Chapter VII

Some Scenes in the Life of a Countess



About the middle of January Harry Clavering went up to London, and
settled himself to work at Mr. Beilby's office. Mr. Beilby's office
consisted of four or five large chambers, overlooking the river from the
bottom of Adam Street in the Adelphi, and here Harry found a table for
himself in the same apartment with three other pupils. It was a fine old
room, lofty, and with large windows, ornamented on the ceiling with
Italian scroll-work, and a flying goddess in the centre. In days gone by
the house had been the habitation of some great rich man, who had there
enjoyed the sweet breezes from the river before London had become the
London of the present days, and when no embankment had been needed for
the Thames. Nothing could be nicer than this room, or more pleasant than
the table and seat which he was to occupy near a window; but there was
something in the tone of the other men toward him which did not quite
satisfy him. They probably did not know that he was a fellow of a
college, and treated him almost as they might have done had he come to
them direct from King's College, in the Strand, or from the London
University. Down at Stratton a certain amount of honor had been paid to
him. They had known there who he was, and had felt some deference for
him. They had not slapped him on the back, or poked him in the ribs, or
even called him old fellow, before some length of acquaintance justified
such appellation. But up at Mr. Beilby's, in the Adelphi, one young man,
who was certainly his junior in age, and who did not seem as yet to have