“The stolid Conservative is the one who has grown up while his father was making his fortune, the third generation used to be the gentleman, now he is the man who is tired of it.”
“Tired of it, aye!” with a sigh.
“Why you are a man with a pedigree!” she returned.
“Pedigrees don’t hinder—what shall I call it?—the sense of being fettered.”
“One lives in fetters,” she exclaimed. “And the better one likes one’s home, the harder it is to shake them off.”
He turned and looked full at her, then exclaimed, “Exactly,” and paused, adding, “I wonder what you want. Has it a form?”
“Oh yes, I mean to give lectures. I should like to see the world, and study physical science in every place, then tell the next about it. I read all I can, and I think I shall get consent to give some elementary lectures at the High School, though Uncle Jasper does not half like it, but I must get some more training to do the thing rightly. I thought of University College. Could you get me any information about it?”
“Easily; but you’ll have to conquer the horror of the elders.”
“I know. They think one must learn atheism and all sorts of things there.”
“You might go in for physical science at Oxford or Cambridge.”