“Oh! I don’t mind,” said Law; “if I did I should soon have told her; and you may be sure the governor doesn’t mind. Not likely! The thing we want is money, and she could make as much money as ever she pleases. And yet she talks about me! I wish I had her chance; the Signor would not have to speak twice; I would sing from morning to night if they liked.” “Would you work so hard as that? Then why don’t you work a little at your books; the one is not harder than the other?” “Work! Do you call singing a lot of songs _work_?” said the contemptuous Law. CHAPTER XXIII. GOOD ADVICE. “Oh, he did not say much,” Law replied to Lottie’s questioning when he went home in the afternoon. “He was very jolly--asked me to stay, and gave me lunch. How they live, those fellows! Cutlets, and cold grouse, and _pâté de foie gras_--something like. You girls think you know about housekeeping; you only know how to pinch and scrape, that’s all.” Lottie did not reply, as she well might, that _pâtés de foie gras_ were not bought off such allowances as hers; she answered rather with feminine heat, as little to the purpose as her brother’s taunt, “As if it mattered what we ate! If you had grouse or if you had bread-and-cheese, what difference does it make? You care for such mean things, and nothing at all about your character or your living. _What_ did Mr. Ashford say?” “My character?” said Law. “I’ve done nothing wrong. As for my living, I’m sure I don’t know how _that’s_ to be got, neither does he. He thinks I should emigrate or go into the army--just what I think myself. He’s _very_ jolly; a kind of man that knows what you mean, and don’t just go off on his own notions. I think,” said Law, “that he thinks it very queer of you, when you could set me up quite comfortably, either in the army or abroad, not to do it. He did not say much, but I could see that he thought it very queer.” “I--could set you up--what is it you mean, Law?” Lottie was too much surprised at first to understand. “How could I set you up?” she went on, faltering. “You don’t mean that you told Mr. Ashford about---- Oh, Law, you are cruel. Do you want to bring us down to the dust, and leave us no honour, no reputation at all? First thinking to enlist as a common soldier, and then--me!” “Well, then you. Why not you as well as me, Lottie? You’ve just as good a right to work as I have; you’re the eldest. If I am to be bullied for not reading, which I hate, why should you refuse to sing, which you like? Why, you’re always squalling all over the place, even when there’s nobody to hear you--you could make a very good living by it; and what’s more,” said Law, with great gravity, “be of all the use in the world to me.”