aying anything,' she said; 'but it's a bad return after
all your kindness to him.'

'A return with thanks,' put in Cuthbert, who was not without some
enjoyment of Mark's discomfiture; he had long had a certain contempt
for his elder brother as a much overrated man, and he felt, with
perfect justice, that had Fortune made him his uncle's favourite, he
had brains which would have enabled him to succeed where Mark had
failed; but he had been obliged to leave school early for a City
office, which had gone some way towards souring him.

'There's an old Latin proverb,' said Mr. Ashburn, with a feeling that
it was his turn--'an old Latin proverb, "_Nec suetonius ultra
crepitam_."'

'No, excuse me, you 'aven't _quite_ got it, Matthew,' said his
brother-in-law, patronisingly; 'you're very near it, though. It runs,
if I don't make a mistake, "Ne plus ultra sutorius (not
_suetonius_--_he_ was a Roman emperor)--crepitam," a favourite remark
of the poet Cicero--"Cobbler stick to your last," as _we_ have it more
neatly. But your father's right on the main point, Mark. I don't say
you need stick to the schoolmastering, unless you choose. I'll see you
started at the Bar; I came this very evening to 'ave a talk with you
on that. But what do you want to go and lower yourself by literature
for? There's a littery man down at our place, a poor feller that
writes for the "Chigbourne and Lamford Gazette," and gets my gardener
to let him take the measure of my gooseberries; he's got a hat on him
my scarecrow wouldn't be seen in. That's what you'll come to!'

'There's some difference,' said Mark, getting roused, 'between the
reporter of a country paper and a novelist.'

'There's a difference between you and him,' retorted his uncle; 'he
gets what he writes put in and paid so much a line for--_you_ don't.
That's all the difference _I_ can see.'

'But when the books are accepted, they will be paid for,' said Mark,
'and well paid for too.'

'I always thought that dog and the shadow must ha' been a puppy, and
now I know it,' said his uncle, irritably. 'Now look here, Mark, let's
have no more nonsense about it. I said I came here to have a little
talk with you, and though things are not what I expected, 'ave it I
will. When I saw you last, I thought you were trying to raise yourself
by your own efforts and studying law, and I said to myself, "I'll
give him another chance." It seems now that was all talk; but I'll
give you the chance for all