s chair a trifle, thrust his hands in his trousers
pockets and looked straight at his father.
"My own private business," he answered as bluntly.
"You people," he continued after a brief interval, "seem to think I'm
still in knee breeches."
But this did not serve to turn his mother from her theme.
"It is quite unnecessary for you to attempt making money in such a
primitive manner," she observed. "We have plenty of money. There is
plenty of opportunity for you in your father's business, if you must be
in business."
"Huh!" Norman grunted. "I'm no good in my father's business, nor
anywhere else, in his private opinion. It's no good, mamma. I'm on my
own for keeps. I'm going through with it. I've been a jolly fizzle so
far. I'm not even a blooming war hero. You just stop bothering about
me."
"I really can't think what's got into you," Mrs. Gower complained in a
tone which implied volumes of reproach. "It's bad enough for your father
and Betty to be running off and spending so much time at that miserable
cottage when so much is going on here. I'm simply exhausted keeping
things up without any help from them. But this vagary of yours--I really
can't consider it anything else--is most distressing. To live in a dirty
little cabin and cook your own food, to associate with such men--it's
simply dreadful! Haven't you any regard for our position?"
"I'm fed up with our position," Norman retorted. A sullen look was
gathering about his mouth. "What does it amount to? A lot of people
running around in circles, making a splash with their money. You, and
the sort of thing you call our position, made a sissy of me right up
till the war came along. There was nothing I was good for but parlor
tricks. And you and everybody else expected me to react from that and
set things afire overseas. I didn't. I didn't begin to come up to your
expectations at all. But if I didn't split Germans with a sword or do
any heroics I did get some horse sense knocked into me--unbelievable as
that may appear to you. I learned that there was a sort of satisfaction
in doing things. I'm having a try at that now. And you needn't imagine
I'm going to be wet-nursed along by your money.
"As for my associates, and the degrading influences that fill you with
such dismay," Norman's voice flared into real anger, "they may not have
much polish--but they're human. I like them, so far as they go. I've
been frostbitten enough by the crowd I grew up with, since I
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