him; and he had not been six months in London before he had his
house-of-call in a cross lane running between Essex Street and
Norfolk Street. 'Mary, my dear, a screw of bird's-eye!' came
quite habitually to his lips; and before his fist year was out,
he had volunteered a song at the Buckingham Shades.

The assurance made to him on his first visit to the office by Mr.
Secretary Oldeschole, that the Internal Navigation was a place of
herculean labours, had long before this time become matter to him
of delightful ridicule. He had found himself to be one of six
young men, who habitually spent about five hours a day together
in the same room, and whose chief employment was to render the
life of the wretched Mr. Snape as unendurable as possible. There
were copies to be written, and entries to be made, and books to
be indexed. But these things were generally done by some extra
hand, as to the necessity of whose attendance for such purpose
Mr. Snape was forced to certify. But poor Snape knew that he had
no alternative. He rule six unruly young navvies! There was not
one of them who did not well know how to make him tremble in his
shoes.

Poor Mr. Snape had selected for his own peculiar walk in life a
character for evangelical piety. Whether he was a hypocrite--as
all the navvies averred--or a man sincere as far as one so weak
could accomplish sincerity, it is hardly necessary for us to
inquire. He was not by nature an ill-natured man, but he had
become by education harsh to those below him, and timid and
cringing with those above. In the former category must by no
means be included the six young men who were nominally under his
guidance. They were all but acknowledged by him as his superiors.