"Because he is a great deal too handsome ever to be a scholar."

"And that's true enough, my dear!" said the schoolmaster's wife.

So, because he was too handsome to be a scholar, Mr. Ferdinand Fitzroy
remained the lag of the fourth form!

They took our hero from school.--"What profession shall he follow?" said
his mother.

"My first cousin is the Lord Chancellor," said his father, "let him go
to the bar."

The Lord Chancellor dined there that day: Mr. Ferdinand Fitzroy was
introduced to him; his lordship was a little, rough-faced,
beetle-browed, hard-featured man, who thought beauty and idleness the
same thing--and a parchment skin the legitimate complexion for a lawyer.

"Send him to the bar!" said he, "no, no, that will never do!--Send him
into the army; he is much too handsome to become a lawyer."

"And that's true enough, my lord!" said the mother. So they bought Mr.
Ferdinand Fitzroy a cornetcy in the ---- regiment of dragoons.

Things are not learned by inspiration. Mr. Ferdinand Fitzroy had never
ridden at school, except when he was hoisted; he was, therefore, a very
indifferent horseman; they sent him to the riding-school, and everybody
laughed at him.