"What do you wish to do?"
Richard almost said passionately, "You know what I wish to do!" But he would have been wrong. Mrs. Lister was certain that Richard had put away all childish things.
"I wish to study music."
Mrs. Lister dropped her hands, palm upward, into her lap.
"I thought you were over that!" said she, much more sharply than Richard had ever heard her speak. "I thought you had given it up."
"I have never given it up for a minute. I never shall give it up."
Mrs. Lister gasped. Richard might almost as well have announced that he had ceased to think of her or love her. She could not brook difference of opinion in her son.
"It cannot be. I cannot hear of it. You are a man and you must do a man's work."
"It is a man's work!" cried Richard. The pain in the back of his neck was growing more acute. "Father, don't you consider it a man's work?"
Dr. Lister moved uneasily.