'Not even by proxy?'
'Once more I'm adrift.'
'You are certainly energetic. I must address you as a brother, or it will be supposed we are quarrelling. Harry, do you like that pattern?'
'Yes. What's the meaning of proxy?'
'With the accent you give it, heaven only knows what it means. I would rather you did not talk here like a Frenchman relating his last love- affair in company.
Must your voice escape control exactly at the indicatory words? Do you think your father made the most of it?'
'Of my illness? Oh! yes; the utmost. I should undoubtedly think so.
That's his way.'
'Why did you permit it?'
'I was what they call "wandering" half the time. Besides, who could keep him in check? I rarely know what he is doing.'
'You don't know what he wrote?'