"Yes, ma'am," said my father, as though echoing her words. "He has done it at last!" "And what is it to be, papa? Is it something that a gentleman can suitably accept?" cried Mary Anne. "Done it at last, you may well say!" muttered my father, half aloud. "Better late than never," cried Lord George, gayly. "Well, I don't know _that_, my Lord," said my father, turning upon him with an abruptness little short of offensive; "I am not so sure that I quite coincide with you. If a young fellow enters life totally uneducated and unprovided for, his only certain heritage being the mortgages on his father's property, and perhaps," he added with a sneer,--"and perhaps some of his mother's virtues, I say I am not exactly convinced that he has improved his chances of worldly success by such a production as _that!_" And with these words, every one of which he delivered with a terrible distinctness, he handed a letter across the table to Lord George, who slowly perused it in silence. "As for _you_, sir," continued my father, turning towards me, "I grieve to inform you that no vacancy at present offers itself in the Guards, nor in the household, where your natural advantages could be remarked and appreciated. It will be, however, a satisfaction to you to know that your high claims are already understood, and well thought of, in the proper quarter. There's Mr. Vickars's letter." And he presented me with the note, which ran thus:-- "Dear Mr. Dodd,--By the enclosed letter, bearing your son's signature, I have discovered how totally below his just expectations would be any of those official appointments which are within the limits of my humble patronage to bestow. "I have, consequently, cancelled the minute of his nomination to a place in the Treasury, which was yesterday conferred upon him, and having myself no influence in either of those departments to which his wishes incline, I have but to express the regret I feel at my inability to serve him, and the great respect with which I beg to remain, "Your very faithful servant, "Haddington Vickars." Board of Trade, London. "To Mr. James K. Dodd, Bonn." I am able to give you the precious document word for word; for, if I went over it once, I did so twenty times. "Perhaps you might like to refresh your memory by a glance at the enclosure," said my father. "My Lord George will kindly hand it to you."