figures. When he at last began to assist his master in giving
lessons the accounts had fallen into arrear, and Mrs. Skene had to
resume her former care of them; a circumstance which gratified her
husband, who regarded it as a fresh triumph of her superior
intelligence. Then a Chinaman was engaged to do the more menial work
of the establishment. "Skene's novice," as he was now generally
called, was elevated to the rank of assistant professor to the
champion, and became a person of some consequence in the gymnasium.

He had been there more than nine months, and had developed from an
active youth into an athletic young man of eighteen, when an
important conversation took place between him and his principal. It
was evening, and the only persons in the gymnasium were Ned Skene,
who sat smoking at his ease with his coat off, and the novice, who
had just come down-stairs from his bedroom, where he had been
preparing for a visit to the theatre.

"Well, my gentleman," said Skene, mockingly; "you're a fancy man,
you are. Gloves too! They're too small for you. Don't you get
hittin' nobody with them on, or you'll mebbe sprain your wrist."

"Not much fear of that," said the novice, looking at his watch, and,
finding that he had some minutes to spare, sitting down opposite
Skene.

"No," assented the champion. "When you rise to be a regular
professional you won't care to spar with nobody without you're well
paid for it."

"I may say I am in the profession already. You don't call me an