“S O he will not do anything for me?”
“Nothing, my poor boy!”
“And you asked him—pressed him very much?”
“Don’t speak of it! I actually stooped to implore him; I did my duty by you thoroughly; I kept down my rebellious heart, though it throbbed as if it would burst. I told him of your youth, your penitence, and I entreated him to befriend you.”
“And he still refused?”
“He said money was ‘tight’ in the city, and that he had none to waste on an ungrateful boy who did not know its value.”
“I am not likely to learn it practically now, unless by trying how I can live without it. I have just five shillings left; though as I am in debt, I cannot honestly call those my own,” was the bitter reply. There was a pause; then suddenly raising his head, Frederick asked abruptly, “Kate, have you got any money?”
“Never was anything so unfortunate!” was Kate’s answer; “I have been at a good deal of expense lately in assisting a distressed family; and yesterday, just before you came, I received a letter from mamma, telling me she was pressed for money in consequence of poor papa’s illness, and, excepting five pounds, I sent her every farthing I had.”
As she thus destroyed his last hope, her brother sprang to his feet, and began to pace the room with hurried strides. At length he exclaimed, “I’ll not stay here to beg or starve—I’ll enlist in a cavalry regiment; I’m quite six feet now, and ride under nine stone; I should not wonder if they’d take me in the Lifeguards or the Blues.”
Kate’s only reply was by a mournful and dissentient shake of the head, and Frederick continued—