The girl broke off a little piece of the cake for herself. She poured out a little of the port and sipped it. “Aunty will be vexed if she thinks it hasn’t been touched,” she said, munching and sipping. Rowland turned his look from her to that pair of blue eyes which were like his Mary’s. They were the only comfort he had in the strange circumstances. He addressed himself to them as to something in which there was understanding in this uncongenial place. “I am afraid, my boy,” he said gently, “that we’ve all been wrong. I first for forgetting that you were growing into a man. It was only my wife’s enquiries, anxious as she was to hear everything about you, that showed me my dreadful mistake in this respect. And your aunt has been wrong, which was very excusable on her part, in forgetting that your bringing up, for the position you are likely to have, should have been different. Where have you been at school?” “I’ve been at a very good school,” said Archie; “it’s no fault of the school. I’ve maybe been a little idle. Aunty always said--that is, I thought, as there was plenty of money, what was the use of being a galley slave. So I just got through.” “And what _is_ the use,” said Marion, “of toiling like the lads that have to go up for exams, when you are such a rich man, papa, and he will never need to work for his living. It’s always a nice thing to get grand prizes; but he was not going in for anything, and what for should he have risked his health, that was of far more consequence?” “Let’s alone, May. I was maybe wrong, but that was my own opinion, papaw.” “Don’t say papa,” said Rowland, glad to give vent to a little of the intolerable impatience that possessed him. “Call me father. You talk about exams, and working for your living. Do you know what a young man of the upper classes, far better than you, is doing at your age?--I don’t mean the fops and the fools--I hope,” he said with some vehemence; “a son of mine will never be either the one or the other. Do you know what they do? They work in their colleges till they are older than you, or they go and travel, or they’re away with their regiment. There are idle ones, but they are no credit, any more than an idle working lad is a credit. Are you doing anything, boy?” Archie’s countenance fell a little. “I’m in two or three debating societies,” he said; “there’s a great many students in them. We have very good debates. I’ve read a paper twice; on the Scotch question and about local government.” “What’s the Scotch question?” said Mr. Rowland; but like other careless inquirers, he did not wait for an answer. “At your age,” he said, “you are better employed learning than teaching, in my opinion.” “Oh, papa,” said Marion, who had finished her cake and her wine, “it’s not teaching! He doesn’t get anything for it. He subscribes to keep up the society. It’s quite a thing a gentleman might do.” “Hold your tongue, May!” said her brother.