nothing. He has acquired in five years,
and by the admirable seestem purshood at your public schools, just about
as much knowledge of the ancient languages as he could get by three
months' application at home. Mind ye, I don't say he would apply; it is
most probable he would do no such thing. But at the cost of--how much?
two hundred pounds annually--for five years--he has acquired about
five-and-twenty guineas' worth of classical leeterature--enough, I dare
say, to enable him to quote Horace respectably through life, and what
more do ye want from a young man of his expectations? I think I should
send him into the army, that's the best place for him--there's the least
to do, and the handsomest clothes to wear. Acce segnum!" says the little
wag, daintily taking up the tail of his friend's coat.

"There's never any knowing whether you are in jest or in earnest,
Binnie," the puzzled Colonel said.

"How should you know, when I don't know myself?" answered the Scotchman.
"In earnest now, Tom Newcome, I think your boy is as fine a lad as I
ever set eyes on. He seems to have intelligence and good temper. He
carries his letter of recommendation in his countenance; and with the
honesty--and the rupees, mind ye--which he inherits from his father, the
deuce is in it if he can't make his way. What time's the breakfast? Eh,
but it was a comfort this morning not to hear the holystoning on the
deck. We ought to go into lodgings, and not fling our money out of the
window of this hotel. We must make the young chap take us about and
show us the town in the morning, Tom. I had but three days of it
five-and-twenty years ago, and I propose to reshoome my observations
to-morrow after breakfast. We'll just go on deck and see how's her
head before we turn in, eh, Colonel?" and with this the jolly gentleman
nodded over his candle to his friend, and trotted off to bed.

The Colonel and his friend were light sleepers and early risers, like
most men that come from the country where they had both been so long
sojourning, and were awake and dressed long before the London waiters
had thought of quitting their beds. The housemaid was the only being
stirring in the morning when little Mr. Binnie blundered over her pail
as she was washing the deck. Early as he was, his fellow-traveller had
preceded him. Binnie found the Colonel in his sitting-room arrayed
in what are called in Scotland his stocking-feet, already puffing the
cigar, which in truth was