“You don’t seem to know, never gave the matter any consideration probably; quite content to obey the Bible literally, and take no thought for the morrow. Well, it is lucky that you have somebody to think for you. Now I will tell you what I propose for you both. I want you, Ernest, to go to the bar. It is a foolish profession for most young men to take to, but it will not be so in your case, because, as it happens, if you show yourself capable, I shall by degrees be able to put a good deal of business in your hands—Chancery business, for I have little to do with any other. I daresay that you will wonder where the business is to come from. I don’t seem to do very much here, do I? with a mad old hunting-man as a clerk, and Dorothy to copy my private letters; but I do, for all that. I may as well tell you both, in confidence, that this place is only the head-centre of my business. I have another office in London, another at Ipswich, and another at Norwich, though they all carry on business under different names; besides which I have other agencies of a different nature. But all this is neither here nor there. I have communicated with Aster, the rising Chancery man, and he will have a vacancy in his chambers next term. Let me see—term begins on November 2nd; I propose, Ernest, to write to-day to enter you at Lincoln’s Inn. I shall make you an allowance of three hundred a year, which you must clearly understand you must not exceed. I think that is all I have to say about the matter.” “I am sure I am very much obliged to you, uncle—” began Ernest, fervently, for since the previous evening he had clearly realised that it was necessary for him to make a beginning of doing something. But his uncle cut him short. “All right, Ernest, we will understand all that. Now, Jeremy, for you. I propose that you shall be articled to me, and if you work well and prove useful, it is my intention in time to admit you to a share of the business. In order that you may not feel entirely dependent, it is my further intention to make you an allowance also, on the amount of which I have not yet settled.” Jeremy groaned in spirit at the thought of becoming a lawyer, even with a “share of the business,” but he remembered his conversation with Dorothy, and thanked Mr. Cardus with the best grace that he could muster. “All right, then; I will have the articles prepared at once, and you can take to your stool in the office next week. I think that is all I have to say.” Acting on this hint, the pair were departing, Jeremy in the deepest state of depression, induced by the near prospect of that stool, when Mr. Cardus called Ernest back. “I want to speak to you about something else,” he said thoughtfully. “Shut the door.”