Paul's eyes brightened strangely, his whole countenance became luminous. Scheffer surveyed the change as if it were not half agreeable to him. 'Harry is here yet, but he won't be long. That's a secret, though. He's going to France. Guess how.'
'In a balloon, I suppose. He hasn't any money.'
'No,' said Paul, half offended at the tone in which this was spoken. 'He's going to work his passage. He's one of the fellows who can do without money.'
'Indeed!' said Scheffer.
Paul went on: 'He hasn't more than twenty dollars. He sold all his prizes long ago.'
'Is he going to travel?' asked Scheffer, quietly.
'Travel! no. Not yet awhile, I mean. He's mad, just now, on minerals and geology. He's going to school in Paris, where he can learn all about such things. Then he's going to hunt up specimens for cabinets; then he'll be sending curiosities over here by the ship load. If any one wanted to speculate, he'd pay an enormous interest on the money lent him. But catch him asking the loan of a threepenny bit of any man! You know him.'
'Yes,' he said; 'we've had many a rough day together. About the time his father got into trouble, my father did more than one good turn for him. But that's neither here nor there.'
'Yes, it is,' said Paul, quickly; 'if your father helped his father, it's a token that you will help him.'
Scheffer was not so clear on that point: his reply might have chilled Paul's enthusiasm, could anything have done that.