either the one nor the other then," said the prophetess,
"but something better both for himself and his friends."

"Is this by way of the oracular, Ginty?"

"You may take it so if you like," replied the female.

"And does the learned page of futurity present nothing in the shape of
a certain wooden engine, to which is attached a dangling rope, in
association with the youth? for in my mind his merits are as likely to
elevate him to the one as to the other. However, don't look like the
pythoness in her fury, Ginty; a joke is a joke; and here's that he
may be whatever you wish him! Ay, by the bones of Maro, this liquor is
pleasant discussion!" We may observe here that they had been already
furnished with a better description of drink--"But with regard to the
youth in question, there is one thing puzzles me, oh, most prophetical
niece, and that is, that you should take it into your head to effect an
impossibility, in other words, to make a gentleman of him; _ex quovis
ligno nonfit Mercurius_, is a good ould proverb."

"That is but natural in her, uncle," replied Corbet, "if you knew
everything; but for the present you can't; nobody knows who he is, and
that is a secret that must be kept."

"Why," replied the pedagogue, "is he not a slip from the Black Baronet,
and are not you, Ginty----?"

"Whether the child you speak of," she replied, "is living or dead is
what nobody knows."

"There is one thing I know," said Corbet, "and that is, that I could
scald the heart and soul in the Black Baronet's body by one word's
speaking, if I wished; only the time is not yet come; but it will come,
and that soon, I hope."

"Take care, Charley," replied the master; "no violation of sacred ties.
Is not the said Baronet your foster-brother?"

"He remembered no such ties when he brought shame and disgrace on our
family," replied Corbet, with a look of such hatred and malignity as
could rarely be seen on a human countenance.

"Then why did you live with him, and remain in his confidence so long,"
asked his uncle.

"I had my own reasons for that--may be they will be known soon, and may
be they will never be known," replied his nephew--"Whisht! there's a
foot on the stairs," he added; "it's this youth, I'm thinking."

Almost immediately a young man, in a college-gown and cap, entered, the
room, apparently the worse for liquor, and approaching the schoolmaster,
who sat next him, slapped his shoulder, exclaiming:

"Well, my jolly old