sober. The character of
this young man was that of a distinct class, comprising the sons of mechanics
who are ruined morally by being taught to consider themselves above manual
labour. Had he from the first been put to a craft, he would in all likelihood
have been no worse than the ordinary English artisan - probably drinking too
much and loafing on Mondays, but not sinking below the level of his fellows in
the workshop. His positive fault was that shared by his brother and sister -
personal vanity. It was encouraged from the beginning by immunity from the only
kind of work for which he was fitted, and the undreamt-of revolution in his
prospects gave fatal momentum to all his worst tendencies. Keene and Rodman
successively did their best, though unintentionally, to ruin him. He was now
incapable of earning his living by any continuous work. Since his return to
London he had greatly extended his circle of acquaintances, which consisted of
idle fellows of the same type, youths who hang about the lowest fringe of
clerkdom till they definitely class themselves either with the criminal
community or with those who make a living by unrecognised pursuits which at any
time may chance to bring them within the clutches of the law. To use a coarse
but expressive word, he was a hopeless blackguard.
    Let us be just; 'Arry had, like every other man, his better moments. He knew
that he had made himself contemptible to his mother, to Richard, and to Alice,
and the knowledge was so far from agreeable that it often drove him to
recklessness. That was his way of doing homage to the better life; he had no
power of will to resist temptation, but he could go to meet it doggedly out of
sheer dissatisfaction with himself. Our social state ensures destruction to such
natures; it has no help for them, no patient encouragement. Naturally he
hardened himself in vicious habits. Despised by his own people, he soothed his
injured vanity by winning a certain predominance among the contemptible. The
fact that he had been on the point of inheriting a fortune in itself gave him
standing; he told his story in public-houses and elsewhere, and relished the
distinction of having such a story to tell. Even as his brother Richard could
not rest unless he was prominent as an agitator, so it became a necessity to
'Arry to lead in the gin-palace and the music-hall. He made himself the
aristocrat of rowdyism.
    But it was impossible to live without ready money, and his mother, though
supplying him with board and lodging, refused to give him a penny.