course,' said Mrs. Dallas. 'You are one of
us, as much as anybody could be.'

'And you would be very sorry afterwards if you did not, I can tell
you,' said Pitt frankly. 'My old house is quite something to see; and I
promise myself some pleasure in the enjoyment you all will have in it.
I hope we are so much old friends that you would not refuse me such an
honour?'

There was no more to say, after the manner in which this was spoken;
and from embarrassment Betty went over to great exultation. What
_could_ be better than this? and did even her dreams offer her such a
bewildering prospect of pleasure. She heard with but half an ear what
Pitt and his mother were saying; yet she did hear it, and lost not a
word, braiding in her own reflections diligently with the thoughts thus
suggested. They talked of Mr. Strahan, of his illness, through which
Pitt had nursed him; of the studies thus interrupted; of the property
thus suddenly come into Pitt's hands.

'I do not see why you should go on with your law reading,' Mrs. Dallas
broke out at last. 'Really,--why should you? You are perfectly
independent already, without any help from your father; house and
servants and all, and money enough; your father would say, too much.
Haven't you thought of giving up your chambers in the Temple?'

'No, mother.'

'Any other young man would. Why not you? What do you want to study law
for any more?'

'One must do something, you know.'

'Something--but I never heard that law was an amusing study. Is it not
the driest of the dry?'

'Rather dry--in spots.'

'What is your notion, then, Pitt?--if you do not like it.'

'I do like it. And I am thinking of the use it may be.'

'The _use?_' said Mrs. Dallas bewilderedly.

'It is a grand profession,' he went on; 'a grand profession, when used
for its legitimate purposes! I want to have the command of it. If the
study is sometimes dry, the practice is often, or it often may be, in
the highest degree interesting.'

'Purposes! What purposes?' Mrs. Dallas pursued, fastening on that one
word in Pitt's speech.

'Righting the wrong, mother, and lifting up the oppressed. A knowledge
of law is necessary often for that; and the practice too.'

'Pitt,' said his mother, 'I don't understand you.'

Betty thought _she_ did, and she was glad that Mr. Dallas's entrance
broke off the conversation. Then it was all gone over again, Mr.
Strahan's illness, Pitt's ministrations, the will, the property, the