“Like Rob!” he said, and made up a face.
“Rob is doing very well in the militia.”
“No; don’t do that, mother! Never fear, I’ll put on a spurt when the time comes!”
“I don’t believe a spurt will do. Now, seriously, Jock—”
“Don’t say, seriously, mother: it’s like H.S.H.”
“Perhaps if I had been like her, you would not be vexing me so much now.”
“Come, come, mother, it’s nothing to be vexed about. My tutor needn’t have bothered you. I’ve done nothing sneaking nor ungentlemanly.”
“There is plenty of wrong without that, Jock. While you never heed anything but fun and amusement I do not see how you are to come to anything worth having; and you will soon get betrayed into something unworthy. Don’t let me have to take you away in disgrace, my boy; it would break my heart.”
“You shan’t have to do that, mother.”
“But don’t you think it would be wiser to be somewhere with fewer inducements to idleness?”