He made it his business to stimulate these unthrifty instincts, and to fan the welcome sparks of natural idleness; and so successfully that at times there seemed to have entered with him into that gloomy place a certain Bacchic influence, which now and again would prompt his comrades to such daring clutches of animated release, that the spirit of it even pervaded the penetralia of the senior partner's office, with the result that some mishap of truancy would undo the genial work of months, and precipitate upon them for a while the rigours of a ten-fold discipline.

It was after such an occasion that, in writing to James Mesurier as to the progress of his son, old Mr.Septimus Lingard had paid Henry one of the proudest compliments of his young days.

"I fear that we shall make little of your son Henry," he wrote.

"His head seems full of literature, and he is so idle that he is demoralising the whole office." It took Henry more than a year to win that testimonial; but the odds had been so great against him that the wonder is he was ever able to win it at all.

Mr.Lingard wrote "demoralise." It was his way of saying "humanise.".