ring young fellow.

"I wish Skeffy was here," said Tony, as they went downstairs.

"Do you know Skeff Darner, then?"

"Know him! I believe he 's about the fellow I like best in the world."

"So do I," cried the other, warmly; "he hasn't his equal living; he 's
the best-hearted and he's the cleverest fellow I ever met."

And now they both set to, as really only young friends ever do, to extol
a loved one with that heartiness that neither knows limit nor measure.
What a good fellow he was,--how much of this, without the least of
that,--how unspoiled, too, in the midst of the flattery he met with!
"If you just saw him as I did a few days back," said Tony, calling up in
memory Skeffy's hearty enjoyment of their humble cottage-life.

"If you but knew how they think of him in the Office," said Blount,
whose voice actually trembled as he touched on the holy of holies.

"Confound the Office!" cried Tony. "Yes; don't look shocked. I hate that
dreary old house, and I detest the grim old fellows inside of it."

"They 're severe, certainly," muttered the other, in a deprecatory tone.

"Severe isn't the name for it. They insult--they outrage--that's
what they do. I take it that you and the other young fellows here are
gentlemen, and I ask, Why do you bear it,--why do you put up with it?
Perhaps you like it, however."

"No; we don't like it," said he, with an honest simplicity.

"Then, I ask again, why do you stand it?"

"I believe we stand it just because we can't help it."

"Can't help it!"

"What _could_ we do? What would _you_ do?" asked Blount

"I 'd go straight at the first man that insulted me, and say, Retract
that, or I 'll pitch you over the banisters."

"That's all very fine with you fellows who have great connections and
powerful relatives ready to stand by you and pull you out of any scrape,
and then, if the worst comes, have means enough to live without work.
That will do very well for you and Skeffy. Skeffy will have six thousand
a year one of these days. No one can keep him out of Digby Darner's
estate; and you, for aught I know, may have more."

"I have n't sixpence, nor the expectation of sixpence in the world. If I
am plucked at this examination I may go and enlist, or turn navvy, or go
and sweep away the dead leaves like that fellow yonder."

"Then take my advice, and don't go up."

"Go up where?"

"Don't go up to be examined; just wait here in town; don't show too
often at the office, but c