"There's the Pope's Church, with some good prizes in the wheel; but your
branch, Master Bob, is a small concern, and it is trembling, besides.
No. I 'll make him none of these. It is in our vulgar passion for
money-getting we throw our boys into this or that career in life, and
we narrow to the stupid formula of some profession abilities that were
meant for mankind. I mean Digby to deal with the world; and to fit him
for the task, he shall learn as much of human nature as I can afford to
teach him."

"Ah, there's great truth in that, very great truth; very wise and very
original too," were the comments that ran round the board.

Excited by this theme, and elated by his success, my father went on:--

"If you want a boy to ride, you don't limit him to the quiet hackney
that neither pulls nor shies, neither bolts nor plunges; and so, if you
wish your son to know his fellow-men, you don't keep him in a charmed
circle of deans and archdeacons, but you throw him fearlessly into
contact with old debauchees like Hotham, or abandoned scamps of the
style of Cleremont,"--and here he had to wait till the laughter subsided
to add, "and, last of all, you take care to provide him with a finishing
tutor like Eccles."

"I knew your turn was coming, Bob," whispered Hotham; but still all
laughed heartily, well satisfied to stand ridicule themselves if others
were only pilloried with them.

When dinner was over, we sat about a quarter of an hour, not more, and
then adjourned to coffee in a small room that seemed half boudoir, half
conservatory. As I loitered about, having no one to speak to, I found
myself at last in a little shrubbery, through which a sort of labyrinth
meandered. It was a taste of the day revived from olden times, and
amazed me much by its novelty. While I was puzzling myself to find out
the path that led out of the entanglement, I heard a voice I knew at
once to be Hotham's, saying,--

"Look at that boy of Norcott's: he's not satisfied with the imbroglio
within doors, but he must go out to mystify himself with another."

"I don't much fancy that young gentleman," said Cleremont.

"And I only half. Bob Eccles says we have all made a precious mistake in
advising Norcott to bring him back."

"Yet it was our only chance to prevent it. Had we opposed the plan,
he was sure to have determined on it. There's nothing for it but your
notion, Hotham; let him send the brat to sea with you."

"Yes, I think that would d