"No, sir; not my education."
"Not your education! How, then, has it been borne?"
"I speak of my residence at Oxford. I have had a great many indulgences there, and you have paid for them. The expenses of my education I could have paid myself." This was fair on George's part. He had not asked his uncle for a liberal allowance, and was hardly open to blame for having taken it.
"I only know I have paid regularly one hundred and fifty pounds a year to your order, and I find from Pritchett"—Pritchett was his man of business—"that I am paying it still."
"He sent me the last quarter the other day; but I have not touched it."
"Never mind; let that pass. I don't know what your father's views are about you, and never could find out."
"I'll ask him. I mean to go and see him."
"Go and see him! Why, he's at Bagdad."
"Yes. If I start at once I shall just catch him there, or perhaps meet him at Damascus."
"Then you'll be a great fool for your pains—a greater fool almost than I take you to be. What do you expect your father can do for you? My belief is, that if four hundred pounds would take him to heaven, he couldn't make up the money. I don't think he could raise it either in Europe or Asia. I'm sure of this; I wouldn't lend it him."