"Yes, it is my greatest wish to know everything, so as to rise——"
"To what station?"
Gilbert paused, for having a goal in his mind, he wanted to keep it hidden.
"As far as man may go," he answered.
"So you have studied?"
"How study when I was not rich and was cooped up in Taverney? I can read and write; but I shall learn the rest somehow one of these days."
"An odd boy," thought the stranger.
During the quarter of an hour they had trudged on, the rain had ceased, and the earth sent up the sharp tang replacing the sulphurous breath of the thunderstorms.
"Do you know what storms are?" questioned Gilbert, after deep musing.