Coming up to her eldest boy's chair, and leaning caressingly against him, the little mother turned Frank's head towards her, so that she could look down into his honest blue eyes.
'What is it, little mother; do you want a kiss in public? For shame, dear!' laughed Frank.
'Tell me, Frank,' she said, taking no notice of his chaff, 'do you want very much to go to Oxford?'
'Right away, mother? No, thank you. I am doing very well here.'
'But when you leave Fernhall, Frank?'
'Well, yes, mother! You wouldn't have me go to Cambridge, because, you see, all my own friends are at the Nose,' replied Frank.
'The Nose?' asked Mrs. Winthrop, looking puzzled.
'Brazen Nose, dear, Brazen Nose!—the college, you know, at which Dick and the Rector's son now are.'
'But what should you say, Frank, if you could not go either to Oxford or Cambridge?' persisted his mother.
'Conundrum, mother. I give it up,' answered the boy lazily; 'call me early, dear, to-morrow, and ask me an easier one.'