requently asked in most families, but which had never yet been
necessary in this--What profession would he follow? All manners of
ways by which an educated man can earn his bread had been turned over
in his mind, and in the minds of those who loved him, beginning with
the revenues of the Archbishop of Armagh, which was Aunt Letty's
idea, and ending with a seat at a government desk, which was his own.
Mr. Prendergast had counselled the law; not his own lower branch of
the profession, but a barrister's full-blown wig, adding, in his
letter to Lady Fitzgerald, that if Herbert would come to London, and
settle in chambers, he, Mr. Prendergast, would see that his life
was made agreeable to him. But Mr. Somers gave other advice. In
those days Assistant Poor-Law Commissioners were being appointed in
Ireland, almost by the score, and Mr. Somers declared that Herbert
had only to signify his wish for such a position, and he would get
it. The interest which he had taken in the welfare of the poor around
him was well known, and as his own story was well known also, there
could be no doubt that the government would be willing to assist one
so circumstanced, and who when assisted would make himself so useful.
Such was the advice of Mr. Somers; and he might have been right but
for this, that both Herbert and Lady Fitzgerald felt that it would
be well for them to move out of that neighbourhood,--out of Ireland
altogether, if such could be possible.

Aunt Letty was strong for the Church. A young man who had
distinguished himself at the University so signally as her nephew
had done, taking his degree at the very first attempt, and that in
so high a class of honour as the fourth, would not fail to succeed
in the Church. He might not perhaps succeed as to Armagh; that she
admitted, but there were some thirty other bishoprics to be had, and
it would be odd if, with his talents, he did not get one of them.
Think what it would be if he were to return to his own country as
Bishop of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross, as to which amalgamation of sees,
however, Aunt Letty had her own ideas. He was slightly tainted with
the venom of Puseyism, Aunt Letty said to herself; but nothing
would dispel this with so much certainty as the theological studies
necessary for ordination. And then Aunt Letty talked it over by the
hour together with Mrs. Townsend, and both those ladies were agreed
that Herbert should get himself ordained as quickly as possible;--not
in Eng