“By two pounds a quarter.”
George plunged: “So if I fail in my first exam. I shall get eleven pounds at the quarter? if I pass, fifteen?”
Horror widened Mr. Marrapit's eyes; shrilled his voice: “What is the colossal sum you anticipate?”
“I thought you said fifty-two pounds a year-a pound a week.”
“A monstrous impression. Adjust it. Four pounds a quarter is the sum. You will have no needs. It errs upon the side of liberality—I desire to be liberal.”
George twisted his legs into a yet firmer knot: “But two failures would wipe it bang out.”
“Look you to that,” Mr. Marrapit told him. “The matter is settled.”
But it was further pursued by George when outside the door.
“Simply to spite that stingy brute,” vowed he, “I'll pass all my exams, with such a rush that I'll be hooking sixteen quid a quarter out of him before he knows where he is. I swear I will.”
It was a rash oath. When Youth selects as weapon against Authority some implement that requires sweat in the forging Authority may go unarmed. The task of contriving such weapons is early abandoned. In three months George's hot resolve was cooled; in six it was forgotten; at the end of three years, after considerable fluctuation, his allowance stood at minus two pounds for the ensuing quarter.