"`Nineteen!'--too old for the navy. `Wanted to be a parson!'--wouldn't do for the army. `Do anything you advise!' Are you sure of that? Few young fellows now-a-days will do anything but what they themselves like." "Yes, he'll do anything I advise, because he knows I really care for him. Where he fancies he's put upon, he can be stiff-backed and defiant enough. I've seen that once or twice. Ernest hasn't your nephew Frank's temper, which is hot and hasty for the moment, but is right again the next. He doesn't come to in a minute, as Frank does, but he's a good fellow for all that." The captain's brow was overcast as he heard his nephew's name. "Frank's spirit wants breaking, Mr Lavie," he said in an angry tone. "I shall have to teach him that there's only one will allowed aboard ship, and that's the captain's. Frank can ride and leap and shoot to a bead they tell me, but he can't command my ship, and he shan't. I won't have him asking for reasons for what I order, and if he does it again--he'll wish he hadn't. But this is nothing to the purpose, Mr Lavie," he added, recovering himself. "We were talking about young Warley. You had better try to get him a clerkship in a house at Cape Town. You mean to settle there yourself after the voyage, do you not?" "Well, no, sir, I think not I had meant it, but my inclination now rather is to try for a medical appointment in Calcutta. You see it would be uncomfortable for Ernest at the Cape with his brother--" "I see. Well, then, both of you had better go on to Calcutta with me. I dare say--if I am pleased with the lad--I may be able to speak to one of the merchants or bankers there. What does he know? what can he do?" "He is a tolerable classical scholar, sir, and a good arithmetician, Dr Phelps told me--" "That's good," interposed the captain. "And he knows a little French, and is a fair shot with a gun, and can ride his horse, though he can't do either like Frank--" "Never mind Frank," broke in Captain Wilmore hastily. "He'd behave himself at all events, which is more than Frank does. Well, that will do, then. You two go on with the _Hooghly_ to Calcutta, and then I'll speak to you again."