Mr. Smalley looked startled, and took refuge in the healing art.
"The medical profession affords opportunities of benevolence—"
"And of being called up at two in the morning, to the relief of apoplectic gentlemen and ladies in distress."
"Shall I then suggest the army?"
"Would you advise me to make fighting a profession?"
"I fear the navy is open to the same objection," gently observed Mr. Smalley; but he suddenly brightened, laid one hand on the arm of Cornelius, and, raising the forefinger of the other, to impress on him the importance of the discovery, he said earnestly, "My dear friend, how odd it is that you should have forgotten the wide world of science, literature, and art, for which you are so wonderfully gifted!"
"Am I?" carelessly replied Cornelius. He sat on the hearth, facing the fire; he stooped, took up the poker, and began to drive in the coals, much in his sister's way.
"Why, you are a first-rate scholar."
"Learning is worthless now. Besides, cannot I enjoy my old authors without driving bargains out of them?"
"But science?"