ly uncomfortable. Therefore, until within the last four
years or so--I have a poor memory for dates, and if I mistake, you will
correct me in your own mind--you pursued your studies at a distance, and
picked up a great variety of accomplishments. Occasionally we passed a
week or two together here, and disconcerted each other as only such near
relations can. At last you came home. I candidly tell you, my dear boy,
that if you had been awkward and overgrown, I should have exported you
to some distant part of the world.'

'I wish with all my soul you had, sir,' said Edward.

'No you don't, Ned,' said his father coolly; 'you are mistaken, I assure
you. I found you a handsome, prepossessing, elegant fellow, and I threw
you into the society I can still command. Having done that, my dear
fellow, I consider that I have provided for you in life, and rely upon
your doing something to provide for me in return.'

'I do not understand your meaning, sir.'

'My meaning, Ned, is obvious--I observe another fly in the cream-jug,
but have the goodness not to take it out as you did the first, for
their walk when their legs are milky, is extremely ungraceful and
disagreeable--my meaning is, that you must do as I did; that you must
marry well and make the most of yourself.'

'A mere fortune-hunter!' cried the son, indignantly.

'What in the devil's name, Ned, would you be!' returned the father. 'All
men are fortune-hunters, are they not? The law, the church, the court,
the camp--see how they are all crowded with fortune-hunters, jostling
each other in the pursuit. The stock-exchange, the pulpit, the
counting-house, the royal drawing-room, the senate,--what but
fortune-hunters are they filled with? A fortune-hunter! Yes. You
ARE one; and you would be nothing else, my dear Ned, if you were
the greatest courtier, lawyer, legislator, prelate, or merchant, in
existence. If you are squeamish and moral, Ned, console yourself with
the reflection that at the very worst your fortune-hunting can make but
one person miserable or unhappy. How many people do you suppose these
other kinds of huntsmen crush in following their sport--hundreds at a
step? Or thousands?'

The young man leant his head upon his hand, and made no answer.

'I am quite charmed,' said the father rising, and walking slowly to and
fro--stopping now and then to glance at himself in the mirror, or survey
a picture through his glass, with the air of a connoisseur, 'that we
have h