'Six brothers are no sinecure, Felix.'
'They are wonderfully little trouble,' said Felix, standing on their defence. 'They are all good sound-hearted boys; and as to Lance, there's no saying the comfort that little fellow always is. He has that peculiar pleasantness about him—like my father and Edgar—that one feels the moment he is in the house; and he is so steady, with all his spirits. The other two both say all this could not have happened with him.'
'High testimony.'
'Yes, as both are inclined to look down on him. But think of that boy's consideration. He has never once asked me for pocket-money since he went to the Cathedral. He gets something when the Dean and Canons have the boys to sing, and makes that cover all little expenses.'
'What do you mean to do with him?'
'If he gets the scholarship, a year and a half hence, he will stay on two years free of expense. Unluckily, he says that young Harewood is cleverer than he, and always just before him: but I have some hope in the hare-brains of Master Bill. If he do not get it—well, we must see, but it will go hard if Lance cannot be kept on to be educated properly.'
Mr. Audley took the letters, and presently broke into an indignant exclamation; to which Felix replied—
'The work is not good enough for him, that is the fact.'
'If you are weak about any one, Felix, it is Edgar. I have no patience with him. His work not good enough, forsooth, considering what yours is!'
'Mine has much more interest and variety; and he is capable of much more than I am.'