"And pray you, to what end?" the other asked impatiently.
"You are not ignorant, uncle, of the state of my poor fortune," said the scholar.
"No," was the answer, "nor can you be forgetful, nephew, of my efforts in the past to mend that fortune."
"For all of which believe me truly grateful," responded Master Francis with a touch of irony. "'Tis to your gracious favor that I owe my appointment to the reversion of the Clerkship of the Star Chamber, worth sixteen hundred pounds a year, provided that I, a weak man, survive in poverty a strong affluence. 'Tis like another man's ground buttaling upon his house, which may mend his prospect but does not fill his barn."
The other, crossing to the open window, half seated himself upon the sill, folding his arms while fixing disapproving eyes on his nephew's face.
"This attitude becomes you not at all," he said. "Through me you were returned to Parliament, and through me you might have been advanced to profitable office had you not seen fit to antagonize the Ministry, opposing, for the sake of paltry public favour, that four years' subsidy of which the Treasury stood in dire need to meet the Popish plots."
"I sought to shield the Ministry and Crown from public disapproval," replied Master Francis. "The country in my judgment was not able to endure the tax."
"'Twas most presumptuous to set up your judgment against that of your betters," said the other. "Your part is plain. This act of yours must be forgotten. It must be known that you have once for all abandoned public life for study. Publish some learned disquisition upon what you will. Absent yourself from town, and in a twelvemonth, perhaps, or less if things go well——"
"A twelvemonth!" cried Master Francis. "Unless my pockets be replenished I shall have starved to death by early summer."
The gentleman upon the window-sill remained for a space silent with knitted brows. Presently he said: