“I know. Your mother is very much upset by it.”
“That’s not the point.”
Francis agreed.
“The point is, what am I going to be if I stay?”
“You might be a clergyman or—or——”
“I don’t want to be a clergyman.”
“A doctor, then?”
“Can you afford it?”
“No,” said Francis, and the admission brought his opposition tumbling down. They discussed ways and means, and Francis delighted in his boy’s practical good sense and independence, though he had a feeling of pity and shame that he had not come to know him better before.
“Thank you, sir,” said Leedham. “And please, will you ask mother not to cry over me?”