fit, and to conduct
themselves in unswerving opposition to the wishes of their nearest and
dearest friends, and all to do themselves as much harm as possible, is
more than I can comprehend. Girls are not wrong-headed like this.
Where the son is the source of all the annoyance, and ill-humour, and
retrenchment in a family, the daughter is generally the mainstay, and
comfort, and sunshine of the whole house. When shall we poor women be
done justice to? But to return to Frank. By his own account he was a
gambler, of course. A man turned loose upon the world, with such an
education as most English gentlemen deem befitting their sons, and
without means to indulge the tastes that education has led him to
acquire, is very likely to become so.

As a boy, the example of his elders teaches him to look upon frivolous
distinction as a great end and aim of life, whilst that of his
comrades leads him to neglect all study as dry, to despise all
application as "slow." At home he hears some good-looking, grown-up
cousin, or agreeable military uncle, admired and commented on for
being "such a capital shot," "such a good cricket-player," "such an
undeniable rider to hounds," what wonder the boy grows up thinking
that these accomplishments alone are the very essentials of a
gentleman? At school, if he makes an effort at distinction in
school-hours, he is stigmatized by his comrades as a "sap," and
derided for his pursuit of the very object it is natural to suppose he
has been sent there to attain. What wonder he hugs idleness as his
bosom-friend, and loses all his powers of application in their disuse.

Then come the realities of manhood, for which he is so ill prepared.
In the absence of all _useful_ knowledge and practical pursuits,
_amusement_ becomes the business of life. Human nature cannot be idle,
and if not doing good, is pretty sure to be doing harm. Pleasure,
excitement, and fashionable dissipation must be purchased, and paid
for pretty dearly, in hard coin of the realm. The younger son, with
his ten thousand pounds, must soar in the same flight, must "go as
fast" as his elder brother with ten thousand a year. How is it to be
done? Why, _of course_, he must _make_ money, if he can, by betting
and play. So it goes on smoothly enough for a time. The Arch-croupier
below, they say, arranges these matters for beginners; but the luck
turns at last. The capital is eaten into; the Jews are called in; and
the young gentleman is ruined.