to be on her guard with respect to her flower garden i am very little disposed to grant a tenant of hall any favour i assure you be he sailor or soldier after a short pause mr shepherd presumed to say � in all these cases there are established which make everything plain and easy between landlord and tenant your interest sir walter is in pretty safe hands depend upon me for taking care that no tenant has than his just rights i venture to hint that sir walter cannot be half so jealous for his own as john shepherd will be for him here anne spoke � the navy i think who have done so much for us have at least an equal claim with any other set of men for all the comforts and all the privileges which any home can give sailors work hard enough for their comforts we must all allow very true very true what miss anne says is very true was mr shepherd s and oh certainly was his daughter s but sir walter s remark was soon afterwards � the profession has its utility but i should be sorry to see any friend of mine belonging to it indeed was the reply and with a look of surprise yes it is in two points offensive to me i have two strong grounds of objection to it first as being the means of bringing persons of obscure birth into undue distinction and raising men to honours which their fathers and never of and secondly as it cuts up a man s youth and vigour most horribly a sailor grows old sooner than any other man i have persuasion observed it all my life a man is in greater danger in the navy of being insulted by the rise of one whose his father might have to speak to and of becoming an object of disgust himself than in any other line one day last spring in town i was in company with two men striking instances of what i am talking of lord st whose father we all know to have been a country without bread to eat i was to give place to lord st and a certain admiral the most deplorable looking personage you can imagine his face the colour of mahogany rough and rugged to the last degree all lines and wrinkles nine grey hairs of a side and but a of powder at top in the name of heaven who is that old fellow said i to a friend of mine who was standing near sir old fellow cried sir it is admiral what do you take his age to be sixty said i or perhaps forty replied sir forty and no more picture to yourselves my amazement i shall not easily forget admiral i never saw quite so wretched an example of what a sea life can do but to a degree i know it is the same with them all they are all knocked about and exposed to every climate and every weather till they are not fit to be seen it is a pity they are not knocked on the head at once before they reach admiral s age nay sir walter cried mrs clay this is being severe indeed have a little mercy on the poor men we are not all bom to be handsome the sea is no certainly sailors do grow old i have often observed it they soon lose the look of youth but then is not it die same with many other professions perhaps most other soldiers in active service are not at all better off and even in the professions there is a toil and a labour of the mind if persuasion not of the body which seldom leaves a man s looks to the natural effect of time the lawyer quite care worn the physician is up at all hours and travelling in all weather and even the clergyman � she a moment to consider what might do for the clergyman � and even the clergyman you know is obliged to go into rooms and expose his health and looks to all the injury of a poisonous atmosphere in fact as i have long been convinced though every profession is necessary and honourable in its turn it is only the lot of those who are not obliged to follow any who can live in a regular way in the country choosing their own hours following their own pursuits and living on their own property without the torment of trying for more it is only their lot i say to hold the blessings of health and a good appearance to the utmost i know no other set of men but what lose something of their when they cease to be quite young it seemed as if mr shepherd in this anxiety to sir walter s good will towards a naval officer as tenant had been gifted with foresight for the very first application for the house was from an admiral with whom he shortly afterwards fell into company in attending the quarter at and indeed he had received a hint of the admiral from a london correspondent by the report which he hastened over to to make admiral was a native of who having acquired a very handsome fortune was wishing to in his own country and had come down to in order to look at some advertised places in that immediate neighbourhood which however had not suited him that accidentally hearing � it was just as he had foretold mr shepherd observed sir walter s concerns could not be kept a secret � accidentally hearing of the possibility of persuasion hall being to let and understanding his mr shepherd s connection with the owner he had introduced himself to him in order to make particular inquiries and had in the course of a pretty long conference expressed as strong an 