no
interest in cowls, but lost his temper in a smoky house.

"I'll run in and have a change and wash."

"No; put the nasty thing down and come into the garden." He opened the
gate, and Victor followed, after dipping his hands in the waterfall.

"The fact is, my boy, I've come to a decision. This has been a pleasant
time--a very pleasant time--for all of us. We have put off speaking to
you about this, but I hope you understand that this is to be your home
henceforward; that we wish it and shall be the happier for having
you . . ."

Victor had been gazing out over the cove, but now turned and met his
father's eyes frankly. "I have a little money," he said.
"Mother managed to put by a small sum from time to time, enough to start
me in life. She did not tell me until a few days before she died: she
knew I wanted to be an engineer."

He said this quite simply. It was the first time he had mentioned his
mother. Mr. Frank felt his face flushing.

"But your headmaster tells me it will be a thousand pities if you don't
go to Cambridge. I am proposing that you should go there--should
matriculate this term. My dear boy"--he laid a hand on Victor's arm--"
don't refuse me this. I have no right--perhaps--to insist; but I
daresay you can guess what your acceptance would mean to me. You can
choose your own career when the time comes. For your sake your mother
would have liked this: ask yourself if she would not."

Mr. Frank had not looked forward to pleading like this; yet when it came
to the point this seemed his only possible attitude. Victor had removed
his gaze, and his eyes were resting now on the green sunny waves rolling
in at the harbour's mouth. For almost a minute he kept silence; then--

"Yes, she would advise it," he said. It was as though he had laid the
case before an unseen counsellor and waited submissively for the answer.
Mr. Frank had gained his end and without trouble: yet he felt a
disappointment he could not at once explain. He was the last man in the
world to expect a gratitude which he did not deserve; but in the
satisfaction of carrying his point he missed something, and surmised
what he missed. The boy had not turned to _him_ for the answer, but had
turned away and brought it to him. Father and son would never have the
deeper joy of taking counsel together heart to heart.

V.

So Victor went up to Trinity, and returned for the Christmas vacation on
the heels of an announcemen