ou must make good friends," she said. "Isn't young Lord Breeze at
your college? His mother the other day told me he was. And Sir Freddy
Quenton's boy. And there are both the young Baptons at Cambridge."

He knew one of the Baptons.

"Poff," she said suddenly, "has it ever occurred to you what you are
going to do afterwards. Do you know you are going to be quite well off?"

Benham looked up with a faint embarrassment. "My father said something.
He was rather vague. It wasn't his affair--that kind of thing."

"You will be quite well off," she repeated, without any complicating
particulars. "You will be so well off that it will be possible for you
to do anything almost that you like in the world. Nothing will tie you.
Nothing...."

"But--HOW well off?"

"You will have several thousands a year."

"Thousands?"

"Yes. Why not?"

"But--Mother, this is rather astounding.... Does this mean there are
estates somewhere, responsibilities?"

"It is just money. Investments."

"You know, I've imagined--. I've thought always I should have to DO
something."

"You MUST do something, Poff. But it needn't be for a living. The world
is yours without that. And so you see you've got to make plans. You've
got to know the sort of people who'll have things in their hands. You've
got to keep out of--holes and corners. You've got to think of Parliament
and abroad. There's the army, there's diplomacy. There's the Empire. You
can be a Cecil Rhodes if you like. You can be a Winston...."

5

Perhaps it was only the innate eagerness of Lady Marayne which made
her feel disappointed in her son's outlook upon life. He did not choose
among his glittering possibilities, he did not say what he was going to
be, proconsul, ambassador, statesman, for days. And he talked VAGUELY of
wanting to do something fine, but all in a fog. A boy of nearly nineteen
ought to have at least the beginnings of SAVOIR FAIRE.

Was he in the right set? Was he indeed in the right college? Trinity,
by his account, seemed a huge featureless place--and might he not
conceivably be LOST in it? In those big crowds one had to insist upon
oneself. Poff never insisted upon himself--except quite at the wrong
moment. And there was this Billy Prothero. BILLY! Like a goat or
something. People called William don't get their Christian name insisted
upon unless they are vulnerable somewhere. Any form of William stamps
a weakness, Willie, Willy, Will, Billy, Bill; it's a fea