“It shall be as thou wilt,” he said gravely.
He told Prothasy that she must use her judgment and send Hugh to his work when Elyas could spare him, and went away, doubtful, it must be owned, of his own wisdom in handing over one of the most prominent of the corbels to the youngest of the carvers.
Chapter Fourteen.
Will Roger Succeed?
Hugh’s first feeling was one of bitter and intense disappointment. He cared not one jot about the position of the corbel, what he did care for was the working out his own design, seeing that, as it were, spring into life under his hand. It was a very different thing to carry out another man’s, for, however good the execution might be, that could not equal the joy of creation. He turned quite white when Prothasy told him, thinking the news should give him proud delight, but, curiously enough, Joan, who was in the room, child as she was, understood his feelings better, and the moment her mother left slipped her hand in his.
“Alack, alack, poor Hugh!”
“There go all my hopes,” he groaned.
“But it is for father,” she urged. “Bethink you how grievous it is for him to have no hand in what he longed for.”