descending only to ask
once whether he wished her to buy him a practice, or whether he meant
to put up a red lamp at the family-mansion in Berkeley Square.

Her persistent implacability gave Harold much pain, but he did not
despair of bringing her round in the end; only, to avoid further
dissensions, he wisely resolved to keep out of her way: and as soon as
he had gained his diploma he started for Germany, intending to
prosecute his studies abroad.

CHAPTER II.

It was not until he had been absent more than a year that Mrs. Purling
appeared to relent. She began to yearn after her son; she missed him
and was disposed to be reconciled, provided he would but meet her
half-way. At first she sent olive-branches in the shape of munificent
letters of credit over and above his liberal allowance; then came more
distinct overtures in lengthy epistles, which grew daily warmer in
tone and plainly showed that her resentment was passing rapidly away.
These letters of hers were her chief pleasure in life; she prided
herself on her ability to wield the pen. When, instead of a few curt
sentences in brief acknowledgment of his letters, his mother resumed
her old custom of filling several sheets of post with advice, gossip,
odds and ends of news, mixed with stray scraps of wisdom culled from
Martin Tupper, Harold began to hope that the worst was over and that
he would soon be forgiven in set form.

And he was right. Pardon was soon extended to him, not quite
unconditional, but weighted merely with terms which--Mrs. Purling
thought--no sensible man could hesitate to accept.

She only asked him to settle in life. He must marry some day--why not
soon? Not to anybody, of course,--he must be on his guard against
foreign intriguing sirens, who would entangle him if they could,--but
to some lady of rank and fashion, fitted by birth and breeding to be
the mother of generations of Purlings yet to be. This was the
condition she annexed to forgiveness of the past; this the text upon
which she preached in her letters week after week. The doctrine of
judicious marriage appeared in all she wrote with the unfailing
regularity of the red thread that runs through all the strands of
Admiralty rope.

Harold smiled at the reiteration of these sentiments; smiled, but he
had misgivings. Herein might be another source of disagreement between
his mother and himself. Would their respective opinions agree as to
the style of girl most likely to suit