‘Yes, but I won’t be a minister. Do you know that I was once very nearly in the way of making my fortune through paraffin oil. and lost my chance through an ugly bull-pup?’
‘Really? How was that?’
‘Mr. Lindsay of Drumleck——’
‘Is he a relation of yours?’ I interposed.
(It was a surprise to me to hear that I was, ever so distantly, related to a millionnaire.)
‘He is my father’s uncle,’ said Alec. ‘Well, last year he sent for me to pay him a visit, and he had hinted to my father that if I pleased him he would “make a man of me.” I didn’t please him. The very day I went to his house, I happened to be standing near a table in the drawing-room on which there was a precious vase of some sort or other. There was a puppy under the table that I didn’t see; I trod on its tail, and the brute started up with a yowl and flew at my leg. I stooped down to drive it off, and managed to knock over the table, vase and all. You should have seen the old man’s face! He very nearly ordered me out of the house. I don’t believe he particularly cared for the thing, but then you see he had given five-and-twenty pounds for it. It ended my chances so far as he is concerned at any rate; and, to tell the truth, I wasn’t particularly sorry. I shouldn’t care to spend my life in making oil.’
‘But, my dear fellow, it seems to me you are too particular. Take my advice, and if you have an opportunity of getting into your grand-uncle’s good books again, don’t lose it.’
‘Oh! he has taken another in my place, a fellow Semple—I don’t think much of him. He is a grand-nephew, too. I shouldn’t wonder if he makes him his heir; and I don’t care. I don’t want to be a Glasgow merchant, any more than I want to be a Kyleshire farmer.’
‘Ah! Alec, are you smitten too?’ I said. ‘You want to climb, and you will not think that you may fall. I didn’t know you were ambitious.’
‘I want to go into a wider world than this one;’ said the lad, and his eyes flashed, and his voice trembled with excitement. ‘I want to learn, first of all; then I want to find what I can do best, and try to make a name for myself. I want to rise to the level of—oh! what am I talking about?’