“I think so,” returned Janet.
“Then you know—”
“I heard what papa said to you. I kept the white slate till you thought of it,” said Janet, in a tone that sounded soft from her.
“And why did you never say so, my dear?”
“I can hardly tell. I was shy at first; and then reserve grows on a person; but I never ceased from thinking about it through all these years. Mother, you do not think there is any chance of the boys taking it up as my father wished?”
“Certainly not Allen,” said Caroline with a sigh. “And as to Bobus, he would have full capacity; but a great change must come over him, poor fellow, before he would fulfil your father’s conditions.”
“He has no notion of the drudgery of the medical profession,” said Janet; “he means to read law, get up social and sanitary questions, and go into parliament.”
“I know,” said her mother, “I have always lived in hopes that sanitary theories would give him his father’s heart for the sufferers, and that search into the secrets of nature would lead him higher; but as long as he does not turn that way of himself it would be contrary to your father’s charge to hold this discovery out to him as an inducement.”
“And Jock?” said Janet, smiling. “You don’t expect it of the born soldier—nor of Armine?”
“I am not sure about Armine, though he may not be strong enough to bear the application.”