“I was watching you as you hefted the sacks. Heavens! what muscles! what a pair of shoulders!”
At any other moment Norbert would have gloried in such laudation, but now he felt displeased and annoyed, and vented his anger by a sharp cut at his team.
“When people say that you are as innocent as a girl,” continued Daumon, “I always say that you are a sensible young fellow after all, and that if you choose to lead a regular life, it is far better than wasting your future fortune in wine, billiards, cards, or women.”
“I don’t know that I might not do something of the kind,” returned Norbert.
“What did you say?” answered his wily companion.
“I said that if I were my own master, I would live as other young men.”
The lad paused abruptly, and Daumon’s eyes gleamed with joy.
“Aha,” murmured he to himself; “I have the game in my own hands. I will teach his Grace to interfere with me.”
Then, in a voice which could reach Norbert’s ears, he continued,—
“Of course some parents are far too strict.”