at more difficulty you may spend it in a night; and without any
difficulty at all you may lose it in five minutes on the Stock Exchange.
If you are of that stamp of man that rises, a penny would be as useful;
if you belong to those that fall, a penny would be no more useless. When
I was myself thrown unexpectedly upon the world, it was my fortune to
possess an art: I knew a good cigar. Do you know nothing, Mr. Somerset?"

"Not even law," was the reply.

"The answer is worthy of a sage," returned Mr. Godall.--"And you, sir,"
he continued, turning to Challoner, "as the friend of Mr. Somerset, may
I be allowed to address you the same question?"

"Well," replied Challoner, "I play a fair hand at whist."

"How many persons are there in London," returned the salesman, "who have
two-and-thirty teeth? Believe me, young gentleman, there are more still
who play a fair hand at whist. Whist, sir, is wide as the world; 'tis an
accomplishment like breathing. I once knew a youth who announced that he
was studying to be Chancellor of England; the design was certainly
ambitious; but I find it less excessive than that of the man who aspires
to make a livelihood by whist."

"Dear me," said Challoner, "I am afraid I shall have to fall to be a
working man."

"Fall to be a working man?" echoed Mr. Godall. "Suppose a rural dean to
be unfrocked, does he fall to be a major? suppose a captain were
cashiered, would he fall to be a puisne judge? The ignorance of your
middle class surprises me. Outside itself, it thinks the world to lie
quite ignorant and equal, sunk in a common degradation; but to the eye
of the observer, all ranks are seen to stand in ordered hierarchies, and
each adorned with its particular aptitudes and knowledge. By the defects
of your education you are more disqualified to be a working man than to
be the ruler of an empire. The gulf, sir, is below; and the true learned
arts--those which alone are safe from the competition of insurgent
laymen--are those which give his title to the artisan."

"This is a very pompous fellow," said Challoner in the ear of his
companion.

"He is immense," said Somerset.

Just then the door of the divan was opened, and a third young fellow
made his appearance, and rather bashfully requested some tobacco. He was
younger than the others; and, in a somewhat meaningless and altogether
English way, he was a handsome lad. When he had been served, and had
lighted his pipe and taken his place upo