s he who, being
above the troubles which money brings, has his hands the fullest of
work. If I were to name the class of men whose lives are spent with
the most thorough enjoyment, I think I should name that of barristers
who are in large practice and also in Parliament."

"Isn't it a great grind, sir?" asked Silverbridge.

"A very great grind, as you call it. And there may be the grind and
not the success. But--" He had now got up from his seat at the table
and was standing with his back against the chimney-piece, and as he
went on with his lecture,--as the word "But" came from his lips--he
struck the fingers of one hand lightly on the palm of the other as
he had been known to do at some happy flight of oratory in the House
of Commons. "But it is the grind that makes the happiness. To feel
that your hours are filled to overflowing, that you can barely steal
minutes enough for sleep, that the welfare of many is entrusted
to you, that the world looks on and approves, that some good is
always being done to others,--above all things some good to your
country;--that is happiness. For myself I can conceive none other."

"Books," suggested Gerald, as he put the last morsel of the last
kidney into his mouth.

"Yes, books! Cicero and Ovid have told us that to literature only
could they look for consolation in their banishment. But then they
speak of a remedy for sorrow, not of a source of joy. No young man
should dare to neglect literature. At some period of his life he will
surely need consolation. And he may be certain that should he live to
be an old man, there will be none other,--except religion. But for
that feeling of self-contentment, which creates happiness--hard work,
and hard work alone, can give it to you."

"Books are hard work themselves sometimes," said Gerald.

"As for money," continued the father, not caring to notice this
interruption, "if it be regarded in any other light than as a shield
against want, as a rampart under the protection of which you may
carry on your battle, it will fail you. I was born a rich man."

"Few people have cared so little about it as you," said the elder
son.

"And you, both of you, have been born to be rich." This assertion did
not take the elder brother by surprise. It was a matter of course.
But Lord Gerald, who had never as yet heard anything as to his future
destiny from his father, was interested by the statement. "When I
think of all this,--of what constitutes happi