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Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902

"The Way of All Flesh"

As
for the duty of reading hard, and taking as good a degree as he could,
this was plain enough, so he set himself to work, as I have said,
steadily, and to the surprise of everyone as well as himself got a
college scholarship, of no great value, but still a scholarship, in his
freshman's term. It is hardly necessary to say that Theobald stuck to
the whole of this money, believing the pocket-money he allowed Ernest to
be sufficient for him, and knowing how dangerous it was for young men to
have money at command. I do not suppose it even occurred to him to try
and remember what he had felt when his father took a like course in
regard to himself.
Ernest's position in this respect was much what it had been at school
except that things were on a larger scale. His tutor's and cook's bills
were paid for him; his father sent him his wine; over and above this he
had 50 pounds a year with which to keep himself in clothes and all other
expenses; this was about the usual thing at Emmanuel in Ernest's day,
though many had much less than this. Ernest did as he had done at
school--he spent what he could, soon after he received his money; he then
incurred a few modest liabilities, and then lived penuriously till next
term, when he would immediately pay his debts, and start new ones to much
the same extent as those which he had just got rid of.


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