beguiling them in doing so. This question of a profession was, after
all, but dead leaves to him--to him who had a canker at his heart, a
perpetual thorn in his bosom, a misery within him which no profession
could mitigate! Those dear ones at home guessed nothing of this, and he
would take care that they should guess nothing. Why should they have the
pain of knowing that he had been made wretched forever by blighted
hopes? His mother, indeed, had suspected something in those sweet days
of his roaming with Julia through the park. She had once or twice said a
word to warn him. But of the very truth of his deep love--so he told
himself--she had been happily ignorant. Let her be ignorant. Why should
he make his mother unhappy? As these thoughts passed through his mind, I
think that he revelled in his wretchedness, and made much to himself of
his misery. He sucked in his sorrow greedily, and was somewhat proud to
have had occasion to break his heart. But not the less, because he was
thus early blighted, would he struggle for success in the world. He
would show her that, as his wife, she might have had a worthier position
than Lord Ongar could give her. He, too, might probably rise the quicker
in the world, as now he would have no impediment of wife or family.
Then, as he rode along, he composed a sonnet, fitting to his case, the
strength and rhythm of which seemed to him, as he sat on horseback, to
be almost perfect. Unfortunately, when he was back at Clavering, and sat
in his room with the pen in his hand, the turn of the words had escaped
him.

He found Mr. Burton at home, and was not long in concluding his
business. Messrs. Beilby & Burton were not only civil engineers, but
were land surveyors also, and land valuers on a great scale. They were
employed much by Government upon public buildings, and if not architects
themselves, were supposed to know all that architects should do and
should not do. In the purchase of great properties Mr. Burton's opinion