There's no help for it!" "But, confound it, lad! you'd better follow the fife and drum, or go before the mast, than give up your life to a profession you hate!" "Hate is a strong word," I replied.

"I do not actually hate it--at all events I must try to make the best of it, if only for my father's sake.
His heart is set on making a physician of me, and I dare not disappoint him." Dalrymple looked at me fixedly, and then fell back into his old position.
"Heigho!" he said, pulling his hat once more over his eyes, "I was a disobedient son.

My father intended me for the Church; I was expelled from College for fighting a duel before I was twenty, and then, sooner than go home disgraced, enlisted as a private soldier in a cavalry corps bound for foreign service.

Luckily, they found me out before the ship sailed, and made the best of a bad bargain by purchasing me a cornetcy in a dragoon regiment.

I would not advise you to be disobedient, Damon.
My experience in that line has been bitter enough," "How so?
You escaped a profession for which you were disinclined, and entered one for which you had every qualification." "Ay; but think of the cursed _esclandre_--first the duel, then the expulsion, then my disappearance for two months ...