the best or none! And I found her, Piers; I found her sitting at a
cottage door by Enniscorthy, County Wexford, where for a time I had
the honour of acting as tutor to a young gentleman of promise, cut
short, alas!--'the blind Fury with the abhorred shears!' I wrote
an elegy on him, which I'll show you. His father admired it, had it
printed, and gave me twenty pounds, like the gentleman he was!"

There appeared a handsome tea-service; the only objection to it
being that every piece was chipped or cracked, and not one
thoroughly clean. Leonora, a well-behaved little creature who gave
earnest of a striking face, sat on her mother's lap, watching the
visitor and plainly afraid of him.

"Well," exclaimed Mrs. Otway, "I should never have taken you two for
brothers--no, not even the half of it!"

"He has an intellectual face, Biddy," observed her husband. "Pale
just now, but it's 'the pale cast of thought.' What are you aiming
at, Piers?"

"I don't know," was the reply, absently spoken.

"Ah, but I'm sorry to hear that. You should have concentrated
yourself by now, indeed you should. If I had to begin over again, I
should go in for commerce."

Piers gave him a look of interest.

"Indeed? You mean that?"