with much amusement how he had told her that she was sure to get on if
she worked hard. "Look at me!" he said swelling visibly with importance;
"I was once a poor boy, without a penny of my own, and now I am a
comfortable man, and have my submarine villa to go to every evening".
That "submarine villa" was an object of amusement when we passed it in
our walks for many a long day. "There is Mr. ----'s submarine villa",
some one would say, laughing: and I, too, used to laugh merrily, because
my elders did, though my understanding of the difference between suburban
and submarine was on a par with that of the honest grocer.

My mother had fortunately found a boy, whose parents were glad to place
him in her charge, of about the age of her own son, to educate with him;
and by this means she was able to pay for a tutor, to prepare the two
boys for school. The tutor had a cork leg, which was a source of serious
trouble to me, for it stuck out straight behind when we knelt down to
family prayers--conduct which struck me as irreverent and unbecoming, but
which I always felt a desire to imitate. After about a year, my mother
found a house which she thought would suit her scheme, namely, to obtain
permission from Dr. Vaughan, the then Head Master of Harrow, to take some
boys into her house, and so gain means of education for her own son. Dr.
Vaughan, who must have been won by the gentle, strong, little woman, from
that time forth became her earnest friend and helper; and to the counsel
and active assistance both of himself and of his wife, was due much of
the success that crowned her toil. He made only one condition in granting
the permission she asked, and that was, that she should also have in her
house one of the masters of the school, so that the boys should not
suffer from the want of a house-tutor. This condition, of course, she
readily accepted, and the arrangement lasted for ten years, until after
her son had left school for Cambridge.