“Do you think,” she asked after a pause, “they will let me have him?”
The Major considered,—and for some minutes sat twirling the ends of his white moustache reflectively.
“Well, to tell you the truth, Letty, I don’t,” he said at last,—“I don’t believe they will for a moment. Some parents would refuse your offer on account of their love and affection for the child, and their own natural desire not to part with him. That will not be the D’Arcy-Muirs’ reason. They will simply argue that you are trying to ‘patronise’ them. It will be exactly like their muddled minds to put it that way. They will say, ‘She thinks we are going to put our son under obligations to her for her money.’ And though they conduct themselves like pigs they think a great deal of themselves in a ‘county-family’ fashion. No, Letty—I’m afraid you won’t get a chance of doing any good in that quarter. But if you like I will take soundings—that is, I will suggest the idea of such a thing and see how they take it. What do you say?”
“Oh, I wish you would!” said Miss Letty earnestly. “You see you know Captain D’Arcy-Muir——”
“Well, in a way,—yes, I know him in a way,” corrected the Major; “I used to know him better than I do now. He was never in my regiment, thank the Lord! But I will try to get hold of him in a sober moment, and see what can be done. But I don’t give out any hopes of him.”
“Oh, Dick!” sighed Miss Letty.
“Well, I shall be very sorry for your disappointment, Letty,—very sorry—and sorrier still for the little chap, for I think his life literally hangs on the balance of this chance. If he is not allowed to take it, all the worse for him,—he will come to no good, I fear.”
“Don’t say that!” pleaded Miss Leslie, with pain in her voice; “don’t say that!”
“All right, I won’t say it,” said the Major, expressing however in his face and tone of voice that he would probably think it all the same. “But the world is a bad place to fight in if you are not thoroughly well equipped for the battle. God made the world, so we are told, but I doubt whether He wished it to be quite as overcrowded as it is just now. All the professions—all the trades—all the arts—overdone! Army no go,—Navy no go. If you are a soldier and get any chance of facing fire, you know just what your reward is likely to be, unless you are a Kitchener. You may get a V.C., and after that the workhouse, like some of the Crimean heroes. And in the Navy you get literally nothing but very poor pay. The best thing for a man now is to be an explorer, and even when you are that, the world cannot be persuaded to believe that you have explored anything, or been anywhere. You have simply been sitting at home and reading up!” He laughed, and then went on, “If you get Boy what are you going to do with him?”
“I shall see what he likes to do best himself,” said Letty.