“I told you what I felt, and what I thought.”
“That my position of dependence was wholly displeasing to you. I've tried to make you see that I do not regard it as a position of dependence.”
“Not for yourself, perhaps, you are the best judge of that; but for another—I should feel that it was, and almost any girl would do the same. How could it be otherwise, Stephen?”
“You'll certainly provoke me to activity of some sort, Elinor; but heaven only knows how disastrous the results may be! I'll study law, and get Ben to take me into his office! How would Wade and Lan-dray look on a large gilt sign?”
“You are not serious.”
“Not in the sense that you are, but I began life seriously enough. The first year at school I thought I'd die of home-sickness. I was the most utterly wretched boy in the world; and then I adjusted myself to the situation. I decided, what was the use! I learned to take things as they were.”
“Don't you think it was needlessly hard of Mr. Benson to keep you away from Aunt Virginia?”
“How can you say he did that! It was circumstances that kept me away, that was all.”
“But during your vacations?”
“I was generally under a tutor then, for I don't mind telling you I was not especially brilliant; it took a lot of pushing to get me through, and my tutors led a dog's life of it trying to cram me with wisdom my mental stomach would reject. I fancy the scholarship of the Landrays was never their strong point.”