fear,--he may commit some follies; very likely. He may be taken in, and
lose some money,--he can afford it, and he will get experience in return.
Vices he has none. I have seen him,--ay, with the vicious. Send him out
against the world like a saint of old, with his Bible in his hand, and no
spot on his robe. Let him see fairly what is, not stay here to dream of
what is not. And when he's of age, ma'am, we must get him an object, a
pursuit; start him for the county, and make him serve the State. He will
understand that business pretty well. Tush! tush! what is there to cry
at?"

The captain prevailed. We don't say that his advice would have been
equally judicious for all youths of Percival's age; but he knew well the
nature to which he confided; he knew well how strong was that young heart
in its healthful simplicity and instinctive rectitude; and he appreciated
his manliness not too highly when he felt that all evident props and aids
would be but irritating tokens of distrust.

And thus, armed only with letters of introduction, his mother's tearful
admonitions, and Greville's experienced warnings, Percival St. John was
launched into London life. After the first month or so, Greville came up
to visit him, do him sundry kind, invisible offices amongst his old
friends, help him to equip his apartments, and mount his stud; and wholly
satisfied with the result of his experiment, returned in high spirits,
with flattering reports, to the anxious mother.

But, indeed, the tone of Percival's letters would have been sufficient to
allay even maternal anxiety. He did not write, as sons are apt to do,
short excuses for not writing more at length, unsatisfactory compressions
of details (exciting worlds of conjecture) into a hurried sentence.
Frank and overflowing, those delightful epistles gave accounts fresh from