eel all
away?"

"'T is more afraid I am of gapping the fine edge of your Excellency by
contact with my own ruggedness," said Billy, obsequiously.

"You were intended for a courtier, Doctor," said Sir Horace, smiling.

"If there was such a thing as a court fool nowadays, I'd look for the
place."

"The age is too dull for such a functionary. They'll not find ten men
in any country of Europe equal to the office," said Sir Horace. "One has
only to see how lamentably dull are the journals dedicated to wit and
drollery, to admit this fact; though written by many hands, how rare
it is to chance upon what provokes a laugh. You 'll have fifty
metaphysicians anywhere before you 'll hit on one Moliere. Will you
kindly open that umbrella for me? This autumnal sun, they say, gives
sunstroke. And now what do you think of this boy? He'll not make a
diplomatist, that's clear."

"He 'll not make anything,--just for one simple reason, because he could
be whatever he pleased."

"An intellectual spendthrift," sighed Sir Horace "What a hopeless
bankruptcy it leads to!"

"My notion is 'twould be spoiling him entirely to teach him a trade or
a profession. Let his great faculties shoot up without being trimmed or
trained; don't want to twist or twine or turn them at all, but just see
whether he won't, out of his uncurbed nature, do better than all our
discipline could effect. There's no better colt than the one that was
never backed till he was a five-year-old."

"He ought to have a career," said Sir Horace, thoughtfully. "Every man
ought to have a calling, if only that he may be able to abandon it."

"Just as a sailor has a point of departure," said Billy.

"Precisely," said Sir Horace, pleased at being so well appreciated.

"You are aware, Doctor," resumed he, after a pause, "that the lad will
have little or no private fortune. There are family circumstances that
I cannot enter into, nor would your own delicacy require it, that will
leave him almost dependent on his own efforts. Now, as time is rolling
over, we should bethink us what direction it were wisest to give his
talents; for he has talents."

"He has genius and talents both," said Billy; "he has the raw material,
and the workshop to manufacture it."

"I am rejoiced to hear such an account from one so well able to
pronounce," said Sir Horace, blandly; and Billy bowed, and blushed with
a sense of happiness that none but humble men, so praised, could ever
feel.

"I sh