how to keep one; and it would better become him to be learning
this, than to be scouring the country like a land-louper, going
he knows not where, to see he knows not what, and giving treats
at Noble House to fools like himself' (an angry glance at poor
me), 'Noble House, indeed!' he repeated, with elevated voice and
sneering tone, as if there were something offensive to him in the
name, though I will venture to say that any place in which you
had been extravagant enough to spend five shillings, would have
stood as deep in his reprobation.

Mindful of your idea, that my father knows more of your real
situation than he thinks proper to mention, I thought I would
hazard a fishing observation. 'I did not see,' I said, 'how the
Scottish law would be useful to a young gentleman whose fortune
would seem to be vested in England.'--I really thought my father
would have beat me.

'D'ye mean to come round me, sir, PER AMBAGES, as Counsellor Pest
says? What is it to you where Darsie Latimer's fortune is
vested, or whether he hath any fortune, aye or no? And what ill
would the Scottish law do to him, though he had as much of it as
either Stair or Bankton, sir? Is not the foundation of our
municipal law the ancient code of the Roman Empire, devised at a
time when it was so much renowned for its civil polity, sir, and
wisdom? Go to your bed, sir, after your expedition to Noble
House, and see that your lamp be burning and your book before you
ere the sun peeps. ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS--were it not a sin to
call the divine science of the law by the inferior name of art.'

So my lamp did burn, dear Darsie, the next morning, though the