their interests
to his charge. Now, as to our department--"

"Confound the department! I wish I had never heard of it. You say it's
all up with me, and of course I suppose it is; and, to tell you the
truth, Skeffy, I don't think it signifies a great deal just now, except
for that poor mother of mine." Here he turned away, and wiped his eyes
hurriedly. "I take it that all mothers make the same sort of blunder,
and never will believe that they can have a blockhead for a son till the
world has set its seal on him."

"Take a weed, and listen to me," said Skeffy, dictatorially, and he
threw his cigar-case across the table, as he spoke. "You have contrived
to make as bad a _debut_ in your career as is well possible to
conceive."

"What's the use of telling me that? In your confounded passion for
hearing yourself talk, you forget that it is not so pleasant for me to
listen."

"Prisoner at the bar," continued Skeffy, "you have been convicted--you
stand, indeed, self-convicted--of an act which, as we regard it, is
one of gross ignorance, of incredible folly, or of inconceivable
stupidity,--places you in a position to excite the pity of compassionate
men, the scorn of those severer moralists who accept not the extenuating
circumstances of youth, unacquaintance with life, and a credulity that
approaches childlike--"

"You 're a confounded fool, Skeffy, to go on in this fashion when a
fellow is in such a fix as I am, not to speak of other things that are
harder to bear. It's a mere toss-up whether he laughs at your nonsense
or pitches you over the banisters. I've been within an ace of one and
the other three times in the last five minutes; and now all my leaning
is towards the last of the two."

"Don't yield to it, then, Tony. Don't, I warn you."

"And why?"

"Because you 'd never forgive yourself, not alone for having injured a
true and faithful friend, but for the far higher and more irreparable
loss in having cut short the career of a man destined to be a light to
Europe. I say it in no vanity,--no boastfuluess. No, on my honor! if I
could--if the choice were fairly given to me, I 'd rather not be a man
of mark and eminence. I 'd rather be a commonplace, tenth-rate sort of
dog like yourself."

The unaffected honesty with which he said this did for Tony what no
cajolery nor flattery could have accomplished, and set him off into a
roar of laughter that conquered all his spleen and ill-humor.

"Your laugh, like the l