'No, perhaps not; but I feel it.'
'You do not care about hearing me read to-day, perhaps?'
'Yes, I do; it distracts me; but first there is a word I want to say to you, Pitt.'
He did not go on at once to say it, and the young man waited respectfully. The colonel sighed, passed his hand over his brow once or twice, sighed again.
'You are going to England, William?'
'They say so, sir. My father and mother seem to have set their minds on it.'
'Quite right, too. There's no place in the world like Oxford or
Cambridge for a young man. Oxford or Cambridge,—which, William?'
'Oxford, sir, I believe.'
'Yes; that would suit your father's views best. How do you expect to get there? Will you go this year?'
'Oh yes, sir; that seems to be the plan. My father is possessed with the fear that I may grow to be not enough of an Englishman—or too much of an American; I don't know which.'