"But I tell you I shan't go!"
"Ah, but you don't mean that. You have told me how afraid of him your mother is; and so you cannot leave her alone with him, if he is angry. It has been very pleasant—very; but you'll have to go now."
Villiers argued the matter for some time, but he knew he ought to go, so he suffered himself to be persuaded to do so.
"And now, Villiers, will you think hardly of me if I ask you to do something for me? You know us now; you see what our life is, and you will forgive me, won't you?"
"What can I do for you, Cousin Clarice? Indeed I will do it—anything—you cannot think how glad I shall be to do anything for you."
"But this is not a little thing, Villiers. You see what Guy is. He has had no teachers, no help of any kind, except when papa gave me a few lessons once. Yet you see he knows nearly as much as you do, though you have been at school so long."
"He knows an awful lot more, I assure you. I was always an idle fellow."
"He knows Latin, German, French, and Italian, he knows a little Greek, and—"
"And is a better mathematical scholar than I am, though that is what I know best."
"And with all that, Villiers, he can get nothing to do here except what any labourer could do as well, and that Post-office business, which is very little indeed. If you could find something for Guy to do,—some situation. Oh, Villiers, you don't know how he longs for this, though he never speaks of it."