'Quiet, yes; but now he looks up from his book sometimes, as though he had a world of care upon his mind.'
'Perhaps he is thinking over his "idea." You know he could talk of nothing else for a day or two,' said Mrs. Howard.
'Well, he doesn't talk much now, at any rate, and I am wondering whether he is quite happy at that school.'
'But surely he would tell us if he was not. I have asked him again and again. I think he would tell us if there was anything wrong.'
'Now, mother, don't vex yourself, or I shall be sorry I have spoken. Just let that extra shilling a week I am to have go for the youngster's mid-day meal. Get him something better than bread and butter to take with him—sandwiches or a little meat-pie. They say people who work with their brains want as much to eat as those who work with their hands, and I am sure two slices of bread and butter wouldn't satisfy me at twelve o'clock.'
CHAPTER V.
The Champion.
'Mother, I think I shall be obliged to wear that other jacket to go to school,' said Horace one evening as he ate his dinner.