Vetch, and do something in the practice of law to make amends for
the ill fortune which, unwittingly and indirectly, I had been the
means of bringing upon him. When I had made up my mind, I mooted
the project to Captain Galsworthy, who laughed at it as quixotic,
but confessed that he saw no better course open to me.

"I had liever you took up a more active trade--one in which you
could put to use the sciences you have learned of me," said the old
warrior. "But that would take you from Shrewsbury, to be sure, and
I should miss our little bouts, Humphrey boy. And when you come to
think of it, a man needn't be the worse lawyer for a passable
dexterity with the small sword."

Mr. Vetch was quite overcome when I set my proposal before him. He
embraced it eagerly, drew out my articles at once, and swore that I
would be his salvation. And as I must needs have somewhere to live,
he insisted on my taking up my abode with him; he had a roomy
house, he said, and I need not occupy Cyrus' chamber unless I
pleased.

"But what about poor old Becky?" I said. "She is really harder hit
by this unlucky affair than I, and 't would break her heart to go
to the poor house."

"Let her come, too," said Mr. Vetch. "My housekeeper is leaving me;
the fates are conspiring in our favor, you see. Let her come and
mother us both, and I will give her twenty pounds a year."

I had as yet broken nothing of my designs to Mistress Pennyquick,
foreseeing trouble in that quarter. It was pitiful to see her, who