ves on a fine autumn morning
like the present one, but it is too much for me now, and I have given it
up, but I like my friends to enjoy it. How long can you stay this time?"

"Only three days; I cannot be absent from town more than that, but it is
well worth the journey to shoot over a friends property, even if only
for three days."

"Then you must make the most of your time; old Tom the game-keeper will
show you the best covers and general shooting ground. I wish you could
have remained for a week or two, the young fellows belonging to the
neighboring families will be home from school and college, and there
will be plenty of popping then, I promise you. Ah! that reminds me that
Arthur Carlton has finished his education, and is coming home, and it is
not my intention that he should again return to Oxford; and now we are
alone and not likely to be disturbed, I wish you would give me your
opinion as to what profession or occupation it would be best for him to
embark in. I should like to give the youngster a fair start in life. I
have given him the education of a gentleman, and I should like him to
retain that position."

This was the turn in the conversation the lawyer had been anxiously
waiting for, but he seemed in no hurry to take advantage of it; he
shifted his position so that the light might not fall on his features,
took a pinch of snuff and crossed one knee over the other before he
ventured an opinion on the subject.

"I know so very little of the young gentleman," he began, "as scarcely
to be able to advise you on a matter of such moment, and have hitherto
declined from so doing on that account, but as you so desire it, I will
give my opinion on the matter according to the best of my judgment."

"Thank you, thank you, that is all I ask. Then," resumed the lawyer,
"the road by which a young man of education can, by perseverance, hope
to earn for himself a competency and a good position in the social
scale, is that of the church, the navy or in the military service of his
country. As for the pulpit, unless the aspirant has a special tendency
for it, or some good friend who has a living to bestow, he will hardly
realize a sufficient income to support himself as a gentleman; and to
send him up to London to study law, or medicine for two or three years
would but expose him to the temptations and dissipations of that great
city, and it would take years of drudgery before he would be able to
obtain a competency. I