This quality he felt it essential to acquire.

Accordingly he played the young ape to those who aroused his admiration.
One day when Jane entered the back-parlour he sprang from his seat and advanced with outstretched hand to meet her: "My dear Lady Jane, how good of you to come! Do let me clear a chair for you." "What are you playing at ?" asked Jane.
"That's the way to receive a lady when she calls on you.
"Oh!" said Jane.
He practised on her each newly learned social accomplishment.

He minced his broad Lancashire, when he spoke to her, in such a way as to be grotesquely unintelligible.

By listening to conversations he learned many amazing social facts; among them that the gentry had a bath every morning of their lives.

This stirred his imagination to such a pitch that he commanded Jane to bring up the matutinal washtub to his bedroom.