"I can't imagine it--though Peter's no soft-head. But your father's human, Jane. Mine--isn't."
"Oh, he is--he is! Don't say that! He may seem stern and hard, but that 's only on the surface, I 'm sure."
"Much you know about it!" muttered Forrest. "But, anyhow, hard or not, I 'm not going to be put into a business life I hate."
"What would you like to do?"
"Go into the army."
Jane stared at him, astonished. This idle youth live that sort of life? Her lips curved slowly into a smile, at which Forrest promptly took umbrage.
"See here," he said, sitting up straight, "you 're not to judge me, you know, from what you 've seen of me in the two months you 've lived in Gay Street. I 've been on vacation, I admit, ever since my tutor left in March. Besides, it 's not enlisting as a private I 'm thinking of--no, no! I want to enter the army by the way of West Point, and get my lieutenant's commission at graduation. That 's a very different thing."
"Yes, that's true. It means, I believe, four years of the severest training in the world. I know a boy who went--he could n't stand it."
Forrest flushed hotly under his fair skin. "And you think I could n't. That settles it. I 'll go, if only to prove you 're mistaken."
The girl looked up quickly, startled by his tone. "Ah, please," she began, "don't talk that way. Tell me--will your brother go into the business?"