desire to improve his circumstances by receiving one or two pupils. He
had married young, as has been said, and there had been children born to
him, a son and a daughter. Mrs. Ambrose was a good manager and a good
mother, and her husband had worked hard. Between them they had brought up
their children exceedingly well. The son had in his turn entered the
church, had exhibited a faculty of pushing his way which had not
characterised his father, had got a curacy in a fashionable Yorkshire
watering-place, and was thought to be on the way to obtain a first-rate
living. In the course of time, too, the daughter had lost her heart to a
young physician who had brilliant prospects and some personal fortune,
and the Reverend Augustin Ambrose had given his consent to the union. Nor
had he been disappointed. The young physician had risen rapidly in his
profession, had been elected a member of the London College, had
transferred himself to the capital and now enjoyed a rising practice in
Chelsea. So great was his success that it was thought he would before
long purchase the goodwill of an old practitioner who dwelt in the
neighbourhood of Brompton Crescent, and who, it was said, might shortly
be expected to retire.

It will be seen, therefore, that if Mr. Ambrose's life had not been very
brilliant, his efforts had on the whole been attended with success. His
children were both happy and independent and no longer needed his
assistance or support; his wife, the excellent Mrs. Ambrose, enjoyed
unfailing health and good spirits; he himself was still vigorous and
active, and as yet found no difficulty in obtaining a couple of pupils at
two hundred pounds a year each, for he had early got a reputation for
successfully preparing young gentlemen with whom no other private tutor
could do anything, and he had established the scale of his prices
accordingly. It is true that he had sacrificed other things for the sake
of imparting tuition, and more than once he had hesitated and asked