on some accounts, to find Mr. Brunton waiting up for him with his
mother.

His explanation of what had happened, told in his merry, ingenuous way,
at once dissipated any anxiety they had felt.

"I recollect Harry Ashton well," said Mrs. Weston. "Dr. Seaward pointed
him out to me, the first time I went to see you at Folkestone, as being
one of his best scholars; and he came home once with you in the holidays
to spend a day or two with us, did he not?"

"That is the same, mother, and a better-hearted fellow it would be hard
to find."

"There is only one disadvantage that I see in your having him as an
intimate friend," said Uncle Brunton, "and that is, he is now very
differently situated in position to you as regards wealth, and you
might find him a companion more liable to lead you into expense than any
of your other friends, because I know what a proud fellow you are,
George," he said, laughingly, "you like to do as your friends do, and
would not let them incur expense on your account unless you could return
their compliment. But I will not commence a moral discourse to-night--it
is time all good folks should be in bed."

All the next day George was thinking over the events of the previous
evening; he was pleased to have found out Harry Ashton, and thought he
would be just the young man he wanted for a companion. Then he compared
their different modes of life--Ashton living in luxuriant circumstances,
without anybody or anything to interfere with his enjoyment, and he,
obliged to live very humbly and carefully in order to make both ends