'And therefore,' Dick continued, with a side-glance at Clarence, 'I shall need all my spare time for my own preparation.'
CHAPTER III. DISCOUNTING IT.
Mrs. Plantagenet looked across the table at her son with vague eyes of misgiving. 'This is all very sudden, Dick,' she faltered out, not without some slight tremor.
'Sudden for you, dear mother,' Dick answered, taking her hand in his own; 'but not for me.
Very much otherwise.. I've had it in my mind for a great many months; and this is what decided me.'
He drew from his pocket as he spoke a small scrap of newspaper and handed it across to her. It was a cutting from the Times. Mrs. Plantagenet read it through with swimming eyes. 'University Intelligence: Oxford.—Four Foundation Scholarships will be awarded after public examination at Durham College on May 20th. Two will be of the annual value of One Hundred Pounds, for Classics; one of the same value for Natural Science; and one for Modern History. Application to be made, on or before Wednesday, the 19th, to the Rev. the Dean, at Durham College, who will also supply all needful information to intending candidates.'
The words swam in a mist before Mrs. Planta-genet's eyes. 'What does it all mean, dear Dick?' she inquired almost tearfully.
'It means, mother,' Dick answered with the gentlest tenderness, 'that Durham is the only college in the University which gives as good a Scholarship as a hundred a year for Modern History. Now, ever since I left the grammar school, I haven't had it out of my mind for a day to go, if I could, to Oxford. I think it's incumbent upon a man in my position to give himself, if possible, a University training.'