"Am I a very selfish person, granny?"
"You are much more selfish than Dudley is," said Mrs. Bertram, decidedly, who never minced matters with her grandsons.
Roy flushed a deep crimson, and his grandmother added,
"I do not say that you are altogether to blame, for Dudley has always given way to you and spoiled you; but you do not very often think of his wishes before your own."
"No, I never do."
Roy's tone was of the deepest dejection; but the sudden entrance of Dudley gave a turn to the conversation, and he gradually recovered his spirits.
When the two boys were at their tea half an hour later, Roy spread the whole matter before Dudley who looked at it in quite a different light.
"How stunning! And is he really going? Hurray! One of us will be a soldier, at any rate. I wish I was big enough to go with him."
"But I don't want him to go, and I told him so, and he isn't going!"
Dudley opened his eyes at this.