"I'm sure it's entirely different!" Mrs. Ward went on. "Dick does not belong to that class at all!"
XIII
The truth was that Elizabeth had been worried for days about Dick. A few evenings before, Ward, who took counsel of his daughter rather than of his wife in such affairs, had told her of his concern about his son.
"I don't know what to do with the boy," he had said. "He seems to have no interest in anything; he tired of school, and he tired of college; and now he is of age and--doing nothing."
She remembered how he had sat there, puffing at his cigar as if that could assist him to some conclusion.
"I tried him in the office for a while, you know, but he did not seem to take it seriously--of course, it wasn't really serious; the work went on as well without him as with him. I guess he knew that."
Elizabeth sat and thought, but the problem which her father had put to her immediately overpowered her; there seemed to be no solution at all--she could not even arrange its terms in her mind, and she was silent, yet her silence was charged with sympathy.
"I've talked to him, but that does no good. I've pleaded with him, but that does no good. I tried giving him unlimited money, then I put him on an allowance, then I cut him off altogether--it was just the same."
Ward smoked a moment in silence.
"I've thought of every known profession. He says he doesn't want to be a lawyer or a doctor; he has no taste for mechanics, and he seems to have no interest in business. I've thought of sending him abroad, or out West, but he doesn't want to do that."