Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/64

 younger sons of nobility: you will be invited out, get tickets for the Opera, and may make yourself a fine gentleman. The third is in the Customs: there you must fag a great deal, but you will make a great deal of money: it is a searcher's place.'

"Rice, after considering awhile, said—'As for the Treasury, that will not suit me, my lady; for I must go on plodding to the end of my life. The second place your ladyship mentioned will throw me out of my sphere: I am not fit for fine folks; and, if you please, I had rather take the third.' So, the very next morning, I got all his papers signed by everybody except Mr. Long, and they made some excuses that he was not come, or was gone, or something; but I would hear of no delay, and desired them to find him.

"Rice went on swimmingly, doctor, for a long time, and made one morning a seizure that brought for his share £500. But I had given him some very long instructions, and he was not like you, for he listened to my advice. Sometimes, when I was teaching him how he was to act, he would say, 'My lady, I believe that is enough for this time: I don't think my poor head will contain more; but I'll come again.' I told him he was to learn the specific gravity of bodies, that when they told him (for example) it was pepper, he might know by the volume that it was not gunpowder or cochineal.