that you gave me the promise, which you would now evade, of providing
for him when he came into manhood."

"I say I will provide for him. I say that you may 'prentice him in any
distant town, and by-and-by we will stock a shop for him. What would you
have more, sir, from folks like us, who have kept shop ourselves? It
ain't reasonable what you ask, sir?"

"My dear friend," said the Parson, "what I ask of you at present is but
to see him--to receive him kindly--to listen to his conversation--to
judge for yourselves. We can have but a common object--that your
grandson should succeed in life, and do you credit. Now, I doubt very
much whether we can effect this by making him a small shopkeeper."

"And has Jane Fairfield, who married a common carpenter, brought him up
to despise small shopkeepers?" exclaimed Mrs. Avenel, angrily.

"Heaven forbid! Some of the first men in England have been the sons of
small shopkeepers. But is it a crime in them, or their parents, if their
talents have lifted them into such rank or renown as the haughtiest duke
might envy? England were not England if a man must rest where his father
began."

"Good!" said, or rather grunted, an approving voice, but neither Mrs.
Avenel nor the Parson heard it.

"All very fine," said Mrs. Avenel, bluntly. "But to send a boy like that
to the university--where's the money to come from?"

"My dear Mrs. Avenel," said the Parson, coaxingly, "the cost need not be
great at a small college at Cambridge; and if you will pay half the
expense, I will pay the other half. I have no children of my own, and
can afford it."

"That's very handsome in you, sir," said Mrs. Avenel, somewhat touched,
yet still not graciously. "But the money is not the only point."

"Once at Cambridge," continued Mr. Dale, speaking rapidly, "at
Cambridge, where the studies are mathematical--that is, of a nature for
which he has shown so great an aptitude--and I have no doubt he will
distinguish himself; if he does, he will obtain, on leaving, what is
called a fellowship--that is a collegiate dignity accompanied by an
income on which he could maintain himself until he made his way in life.
Come, Mrs. Avenel, you are well off; you have no relations nearer to you
in want of your aid. Your son, I hear, has been very fortunate."

"Sir," said Mrs. Avenel, interrupting the Parson, "it is not because my
son Richard is an honor to us, and is a good son, and has made his
fortin, that we are to rob h