“Oh, I have had a disagreeable letter from the governor,” he answered. “Every once and a while father gets down on me and writes that he will cast me off with the proverbial penny, if I don’t find out what kind of work I want to do and start at it. Sometimes it isn’t an easy job to be the only son of a self-made man. When a man thinks he has made himself he is apt to think he can make everybody else do his way.”
“Do you hate the thought of work so much, Ralph?” Mrs. Burton queried.
She did not speak in a disagreeable fashion, merely in a questioning one.
And Ralph Marshall found himself fascinated, watching the color and warmth in her face.
“Do you know I am awfully sorry for people who feel in that way. I don’t suppose you can realize this while you are young, but, as one grows older, doing one’s work is half the joy of living. Still, I don’t mean to preach. I believe the girls say, the fact that I don’t is my chief value as a Camp Fire guardian.”
“I wish you would preach to me,” Ralph answered, “or at least let me talk to you. Because a fellow does not say anything, you need not think he does not realize what a wonderful person you are! It must be great to be famous and to know you have done it all yourself. As for me, it isn’t that I hate work. I don’t know anything about it. The difficulty is getting down to finding out what I want to do.”
Polly Burton nodded, just as Polly O’Neill would have done, with a quick look of understanding.
“Sometimes it is hard luck being born rich, Ralph. But I wouldn’t let it be too much for me, if I were you. Start at anything that comes your way and afterwards you’ll find the right thing. Do you mind my quoting something to you? You see it is my business to repeat what other people write.”
Ralph did not seem to think acquiescence on his part necessary.
This was the first conversation he had ever held alone with Mrs. Burton and he was entirely under the spell of her personal charm. And yet it seemed extraordinary to him that so great a personage could be so simple and unaffected.