"I wanted to know some things, and he told me," he said, and that was all the information he would vouchsafe.
But he was more communicative when, in a very little while, he and Edgar went upstairs together. No one was within earshot and Giles began eagerly,—
"Of course I didn't let Percy Armstrong know why I asked him such a lot of questions, but I did so want to find out whether there wasn't some hope for you. He said lots of men don't even begin to study medicine till they're older than he. Perhaps in a few years, we shall be better off, and you'll be able to be a doctor after all."
Edgar was greatly touched.
"Giles," he said, "I had no idea you were such a dear, sympathetic old fellow! Anyway, you've made me feel that it will all come right. And I'll keep that hope steadily in view, and every spare hour I get I'll give to study. But remember, I shall never be too busy to help you with your Latin."
How wonderfully happy those words made Giles! He was so happy that he lay awake for a full half-hour; and when at last he slept, he dreamt that Edgar was a famous physician, and went to see his patients in a coach like the Lord Mayor's, and lived in a house that was fit for a prince!
Somebody else was a still longer time in going to sleep that night. In the course of the evening Mrs. Armstrong had asked Dora whether she had seen the announcement of prizes that the editor of a certain magazine for young people offered for short original stories, and on her reply in the negative, had produced the number, and shown her the page. Sums, varying from two guineas to five shillings, were offered for the best tales of a specified length, and Dora was instantly filled with a desire to become one of the competitors. There were yet three weeks before the stories need be sent in—ample time in which to make trial of her skill, and the idea having once entered her mind, it did not leave her until it had taken tangible form. That was not until the small hours of the morning, when, having thought out the incidents and characters of her tale, she fell asleep.
