. Will you turn tutor?"

Percival winced: "That sort of thing isn't easy to get into, is it? I
doubt if I've the least aptitude for teaching, and I never went to
college. I should be a very inferior article--not hall-marked."

"Then write," said Godfrey.

"Cudgel my lazy brains to produce trash, and hate my worthless work,
which probably wouldn't sell. I haven't it in me, Godfrey." There was a
pause.--"By Jove, though, I _will_ write!" said Percival suddenly.

"What will you write?"

"Anything. I'll be a lawyer's clerk."

"But, my good fellow, you'll have to pay to be articled. I fear you
won't make a living for years."

"Articled? nonsense! I'll be a copying-clerk--one of those fellows who
sit perched up on high stools at a desk all day. I _can_ write, at any
rate, so that will be an honest way of getting my living--the only one I
can see."

Hammond was startled, and expostulated, but in vain. The relief of a
decision was so great that Percival clung to it. Hammond talked of a
situation in a bank, but Percival hated figures. His scheme gave him a
chance of cutting himself loose from all former associations and
beginning a new, unknown and lonely life. "No one will take any notice
of a lawyer's clerk," he said. "I want to get away and hide myself. I
don't want to go into anything where I shall be noticed and encouraged,
and expected to rise--don't let any one ever expect me to rise, for I
certainly sha'n't--nor where any one can say, 'That is Thorne of
Brackenhill's grandson.' I'm shipwrecked, and I've no heart for new
ventures."

"Not just at present," said Godfrey.

"Never," said the other. "I'm not the stuff a successful man is made of,
and what I want isn't likely to be gained in business. I might earn
millions, I fancy, if I set them steadily before my eyes and loved the
means for the end's sake, easier than I could get what I covet--three or
four hundred a year, plenty of leisure, and brain and habits unspoilt by
money-making. There's no chance for the man who not only hasn't the
necessary keenness, but wouldn't like to have it. If you want to say,
'More fool you!' you may."

Hammond shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

"Stick to your money, Godfrey," said Thorne with a melancholy smile, "or
you'll feel some day as if the ground were cut away from under your
feet. It isn't pleasant."

"I'll take your word for it," said Hammond.

Percival mused a little. "It's hard, somehow," he said. "I di