FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56  
57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   >>   >|  
l troublesome, but it became evident that there, too, Bailly would be a useful guide. "I have actually bearded the dean about you," he said one evening. "There are a few scholarships not yet disposed of. If I can prove to him that you live by syntax alone you may get one. As for the rest, there's the commons. Impecunious students profitably wait on table there." George's flush was not pretty. "I'll not be a servant," he snapped. "It's no disgrace," Bailly said, mildly. "It is--for me." He didn't like Bailly's long, slightly pained scrutiny. There was no use keeping things from him anyway. "I can trust you, Mr. Bailly," he said, quickly, and in a very low voice, as if the walls might hear: "I know you won't give me away. I--I was too much like a servant until the day I came to Princeton. I've sworn I'd never be again. I can't touch that job. I tell you I'd rather starve." "To do so," Bailly remarked, drily, "would be a senseless suicide. You'll appreciate some day, young man, that the world lives by service." George wondered why he glanced at the untidy table with a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. "I'm also sorry to learn your ambition is not altogether unselfish, or altogether worthy." George longed to make Bailly understand. "It was forced on me," he said. "I worked in my father's livery business until he failed. Then I had to go to a rich man's stable. I was treated like dirt. Nobody would have anything to do with me. They won't here, probably, if they find out." "Never mind," Bailly sighed. "We will seek other means. Let us get on with our primers." Once or twice, when some knotty problem took George to the house during the early morning, he found the spic-and-span neatness he had observed at his first visit. In Bailly's service clearly someone laboured with a love of labour, without shame or discouragement. One evening in August the maid who customarily opened the door was replaced by a short, plump-looking woman well over thirty. She greeted George with kindly eyes. "I daresay you're Mr. Morton. I've heard a great deal about you." George had never seen a face more unaffected, more friendly, more competent. His voice was respectful. "Yes, ma'am." "And I am Mrs. Bailly. We expect much of you." There rushed over George a feeling that, his own ambition aside, he had to give them a great deal. No wonder Squibs felt as he did if his ideas of service had emerged
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56  
57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Bailly
 

George

 
service
 
servant
 

ambition

 

altogether

 

evening

 

morning

 

neatness

 
observed

treated

 

stable

 
Nobody
 
primers
 
sighed
 

problem

 
knotty
 
respectful
 

competent

 

unaffected


friendly

 

expect

 

rushed

 

Squibs

 

emerged

 
feeling
 
Morton
 

August

 

customarily

 

opened


discouragement
 
laboured
 

labour

 

replaced

 
greeted
 
kindly
 

daresay

 

thirty

 

disgrace

 
snapped

mildly

 

pretty

 

Impecunious

 
students
 

profitably

 
slightly
 

quickly

 

things

 

pained

 

scrutiny