no longer be considered a boy, and it will be better for you to
turn at once into the groove in which you are to travel, than to
continue a mode of life which will unfit you for the career of a city
trader."

Francis knew too well his duty towards his father to make any reply,
but his heart sank at the prospect of settling down in the
establishment in London. His life there had not been an unpleasant one,
but he knew that he should find it terribly dull, after the freedom and
liberty he had enjoyed in Venice. He had never, however, even to
himself, indulged the idea that any other career, save that of his
father, could be his; and had regarded it as a matter of course that,
some day, he would take his place in the shop in Cheapside.

Now that it was suddenly presented to him as something which would
shortly take place, a feeling of repugnance towards the life came over
him. Not that he dreamt for a moment of trying to induce his father to
allow him to seek some other calling. He had been always taught to
consider the position of a trader of good standing, of the city of
London, as one of the most desirable possible. The line between the
noble and the citizen was so strongly marked that no one thought of
overstepping it. The citizens of London were as proud of their position
and as tenacious of their rights as were the nobles themselves. They
were ready enough to take up arms to defend their privileges and to
resist oppression, whether it came from king or noble; but few indeed,
even of the wilder spirits of the city, ever thought of taking to arms
as a profession.

It was true that honour and rank were to be gained, by those who rode
in the train of great nobles to the wars, but the nobles drew their
following from their own estates, and not from among the dwellers in
the cities; and, although the bodies of men-at-arms and archers,
furnished by the city to the king in his wars, always did their duty
stoutly in the field, they had no opportunity of distinguishing
themselves singly. The deeds which attracted attention, and led to
honour and rank, were performed by the esquires and candidates for the
rank of knighthood, who rode behind the barons into the thick of the
French chivalry.

Therefore Francis Hammond had never thought of taking to the profession
of arms in his own country; though, when the news arrived in Venice of
desperate fighting at sea with the Genoese, he had thought, to himself,
that the most glorio