rs and I live in
idleness? Once more, I repeat, I am convinced I have sufficient ability
to make a position at the bar, and with my father's consent, and yours,
grandmother, I propose to commence my law studies at once."

"A pettifogger! impossible! I, for one, will never countenance a step so
humiliating! It is not to be thought of!" replied his grandmother, in a
tone of decision.

"No, Maurice, your project is futile," responded his father. "My joining
this railroad association is quite a different matter. I shall in
reality have nothing to do. It is only my name that is required;
besides, America is so far off that nobody in Brittany will be aware of
my connection with the company. Your becoming a lawyer would be a public
matter. I cannot recall the name of a single nobleman in the whole list
of barristers"--

"So much the better for me! My title may, _in this solitary instance_,
prove of service to me. It may help to bring me clients. People will be
enchanted to be defended by a viscount."

"You conjure up a picture that is absolutely revolting!" cried the
countess, warmly. "_My grandson_ pleading to defend the rabble!"

"Why not, if the rabble should happen to stand in need of defence?"

"Why not?--because you should ignore their very existence! What have you
and they in common?"

Maurice was about to reply somewhat emphatically, but noticing his
grandmother's knitted brow, and his father's troubled expression, he
checked himself.

The countess added, with an air of determination that forbade
discussion, "Maurice, you will never obtain my consent, never!"

"But if I may not study for the bar, what am I to do?" asked the young
man with spirit.

"Do?" questioned the countess, proudly. "What have the de Gramonts done
for centuries past? Do nothing!"

"_Nothing?_ Thank you, grandmother, for your estimate of my capacities
and of the sluggish manner in which my blood courses through my veins.
Doing _nothing_ was all very well in dead-alive, by-gone days, but it
does not suit the present age of activity and progress. In our time
everything that has heart and spirit feels that labor is a law of life.
Some men till the earth, some cultivate the minds of their fellow-men,
some guard their country's soil by fighting our battles; that is, some
vocations enable us to live, some teach us how to live, and some render
it glorious to die. Now, instead of adopting any of these pursuits, I
only wish to"--

"To become