me from his mouth, but, on the contrary, much sweet language. His
talk is golden, and he has taught my eldest to say his prayers in
Rommany, which my rover had never the grace to do.' 'He is the pal of my
rom,' said Mrs. Petulengro, who was a very handsome woman, 'and therefore
I likes him, and not the less for his being a rye; folks calls me high-
minded, and perhaps I have reason to be so; before I married Pharaoh I
had an offer from a lord--I likes the young rye, and, if he chooses to
follow us, he shall have my sister. What say you, mother? should not the
young rye have my sister Ursula?'

{picture:'To gain a bad brother, ye have lost a good mother.':
page124.jpg}

'I am going to my people,' said Mrs. Herne, placing a bundle upon a
donkey, which was her own peculiar property; 'I am going to Yorkshire,
for I can stand this no longer. You say you like him: in that we
differs; I hates the gorgio, and would like, speaking Romanly, to mix a
little poison with his waters. And now go to Lundra, my children, I goes
to Yorkshire. Take my blessing with ye, and a little bit of a gillie to
cheer your hearts with when ye are weary. In all kinds of weather have
we lived together; but now we are parted. I goes broken-hearted--I can't
keep you company; ye are no longer Rommany. To gain a bad brother, ye
have lost a good mother.'

CHAPTER XVIII

What profession?--Not fitted for a Churchman--Erratic course--The bitter
draught--Principle of woe--Thou wouldst be joyous--What ails you?--Poor
child of clay.

So the gypsies departed; Mrs. Herne to Yorkshire, and the rest to London:
as for myself, I continued in the house of my parents, passing my time in
much the same manner as I have already described, principally in
philological pursuits; but I was now sixteen, and it was highly necessary
that I should adopt some profession, unless I intended to fritter away my
existence, and to be a useless burden to those who had given me birth;
but what profession was I to choose? there being none in the wide world
perhaps for which I was suited; nor was there any one for which I felt
any decided inclination, though perhaps there existed within me a lurking
penchant for the profession of arms, which was natural enough, as, from
my earliest infancy, I had been accustomed to military sights and sounds;
but this profession was then closed, as I have already hinted, and, as I
believe, it has since continued, to those who, like mysel