But when the problem of the elopement arose he threw himself with an energy, of which it is pleasant to read, into every kind of scheme for solidifying his position.

He wrote to Monckton Milnes, and would appear to have badgered him with applications for a post in the British Museum.

"I will work like a horse," he said, with that boyish note, which, whenever in his unconsciousness he strikes it, is more poetical than all his poems.

All his language in this matter is emphatic; he would be "glad and proud," he says, "to have any minor post" his friend could obtain for him.

He offered to read for the Bar, and probably began doing so.