I said nothing of my dream, but I told him everything else concerning the discovery. When I had finished—
‘It’s all plain sailing now,’ he cried. ‘There is not an obstacle in the way. I will set the thing in motion the instant I get home.—It will be a victory worth achieving,’ he added, rubbing his hands.
‘Mr Coningham, I have not the slightest intention of moving in the matter,’ I said.
His face fell.
‘You do not mean—when you hold them in your very hands—to throw away every advantage of birth and fortune, and be a nobody in the world?’
‘Infinite advantages of the kind you mean, Mr Coningham, could make me not one whit more than I am; they might make me less.’
‘Come, come,’ he expostulated; ‘you must not allow disappointment to upset your judgment of things.’
‘My judgment of things lies deeper than any disappointment I have yet had,’ I replied. ‘My uncle’s teaching has at last begun to bear fruit in me.’
‘Your uncle was a fool!’ he exclaimed.
‘But for my uncle’s sake, I would knock you down for daring to couple such a word with him.’