"Dear boy, certainly," acquiesced Mr. Binney, "and _lucky_ boy, too, Martha. Look what I've done for that boy. I've sent him to Eton, where _I_ never had a chance of going, or anywhere like it. Why, Martha, life is one continuous round of pleasure at Eton. And now he is going to Cambridge. _There's_ a place for you! Why, I assure you, you could hardly believe the fun that young fellows have at a place like Cambridge." "Yes, I can. I've read books about it," said Mrs. Higginbotham, "and I had a nephew there once who used to tell me things. Ah, Mr. Binney, if I were only what I used to be twenty years ago, and you were at Cambridge!" "Pooh, Martha," said Mr. Binney. "You weren't half so attractive as you are now, I'll be bound. And as for me, though I _am_ forty-five, I'm as active as ever and could hold up my head with the best of them." "I know you could, Peter," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "Now, Martha, I've got something in my mind," said Mr. Binney. "It's been there for some time, but I haven't liked to mention it to you because I was afraid--well, I didn't know how you might take it. But really, you've taken what I _have_ said in such a way as--as to be extremely gratifying to me, and upon my word I don't believe you'll think my idea so very absurd after all." Mrs. Higginbotham looked at him with deep interest depicted in her face. Mr. Binney squared himself and sat up in his chair. "Lucius is going to Cambridge in October," he said. "Now what do you say to my going with him?" Mrs. Higginbotham's look of interest gradually brightened into one of delighted agreement. "Oh, Peter," she said, "if you only could! Isn't it too late?" "Not a bit," said Mr. Binney. "There's no limit of age. I found that out long ago. I could go up there and be treated in all respects as if I was five-and-twenty years younger than I am. And do you know, Martha," added the little man confidentially, "such is my freshness of mind that I believe in time I should come to believe that I _was_ five-and-twenty years younger." Mrs. Higginbotham looked at him in speechless admiration. "It would be lovely," she said. "What an interest I should take in your doings, Peter!" This speech was as a spark to the tinder of Mr. Binney's inclinations. "If you think about it like that, Martha, I'll do it," he cried delightedly. "And now I must be getting home. I'll have a talk to Lucius about it to-night, and come and tell you what I have decided to-morrow." Mr. Binney took a tender farewell of Mrs. Higginbotham, and left her to spend the evening in roseate dreams of returning youth and a wider horizon than that visible from her windows in Woburn Square. CHAPTER II MR. BINNEY INTERVIEWS ONE TUTOR AND ENGAGES ANOTHER