had been rusticated,--had then got into another row, and was sent down.
Indeed he had a talent for rows,--though, as Roger Carbury always
declared, there was nothing really wrong about any of them. Paul was
then twenty-one, and he took himself and his money out to California,
and joined his uncle. He had perhaps an idea,--based on very
insufficient grounds,--that rows are popular in California. At the end
of three years he found that he did not like farming life in
California,--and he found also that he did not like his uncle. So he
returned to England, but on returning was altogether unable to get his
£6,000 out of the Californian farm. Indeed he had been compelled to
come away without any of it, with funds insufficient even to take him
home, accepting with much dissatisfaction an assurance from his uncle
that an income amounting to ten per cent, upon his capital should be
remitted to him with the regularity of clockwork. The clock alluded to
must have been one of Sam Slick's. It had gone very badly. At the end
of the first quarter there came the proper remittance,--then half the
amount,--then there was a long interval without anything; then some
dropping payments now and again;--and then a twelvemonth without
anything. At the end of that twelvemonth he paid a second visit to
California, having borrowed money from Roger for his journey. He had
now again returned, with some little cash in hand, and with the
additional security of a deed executed in his favour by one Hamilton
K. Fisker, who had gone into partnership with his uncle, and who had
added a vast flour-mill to his uncle's concerns. In accordance with
this deed he was to get twelve per cent, on his capital, and had
enjoyed the gratification of seeing his name put up as one of the
firm, which now stood as Fisker, Montague, and Montague. A business
declared by the two elder partners to be most promising had been
opened at Fiskerville, about two hundred and fifty miles from San
Francisco, and the hearts of Fisker and the elder Montague were very