"Not much! His health settles that for him. Besides, he ’s too bookish, and father ’ll let him do what he pleases, anyway--he does n’t mind having one son of that stripe. But the other son--he must go into the mill, whether he wants to or not!" "Could you get to West Point without your father’s permission? Don’t you have to be sent by somebody--your Congressman, is n’t it?" "Oh, there ’s a lot of red tape, and father could block the whole game, I suppose. If he does--well, I ’d enlist and get into the ranks and work my way up, rather than go into that dingy old office and tie myself to a desk and a telephone." Forrest got upon his feet as he spoke, brushed a clinging weed leaf or two from his clothes, and stood looking gloomily down at Jane, who had risen also. "It ’s evident I get no sympathy from you," he said. "I thought you were a girl who could understand a fellow’s ambitions--not wet-blanket them." Jane looked up at him, smiling, although her eyes were still troubled. "I can, I think," she said. "Yet--somehow--I’m imagining the disappointment it must be to a father who has built up a great business like Townsend & Company’s to have his son take no interest in it. I can’t help thinking--" "What?"--as Jane paused abruptly. "Never mind." "But I want to know what you can’t help thinking." "Well, I ’m wondering if it would be any harder for you to go into your father’s office than it is for Peter to work with my father in the note-paper factory. Do you know what Peter wants to be?" "No. I know he has a good position for his age, with the Armstrongs." "Yes, but Peter wants--has wanted for six years--to be a chemist--an expert, you know. Oh, I ’m not sure I ought to tell you--please never speak of it. Even father does n’t know it’s any more than a boy’s fancy. Peter could n’t afford the years of training, of course--and father can’t spare him. There are"--as Forrest looked surprised--"more people dependent on father and the boys than you know of--and I must n’t tell you. All I want you to know is that"--Jane smiled wistfully--"there are other people who can’t have their own way--and who are making the best of it, and pretty bravely, too." Mrs. Bell came to the door of the house, and with a pleasant nod and smile to Forrest, told Jane that a certain bowl of bread-dough had reached a critical condition of lightness. The girl picked up her basket, and Forrest bent to toss into it the weeds he had thrown out. "Please don’t feel I ’m an unsympathetic listener," begged Jane, as her visitor took his leave.