ould have liked to hint that other ships went down into
the "great waters" as well as those that carried her Majesty's bunting,
but he was faint-hearted and silent.

"I take it," said he, after a pause, "that he has no great mind for the
learned professions, as they call them?"

"No inclination whatever, and I cannot say I 'm sorry for it. My poor
boy would be lost in that great ocean of world-liness and self-seeking.
I don't mean if he were to go into the Church," said she, blushing
crimson at the awkwardness of her speech, "but you know he has
no vocation for holy orders, and such a choice would be therefore
impossible."

"I'm thinking it would not be his line, neither," said the old man,
dryly. "What o' the mercantile pursuits? You shake your head. Well,
there's farming?"

"Farming, my dear Dr. Stewart,--farming means at least some thousand
pounds' capital, backed by considerable experience, and, I fear me, my
poor Tony is about as wanting in one as in the other."

"Well, ma'am, if the lad can neither be a soldier, nor a sailor, nor a
merchant, nor a farmer, nor will be a lawyer, a doctor, or a preacher o'
the Word, I 'm sore pushed to say what there's open to him, except some
light business in the way of a shop, or an agency like, which maybe you
'd think beneath you."

"I'm certain my son would, sir; and no great shame either that Colonel
Walter Butler's son should think so,--a C. B. and a Guelph of Hanover,
though he never wore the decoration. It is not so easy for _us_ to
forget these things as it is for our friends."

This was rather cruel, particularly to one who had been doing his best
to pilot himself through the crooked channels of difficulties, and was
just beginning to hope he was in deep water.

"Would n't the Colonel's friends be likely to give him a helping hand?"
said the minister, timidly, and like one not quite sure of his ground.

"I have not asked them, nor is it likely that I will," said
she, sternly; then, seeing in the old man's face the dismay and
discouragement her speech had produced, she added, "My husband's only
brother, Sir Omerod Butler, was not on speaking terms with him for
years,--indeed, from the time of our marriage. Eleanor Mackay, the
Presbyterian minister's daughter, was thought a _mesalliance_; and maybe
it was,--I won't deny it, doctor. It was deemed a great rise in the
world to me, though I never felt it exactly in that way myself. It was
_my_ pride to think my husba