Z AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 



seat to mine, as much at his ease, apparently, 

 as if he had as much right there as I, who had 

 paid two - and - sixpence for the privilege of 

 appropriating six seats to myself. 



" Or rather " he proceeded. 



" I really must beg, sir," I began ; but some- 

 how his manner overawed me, as it were, into 

 listening. I felt like the wedding-guest in the 

 presence of the Ancient Mariner. He went on 

 in the same tone, without noticing me, or even 

 taking his pipe out of his mouth. 



" Or rather, I struggled into existence, for 

 the egg from which I sprang had lain, with 

 countless others, for well-nigh four months 

 previously in one of the tributary streams of 

 the Upper Tweed. My life, if life it could be 

 called, had hitherto been a dreamy, monotonous, 

 uneventful one, a gleam of sunshine quickening 

 my pulse and increasing the natural yearning I 

 felt for release and liberty, a passing cloud or a 

 chill wind driving me back to somnolency and 

 partial oblivion. But now the garish beams of 

 the late February sun had called me forth into 

 a new world, and I felt myself, with a proud 

 sense of independence, launched, free from 

 trammels and control, upon that wild waste of 



