Scawthorne--at all events,
a young lady thus known--who was preparing herself for the stage.
This gentleman was 'something in the City;' he had rather a close
look, but proved genial enough, and was very ready to discuss things
in general with Mr. Polkenhorne and his capitalist friend Mr.
Camden, just from the United States.
A word or two about Charles Henry Scawthorne, of the circumstances
which made him what you know, or what you conjecture. His father had
a small business as a dyer in Islington, and the boy, leaving school
at fourteen, was sent to become a copying-clerk in a solicitor's
office; his tastes were so strongly intellectual that it seemed a
pity to put him to work he hated, and the clerkship was the best
opening that could be procured for him. Two years after, Mr.
Scawthorne died; his wife tried to keep on the business, but soon
failed, and thenceforth her son had to support her as well as
himself. From sixteen to three-and-twenty was the period of young
Scawthorne's life which assured his future advancement--and his
moral ruin. A grave, gentle, somewhat effeminate boy, with a great
love of books and a wonderful power of application to study, he
suffered so much during those years of early maturity, that, as in
almost all such eases, his nature was corrupted.
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