'No,' he answered, 'I don't.'
'Why, she must be very different from other girls of her class.'
'I don't know what are the characteristics of her class, but I know jolly well that if you offer money to her, she'll astonish you.'
Mrs. Fordyce looked with yet keener disfavour into her son's face.
'If she's that kind of girl, you must have promised her marriage.'
'Well, I daresay I did, but she might have known it was only talk,' he said, trying to speak coolly, though his mother's gaze made him decidedly uncomfortable. 'But I'm sick of the subject. I'll away over to Kelvinside, and have it either off or on. If the thing's out, I'll brazen it out; it's the only way.'
'You don't seem to realise the seriousness of the position, I'm sure I don't know what has made you go so far astray—not the training or example in this house. You have grievously disappointed me.'
'Oh, mother, don't preach. I've confessed to you, and it isn't fair to be so awfully down upon me,' he retorted irritably. 'I don't think you or the governor have had much to complain of as far as my conduct is concerned, and I'm not going to stay here to be bullied and snubbed for making a little slip. I tell you, you don't know what other fellows are. I've a good mind to open your eyes for you.'
'I don't want them opened, thank you; and if that is the spirit in which you are going to the Crescent, you deserve to fail, as you are sure to do. I am not sure whether I shall not tell your father, after all,' she said icily.
'I don't care if you do,' he retorted, and banged out in ill-humour, which, however, gradually cooled down as he walked rapidly to the station.