"You need not answer. I see you are wedded to your old amusements. Are you still in the place I got for you?"
Stephen Webb looked uneasy and shamefaced.
"I have lost my place," he answered, after a pause.
"How does it happen that you lost it?"
"I don't know. Some one must have prejudiced my employer against me."
"It is your own habits that have prejudiced him, I make no doubt."
This was true. One morning Stephen, whose besetting sin was intemperance, appeared at the office where he was employed in such a state of intoxication that he was summarily discharged. It may be explained that he was a son of Mr. Browning's only sister.
"When were you discharged?" asked his uncle.
"Last week."
"And have you tried to get another situation?"