He was going on to lie a little—but with a shrug he changed his course.
“I have to, as a matter of fact. I can’t paint, I’ve lost the way—do you ever forget the way to write?” he asked.
“Do I? The deuce I do! We all do at times, then we feel like throat-cutting or ‘Rough on Rats.’ However, I came on business. I have some spare cash and I want to invest it, and on looking round I have come to the conclusion you would be rather a good thing to put some of it into.”
“I?”
“Yes, even your beastliest daubs have something in them that saves their souls. One has to look more than once at everything you do, even if it is only to swear at it. You have capacity somewhere about you, wherever you hide it—as for drawing, you don’t know the beginnings of it! But what’s that? You can learn, it’s a mere question of swatting. If I had any doubt of your success, I wouldn’t be here to-day. I never on principle put a penny into a rotten concern, and I am here to make you a definite distinct offer, as binding on you as on me. I will defray your expenses in Paris for three years, I will give you enough to learn under the best men, and to live decently, not a farthing more,—don’t speak yet!—”
Brydon had jumped up rather wildly.
“Wait till you hear all about it—your conditions are pretty hard. In case you should die during your apprenticeship—the best of us are liable to that contingency—I shall insist on you insuring your life for an amount equivalent to that I lay out on you. If you live (the best thing you can do under the circumstances), you shall pay me back principal and interest in a given term of years, say fifteen, after you begin to sell.”
Brydon threw himself down into his chair and buried his head in his hands, a limited diet of bread and mustard had taken the starch out of him. He was soft, and his eyes were brimful of tears, he was young too, and nearly burst in his efforts to bolt them, then he lifted his head from his hands and began precipitately,
“You have given me the chance of a career, you put the world within reach of me, you trust me down to the ground, all in one breath. Look here!”
For one minute he was about to throw back the salvation waiting under his nose with most laudable self-respect, but he looked at Strange and his heart got soft again.