“Well, what?”
“That it was the clear wish of your father and myself to make you a gentleman.”
“Well, I am a gentleman,” cried Richard, angrily.
“Bear it in mind then, my son; and remember that rude, rough ways disgust Eve, and injure your cause. Mr Selwood is a gentleman, and you must meet him as a gentleman.”
“I don’t know what you mean, mother,” cried the young man, angrily.
“I mean this, that my son occupies the position of the first man in Dumford; and though his father was a poor workman, and his mother a workman’s daughter—”
“There, don’t always get flinging my birth in my teeth, mother—do, pray, sink the shop.”
“I have no wish to remind you of your origin, Richard,” said Mrs Glaire, with a sigh; “only I wish to make you remember that we educated you to be a gentleman, and that we have given you the means. Act like one.”
“I shall do that; don’t you be afraid,” said Richard.
“And mind, Richard, a true gentleman keeps his word,” said Mrs Glaire, meaningly.