gratitude and had hitherto not failed to pay the vicar the small sum
agreed upon. The result of all this was that Mr. Ambrose had grown very
fond of John, and John had derived great advantage from his position. He
possessed precisely what his father had lacked, namely a strong bent in
one direction, and there was no doubt that he would distinguish himself
if he had a chance. That chance the vicar had determined to give him. He
had made up his mind that his old friend's son should go to college and
show what he was able to do. It was not an easy thing to manage, but the
vicar had friends in Cambridge and John had brains; moreover the vicar
and John were both very obstinate people and had both determined upon the
same plan, so that there was a strong probability of their succeeding.

John Short was eighteen years of age, neither particularly good-looking
nor by any means the reverse. He had what bankers commonly call a lucky
face; that is to say he had a certain very prepossessing look of honesty
in his blue eyes, and a certain look of energetic goodwill in his
features. When he was much older and wore a beard he passed for a
handsome man, but at eighteen he could only boast the smallest of fair
whiskers, and when anybody took the trouble to look long at him, which
was not often, the verdict was that his jaw was too heavy and his mouth
too obstinate. In complexion he was fair, and healthy to look at,
generally sunburned in the summer, for he had a habit of reading out of
doors; his laugh was very pleasant, though it was rarely heard; his eyes
were honest but generally thoughtful; his frame was sturdy and already
inclined rather to strength than to graceful proportion; his head matched
his body well, being broad and well-shaped with plenty of prominence over
the brows and plenty of fulness above the temples. He had a way of
standing as though it would not be easy to move him, and a way of
expressing his opinion which seemed to challenge contradiction. But he
was not a combative boy. If any one argued with him, it soon appeared