So the tailor said, and so one or two friends in whom I confided also assured me.
I was really quite glad when I had sat down on the floor beside my trunk for the last time, and knew I should not have to perform with the key again till I was unpacking at Low Heath.
My handbag, for certain reasons, I carried with me unlocked.

It contained, to tell the truth, the hat and gloves and tan boots and other _articles de rigueur_ which I did not exactly like to start off in, but which I was resolved to don during the journey, so as to dawn on the Low Heath horizon altogether "up to Cocker," as Tempest would say.
At the last moment my spirits failed me a little.

I had been so taken up with my own plans that I had almost forgotten I was leaving my mother solitary, and turning my back on the sunshine of affection which during the last year had come to be such a natural and soothing feature of my surroundings.
"Don't forget the old home, Tommy," she said.

"God bless you and keep you good, and innocent, and honest! Don't be led astray by bad companions, but try to help others to be good.

And, Tommy dear, don't try to be a man just yet--be the dear boy you are--don't try to be anything else, and--" But here the train began to move, and there was barely time for a farewell kiss.
What she said ran rather in my head, especially the last exhortation, which I was sorry she had uttered.