were on a par with the learned professions; but, my dear
Drayton, we have fallen upori a painfully enlightened age,
and every fellow can do a little of everything.

"You talk of my friends? You might as well talk of my Three
per Cents. If I had friends, it would be natural enough they
should help me to emigrate as a means of seeing the last of
me; but I rather suspect that my relatives, who by a figure
of speech represent the friends aforesaid, have a lively
faith that some day or other the government will be at the
expense of my passage--that it would be quite superfluous in
them to provide for it.

"You hint that I might marry, meaning thereby marry with
money; and, to be sure, there's Barnard's widow with plenty
of tin, and exactly in that stage of affliction that
solicits consolation; for when the heart is open to sorrow,
Love occasionally steps in before the door closes. Then, a
more practical case. One of these girls here--the fortune is
only fifteen thousand--I think over the matter day and
night, and I verily believe I see it in the light of
whatever may be the weather at the time: very darkly on the
rainy days; not so gloomy when the sky is blue and the air
balmy.

"Do you remember that fellow that _I_ stayed behind for at
the Cape, and thereby lost my passage, just to quarrel with
Headsworth? Well, a feeling of the same sort is tempting
me sorely at this time. There is one of these girls, a poor
delicate thing, very pretty and coquettish in her way, has
taken it into her wise head to prefer a stupid loutish sort
of young sucking barrister to me, and treats me with an
ingenious blending of small compassion and soft pity to
console my defeat. If you could ensure my being an afflicted
widower within a year, I'd marry her, just to show her the
sort of edged tool she has been playing with. I'm often half
driven to distraction by her impertinent commiseration. I
tried to get into a row with the man, but he would not have
it. Don't you hate the fellow that won't quarrel with you,
worse even than the odious wretch who won't give you credit?

"I might marry the sister, I suppose, to-morrow; but that
alone is a reason against it. Besides, she is terribly
healthy; and though I have lost much faith in consumption,