in the first place, not a gentleman; everything he said or did proclaimed him “Cad.” His oily hair, and still more oily tongue; his dirty finger-nails and dirtier ideas; his paper collars and imitation jewellery; his low money-grubbing propensities; his scheming cunning to win the favour of those who could help him, and his insolent contempt of those whom he considered to be beneath him in position, made him detested by the men of the school who were unfortunate enough to have to associate with him. To thrash him was of no use. Who could fight such a contemptible object? So all sorts of tricks were played upon him, which he resented in his own way; and as he had much influence with the authorities, his resentment was not always to be despised. As he did a good deal of money-lending at exorbitant interest, he was always able to secure the favour of the very considerable section of the men who were in his debt. Such a man can always hold his own, and Mr. Mole held his at St. Bernard’s, and was not to be put down. If popular dislike could exterminate—say—toads, how few would be left! And as toads must have some use in the economy of nature, there is no knowing what disarrangements of her plans their disappearance might effect. There was possibly some use for Mr. Mole, or “Molly Cular,” as he was usually called. He acquired this epithet from a mispronunciation in his early days at the hospital of the term “molecular,” and the nickname stuck to him even when he became house surgeon. His eye was as quick as his hands were dexterous, and as Jack Murphy used to say, “Mole was cut out for a pick-pocket, but spoiled in the making.” When assisting the lecturers he never failed to detect the larking student who was causing all the uproar, and many were the men who lost marks and favour by the watchful supervision of Demonstrator Mole. His sensitiveness to ridicule served to improve his taste, and he gradually acquired correctness of pronunciation and much general knowledge from sheer dread of the suffering he would have to undergo if caught in the slightest mistake. He had endured so much for dropping his h’s that he fell into the opposite error of a too liberal use of the aspirate. He so economized the truth that he never used it unnecessarily, and was as sparing of it as of his money, though probably not for the same reasons. Of course he scoffed at religion as something beneath the notice of an advanced scientist, and was never more in his element than when shocking some pious pupil by a coarse joke twisted out of Biblical language, or a metaphor which was perverted from a sacred subject. His familiarity with Holy Writ enabled him to shock a great many good people, and amuse some evil ones; but even they were few, as it is rightly considered the mark of a vulgar mind to make fun of any man’s faith. This habit ultimately caused complaints to be made of him to the college board, and he was cautioned that he must abandon it if he expected advancement.