Nursed in the lap of haffluence, I was trained to fill the lofty
position which was to have been my lot. But '_necessitas_,' Sir,
as you are aware, '_necessitas non abat lejim_,' and such I found
it. While still receiving a classical education at Cambridge
College--(praps you are yourself an alumbus of _Halma Mater_? No? I
apologise, Sir, I'm sure)--but while preparing to take my honorary
degree, my Father suddenly enounced, the horful news that he was
a bankrup'. Strip of all we possessed, we were turned out of our
sumchuous 'ome upon the cold world, my Father's grey 'airs were
brought down sorrowing to sangwidge boards, though he is still sangwin
of paying off his creditors in time out of what he can put by from his
scanty hearnings. My poor dear Mother--a lady born and bred--sank by
slow degrees to a cawfy-stall, which is now morgidged to the 'ilt,
and my eldest Sister, a lovely and accomplished gairl, was artlessly
thrown over by a nobleman, to 'oom she was engaged to be married,
before our reverses overtook us. His name the delikit hinstinks
of a gentleman will forbid you to inquire, as likewise me to
mention--enough to 'int that he occupies a prominent position amongst
the hupper circles of Society, and is frequently to be met with in the
papers. His faithlessness preyed on my Sister's mind to that degree,
that she is now in the Asylum, a nopeless maniac! My honely Brother
was withdrawn from 'Arrow, and now 'as the yumiliation of selling
penny toys on the kerbstone to his former playfellers. '_Tantee
nannymice salestibus hiræ_,' indeed, Sir!

"But you ask what befell myself." (_You have not--for the simple
reason that, even if you desired information, he has given you no
chance, as yet, of putting in a word._) "Ah, Sir, there you 'ave me on
a tender point. '_Hakew tetigisti_,' if I may venture once more upon
a scholarly illusion. But I 'ave resolved to conceal nothing--and