wheelhouse

"'But this young man -- what do you think would be the best thing we could do for him...? He should be put in a position where his qualities could be more telling.'

Esther...was rather wickedly amused and scornful at Harold's misconceptions and ill-placed intentions of patronage.

'You are hopelessly in the dark,' she said, with a light laugh and toss of her head. 'What would you offer Felix Holt? a place in the Excise? You might as well think of offering it to John the Baptist.'"

- Felix Holt, the Radical ch. 43