"Not a penny; mamma has to work to keep us," returned Frank, making the avowal as freely as though he had proclaimed that his mother was lady-in-waiting to the Queen, and he one of her pages. Jane had contrived to convince them that in poverty itself there lay no shame or stigma; but a great deal in paltry attempts to conceal it. "Frank," said Mr. Glenn, "I was thinking that you must possess a fortune in your mother." "And so we do!" said Frank. "When Philip's note came to me last night, and we were--were----" "Laughing over it!" suggested Mr. Glenn, helping out Frank's hesitation, and laughing himself. "Yes, that's it; only I did not like to say it," acknowledged Frank. "But I dare say you know, sir, how most of the college boys write. Mamma said then, how glad we ought to be that she can make time to teach us better, and that we have the resolution to persevere." "I wish your mother would admit my sons to her class," said Mr. Glenn, half-seriously, half-jokingly. "I would give her any recompense." "Shall I ask her?" cried Frank. "Perhaps she would feel hurt?" "Oh no, she wouldn't," answered Frank impulsively. "I will ask her." "I should not like such a strict mother," avowed Philip Glenn. "Strict!" echoed Frank. "Mamma's not strict." "She must be. She says you shan't come fishing with us to-morrow." "No, she did not. She said she wished me not to go, and thought I had better not, and then she left it to me." Philip Glenn stared. "You told me at school this morning that it was decided you were not to come. And now you say Mrs. Halliburton left it to you." "So she did," answered Frank. "She generally leaves these things to us. She shows us what we ought to do, and why it is right that we should do it, and then she leaves it to what she calls our own good sense. It is like putting us upon our honour." "And you do as you know she wishes you would do?" interposed Mr. Glenn. "Yes, sir, always." "Suppose you were to take your own will for once against hers?" cried Philip in a cross tone. "What then?" "Then I dare say she would decide herself the next time, and tell us we were not to be trusted. But there's no fear. We know her wishes are sure to be right; and we would not vex her for the world. The last time the dean was here there was a fuss about the choristers getting holiday so often; and he forbade its being done." "But the dean's away," impatiently interrupted Philip Glenn. "Old Ripton is in residence, and he would give it you for the asking. He knows nothing about the dean's order." "That's the very reason," returned Frank. "Mamma put it to me whether it would be an honourable thing to do. She said, if Dr. Ripton had known of the dean's order, then I might have asked him, and he could do as he pleased. She makes us wish to do what is right--not only what appears so." "And you'll punish yourself by going without the holiday, for some rubbishing notion of 'doing right'! It's just nonsense, Frank."