** Well, but, Doctor, what would you advise me to do ? "

" I 'm comin' to that, lad. There 's two courses before you,
and you mun choose one on *em, and follow it out. You mun
either just make up your mind to submit to them at Milend " —

"And desert Edith?"

" Yes, to be sure, and wed Sally Smethurst beside, and be
manager of Ogden's mills, and collect his cottage-rents, and
dun poor folk, and be cowed for thirty years by your uncle,
and have to render 'count to him of every hour of every day
— for he'll live thirty years, will your uncle; or else you
mun learn a profession, and be independent on him."

" Independence would be a fine thing certainly, but it is
not every profession that would suit the aristocratic preju-
dices of Lady Helena. I think it very likely the Colonel
would give his consent, for he has always treated me very
kindly, and he must have seen that I was thinking of Edith,
but with Lady Helena the case is different. She was never
encouraging. She might give way before a large fortune like
my uncle's, and the prospect of reinstating Edith at Wender-
holme, but if I were a poor man in a profession all her
aristocratic prejudices would be active against me. Besides,
there are only two professions which the aristocracy really
recognizes, the army and the church. The army is not a
trade to live by, and the church" —

" Nay, never turn parson, lad, never be a parson ! "

Young Jacob smiled at the Doctor's sudden earnestness, and
soon reassured him. " I have no vocation for the church," he
said quietly but decidedly, " and shall certainly never take
orders." Then he went on, half talking to himself and half
addressing the Doctor. "There is no other profession by
which an income may be earned that Lady Helena would be
likely to tolerate. People like her look down upon attorneys
and — and " —

" And Doctors ! " added Bardly, laughing, " except when
they think there 's summat wrong i' their insides, and then
they 're as civil as civil." ^,g.,^^, .^ Google



Chap. X. Young yocob and Edith. 