had ever been old.

From the moment when he was first put forth to go alone--at the age of twenty-one--his life had been one calculation how he could make the most of himself.