ysters; but he won't have them opened till he's down. Here he is, sir."

The door was now flung open, and a good-looking young man, with a glass
stuck in one eye, entered, and with a cheery but somewhat affected
voice, called out,--

"Glad to see you, Digby, my boy; hope I have not starved you out waiting
for me?"

"I'm very hungry, sir, but not quite starved out," said I, half amazed
at the style of man selected to be my guide, and whose age at most could
not be above three or four and twenty.

"You haven't seen your father yet, of course, nor won't these two hours.
Yes, Gilbert, let us have the oysters. I always begin with oysters and
a glass of sauterne; and, let me tell you, your father's sauterne is
excellent Not that I counsel _you_, however, to start with wine at
breakfast. I have n't told you that I 'm to be your tutor," said he,
filling his glass; "and here's to our future fellowship."

I smiled and sipped my tea to acknowledge the toast, and he went on,--

"You mustn't be afraid that I 'll lean too heavily on you, Digby,--at
least, at first. My system is, never make education a punishment.
There's nothing that a gentleman--mind, I say a gentleman--ought to
know that he cannot acquire as easily and as pleasantly as he does
field-sports. If a man has to live by his wits, he must drudge; there's
no help for it. And--But here come the oysters. Ain't they magnificent?
Let me give you one piece of instruction while the occasion serves; let
no one ever persuade you that Colchester oysters equal the Ostend. They
have neither the plumpness nor the juiciness, and still less have they
that fresh odor of the sea that gives such zest to appetite. One of
these days I shall ask you what Horace says of oysters, and where. You
never heard of Horace, eh?"

"Yes, sir; I was reading the 'Odes' when I came away."

"And with whom, pray?"

"With mamma, sir."

"And do you mean to say mamma knew Latin?"

"Yes, sir; she learned it to teach me. She worked far harder than I did,
and I could never come up with her."

"Ah, yes, I see; but all that sort of learning--that irregular study--is
a thing to be grubbed up. If I were to be frank with you, Digby, I 'd
say I 'd rather have you in total ignorance than with that smattering of
knowledge a mamma's teaching is sure to imply. What had you read before
Horace?"

"'Caesar's Commentaries,' sir, an 'AEneid' of Virgil, two plays of
Terence--"

"Any Greek?--anything of Euripedes