“What, mother? I never knew—”
“You never knew that he spent two years abroad as a young man—that he studied in Germany—chemistry I think.”
Morey caught his mother’s arm.
“Some foolish idea. But he abandoned it. His father wished otherwise and he was as dutiful as you are going to be.”
“What was it?” exclaimed Morey. “What was his idea? What were his hopes?”
His mother sighed again.
“I never understood,” she added. “It was all behind him when I knew him first. But it was something about paint made out of rocks or dirt—I can’t remember now.”
“And they wouldn’t let him work out his ambitions?” exclaimed Morey.
His mother smiled.