Cashel Byron's Profession

She found Alice in the library, seated bolt upright in a chair that

would have tempted a good-humored person to recline. Lydia sat down

in silence. Alice, presently looking at her, discovered that she was

in a fit of noiseless laughter. The effect, in contrast to her

habitual self-possession, was so strange that Alice almost forgot to

be offended.

"I am glad to see that it is not hard to amuse you," she said.

Lydia waited to recover herself thoroughly, and then replied, "I

have not laughed so three times in my life. Now, Alice, put aside

your resentment of our neighbor's impudence for the moment, and tell

me what you think of him."

"I have not thought about him at all, I assure you," said Alice,

disdainfully.

"Then think about him for a moment to oblige me, and let me know the

result."

"Really, you have had much more opportunity of judging than I. I

have hardly spoken to him."

Lydia rose patiently and went to the bookcase. "You have a cousin at

one of the universities, have you not?" she said, seeking along the

shelf for a volume.

"Yes," replied Alice, speaking very sweetly to atone for her want of

amiability on the previous subject.

"Then perhaps you know something of university slang?"

"I never allow him to talk slang to me," said Alice, quickly.

"You may dictate modes of expression to a single man, perhaps, but

not to a whole university," said Lydia, with a quiet scorn that

brought unexpected tears to Alice's eyes. "Do you know what a pug

is?"

"A pug!" said Alice, vacantly. "No; I have heard of a bulldog--a

proctor's bulldog, but never a pug."

"I must try my slang dictionary," said Lydia, taking down a book and

opening it. "Here it is. 'Pug--a fighting man's idea of the

contracted word to be produced from pugilist.' What an extraordinary

definition! A fighting man's idea of a contraction! Why should a man

have a special idea of a contraction when he is fighting; or why

should he think of such a thing at all under such circumstances?

Perhaps 'fighting man' is slang too. No; it is not given here.

Either I mistook the word, or it has some signification unknown to

the compiler of my dictionary."

"It seems quite plain to me," said Alice. "Pug means pugilist."

"But pugilism is boxing; it is not a profession. I suppose all men

are more or less pugilists. I want a sense of the word in which it

denotes a calling or occupation of some kind. I fancy it means a

demonstrator of anatomy. However, it does not matter."