"But if you pay him some day it will take you so much longer to pay for them," I said, surprised he had not remembered this.
"I can't part with Faery. Youth is such a beggarly short affair, if one can't have pleasure then, when will they get it?"
"I should think it was high-priced pleasure if I had to take it on those terms."
"You have no idea what prices men are willing to pay for what they desire. Faery even with my means would seem a mere bagatelle to most young fellows of my set."
"I would really like to know what your means are," his mother said, playfully.
"Principally my profession, when I get it; capital health, and a world full of work to be done by some one. I shall stand as good a chance as any one to get my share of the world's rewards for good work accomplished."
"Bravo, Mr. Hubert. I only wish I was a boy so I might go to work too," I cried.
"Hush, the master will hear you. I told you he was fastidious about ladies' deportment. Even the housemaids and cook catch the infection. I certainly pity his poor ward."
"Please do not waste pity on me; if Mr. Winthrop is not nice, I shall go to Boston or New York and teach German in some boarding-school."
A low, long whistle was his only reply.