He paid many very fruitless visits to Mr.M'Ruen; contrived to run up a score with the proprietor of the dancing saloon in Holborn; and was as negligent as ever in the matter of the lock entries.
'It is no use now,' he would say to himself, when some aspirations for higher things came across his heart; 'it is too late now to go back.

Those who once cared for me have thrown me over.' And then he would again think of Waterloo Bridge, and the Monument, and of what might be done for threepence or fourpence in a pistol gallery.
And then at last came the invitation to Hampton.

He was once more to talk to Mrs.Woodward, and associate with Linda--to see Katie once more.

When he had last left the house he had almost been as much at home as any one of the family; and now he was to return to it as a perfect stranger.

As he travelled down with Norman by the railway, he could not help feeling that the journey was passing over too quickly.