Six months--of the hardest effort, the most strenuous labour he had ever passed through.

He looked back upon it with exultation.

Never had he been so conscious of expanding power and justified ambition.

Through the Berners Street life-school he had obtained some valuable coaching and advice which had corrected faults and put him on the track of new methods.

But it was his own right hand and his own brain he had mostly to thank, together with the opportunities of London.