“Has anything very particular happened?”

“No, sir. Nothing very particular. Only I’ve been next to head in my class for a week.”

“Next to head! Why, I thought you had been at the head of your class for the last three or four months.”

“So I have been until within a week. But, since then, do all I can, Herbert Wellmore keeps his place above me.”

“And this is the reason of your unhappiness?”

“Yes, sir.”

“But do you think it is a just cause of unhappiness?”

“I always feel bad if I am not first in everything, father.”

“Do you think it right to feel so, Henry?”