parsonage. His dissipation was not of a very costly kind; but L90
per annum will hardly suffice to afford an ample allowance of
gin-and-water and bird's-eye tobacco, over and above the other
wants of a man's life. Bills arrived there requiring payment; and
worse than this, letters also came through Sir Gilbert de Salop
from Mr. Oldeschole, the Secretary, saying that young Tudor was
disgracing the office, and lowering the high character of the
Internal Navigation; and that he must be removed, unless he could
be induced to alter his line of life, &c.

Urgent austere letters came from the father, and fond heart-
rending appeals from the mother. Charley's heart was rent. It
was, at any rate, a sign in him that he was not past hope of
grace, that he never laughed at these monitions, that he never
showed such letters to his companions, never quizzed his
'governor's' lectures, or made merry over the grief of his
mother. But if it be hard for a young man to keep in the right
path when he has not as yet strayed out of it, how much harder is
it to return to it when he has long since lost the track! It was
well for the father to write austere letters, well for the mother
to make tender appeals, but Charley could not rid himself of his
companions, nor of his debts, nor yet even of his habits. He
could not get up in the morning and say that he would at once be
as his cousin Alaric, or as his cousin's friend, Mr. Norman. It
is not by our virtues or our vices that we are judged, even by
those who know us best; but by such credit for virtues or for
vices as we may have acquired. Now young Tudor's credit for
virtue was very slight, and he did not know how to extend it.

At last papa and mamma Tudor came up to town to make one last