the
library table. My brother said that on that same day, at breakfast, she pointed
to a volume of Orme's Hindostan, the book, she said, which set poor dear Tom
wild to go to India. I know you will be pleased to hear of these proofs of
returning goodwill and affection in one who often spoke latterly of her early
regard for you. I have no more time, under the weight of business which this
present affliction entails, than to say that I am yours, dear brother, very
sincerely,
                                                                     H. NEWCOME.
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL NEWCOME, etc.«
 

                                   Chapter IV

          In Which the Author and the Hero Resume Their Acquaintance.

If we are to narrate the youthful history, not only of the hero of this tale,
but of the hero's father, we shall never have done with nursery biography. A
gentleman's grandmother may delight in fond recapitulation of her darling's
boyish frolics and early genius; but shall we weary our kind readers by this
infantile prattle, and set down the revered British public for an old woman?
Only to two or three persons in all the world are the reminiscences of a man's
early youth interesting - to the parent who nursed him, to the fond wife or
child mayhap afterwards who loves him - to himself always and supremely,
whatever may be his actual prosperity or ill fortune, his present age, illness,
difficulties, renown, or disappointments, the dawn of his life still shines
brightly for him; the early griefs and delights and attachments remain with him
ever faithful and dear. I shall ask leave to say, regarding the juvenile
biography of Mr. Clive Newcome, of whose history I am the Chronicler, only so
much as is sufficient to account for some peculiarities of his character, and
for his subsequent career in the world.
    Although we were schoolfellows, my acquaintance with young Newcome at the
seat of learning where we first met was very brief and casual. He had the
advantage of being six years the junior of his present biographer, and such a
difference of age between lads at a public school puts intimacy out of the
question - a junior ensign being no more familiar with the commander-in-chief at
the Horse Guards, or a barrister on his first circuit with my Lord Chief Justice
on the bench, than the newly-breeched infant in the Petties with a senior boy in
a tailed coat. As we knew each other at home, as our school phrase was, and our
families being somewhat acquainted, Newcome's maternal uncle, the Rev. Charles
Honeyman (the