“Indeed! Are you feeling unwell?”
“My lungs are weak, and I find that the cough with which I have been troubled for a year past, instead of improving, as I hoped it would, is increasing, and becoming daily more troublesome. I think it will be best, therefore, for me to give up teaching, and go elsewhere.”
“I am sorry to hear this, Mr. Barclay. Don’t you think you can keep along to the end of the term--six weeks, I believe?”
“I don’t think it would be wise, General Wall.”
“We shall find it difficult to fill your place. We could get teachers, but we want one who is competent to teach Latin as well as English. I want my son John to go on in the same liberal course which I have projected for him,” said the general, rather pompously.
“It is on this account that I have delayed mentioning the matter before, but I now think I can recommend a substitute.”
“Indeed! May I inquire who it is?”
“You perhaps observed the young man who was walking with me this morning when we met.”
“I saw a boy with you, Mr. Barclay. Surely you do not allude to him.”
“I know he is young, General Wall, but I have reason to think he is a good scholar. In Latin he is as far advanced as I am. He was educated at an Eastern institution of high rank.”