"He is to come at seven o'clock in the morning. You have a cup of coffee, and some bread and butter and fruit, before that. He will go at nine, then we have breakfast. Then you will have your time to yourself, till dinner at half past two. The assistant surgeon of our regiment--he is a Dublin man--will come to you for Latin, and what I may call general knowledge, for two hours. That is all; except, I suppose, that you will work a bit by yourself, of an evening.
"That is not so bad, is it?"
"What sort of man is the assistant surgeon?" Bob replied, cautiously. "It all depends how much he is going to give me to do, in the evening."
"I don't think he will give you anything to do, in the evening, Bob. Of course, the Spanish is the principal thing, and I told him that you will have to work at that."
"I don't think you need be afraid, Bob," his sister laughed. "You won't find Dr. Burke a very severe kind of instructor. Nobody but Gerald would ever have thought of choosing him."
"Sure, and didn't you agree with me, Carrie," her husband said, in an aggrieved voice, "that as we were not going to make the boy a parson, and as it was too much to expect him to learn Spanish, and a score of other things, at once; that we ought to get someone who would make his lessons pleasant for him, and not be worrying his soul out of his body with all sorts of useless balderdash?"
"Yes, we agreed that, Gerald; but there was a limit, and when you told me you had spoken to Teddy Burke about it, and arranged the matter with him, I thought you had gone beyond that limit, altogether."
"He is just the man for Bob, Carrie. That boy will find it mighty dull here, after a bit, and will want someone to cheer him up. I promised the old gentleman I would find him someone who could push Bob on in his humanities; and Teddy Burke has taken his degree at Dublin, and I will venture to say will get him on faster than a stiff starched man will do. Bob would always be playing tricks, with a fellow like that, and be getting into rows with him. There will be no playing tricks with Teddy Burke, for he is up to the whole thing, himself."
"I should think he is, Gerald. Well, we will see how it works, anyhow.
"Go on with your fowl, Bob. You will see all about it, in good time."