AT GREENWICH 69 



things too, which I must not mention. She teaches 

 me how it is not necessary to be very rich to do 

 much good. I begin to understand that mamma 

 would find useful occupation and create beauty 

 at the bottom of a volcano. She has little weak- 

 nesses, but is a real generous-hearted woman, which 

 I suppose is the finest thing in the world.' Though 

 neither mother nor son could be called beautiful, 

 they make a pretty picture ; the ugly, generous, 

 ardent woman weaving rainbow illusions ; the 

 ugly, clear-sighted, loving son sitting at her side 

 in one of his rare hours of pleasure, half-beguiled, 

 half-amused, wholly admiring, as he listens. But 

 as he goes home, and the fancy pictures fade, and 

 Stowting is once more burthened with debt, and 

 the noisy companions and the long hours of drudgery 

 once more approach, no wonder if the dirty green 

 seems all the dirtier or if Atlas must resume his 

 load. 



But in healthy natures, this time of moral teeth- 

 ing passes quickly of itself, and is easily alleviated 

 by fresh interests ; and already, in the letter to 

 Frank Scott, there are two words of hope : his 

 friends in London, his love for his profession. The 

 last might have saved him ; for he was erelong to 

 pass into a new sphere, where all his faculties were 

 to be tried and exercised, and his life to be filled with 

 interest and effort. But it was not left to engineer- 

 ing : another and more influential aim was to be 



