CHAPTER TWO.
HOW I MADE MY FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH STONEBRIDGE HOUSE.
The eventful Monday came at last, and with my little box corded up, with Mrs Hudson as an escort, and a pair of brand-new knickerbockers upon my manly person, I started off from my uncle's house in the coach for Stonebridge, with all the world before me.
I had taken a rather gloomy farewell of my affectionate relative in his study.

He had cautioned me as to my conduct, and given me to understand that at Stonebridge House I should be a good deal more strictly looked after than I had ever been with him.

Saying which he had bestowed on me a threepenny-bit as "pocket-money" for the term, and wished me good-bye.
Under the circumstances I was not greatly overcome by this leave- taking, and settled down to make myself comfortable for my long drive with Mrs Hudson to Stonebridge.
Mrs Hudson had been my nurse ever since I could remember, and now the poor old soul and I were to part for good.

For she was to see me safely inside the doors of Stonebridge House, and then go back, not to my uncle's (where she would no longer be needed), but to her own home.

Of course she was very much depressed by the prospect, and so indeed was I.
For a good while we neither of us said much.