is going to be a very rich man
some day; and Gerald might have--But I am not displeased. What appeals
to me is the spectacle of the boy acting with conviction on his own
initiative. Whether or not he is making a mistake has nothing to do with
the main thing, and that is that Gerald, for the first time in his
rather colourless career, seems to have developed the rudiments of a
backbone out of the tail which I saw so frequently either flourishing
defiance at me or tucked sullenly between his hind legs. I had quite a
talk with him last night; he behaved very decently, and with a certain
modesty which may, one day, develop into something approaching dignity.
We spoke of his own affairs--in which, for the first time, he appeared
to take an intelligent interest. Besides that, he seemed willing enough
to ask my judgment in several matters--a radical departure from his cub
days."

"What are you going to do for him, dear?" asked his wife, rather
bewildered at the unexpected news. "Of course he must go into some sort
of business again--"

"Certainly. And, to my astonishment, he actually came and solicited my
advice. I--I was so amazed, Nina, that I could scarcely credit my own
senses. I managed to say that I'd think it over. Of course he can, if he
chooses, begin everything again and come in with me. Or--if I am
satisfied that he has any ability--he can set up some sort of a
real-estate office on his own hook. I could throw a certain amount of
business in his way--but it's all in the air, yet. I'll see him Monday,
and we'll have another talk. By gad! Nina," he added, with a flush of
half-shy satisfaction on his ruddy face, "it's--it's almost like having
a grown-up son coming bothering me with his affairs; ah--rather
agreeable than otherwise. There's certainly something in that boy.
I--perhaps I have been, at moments, a trifle impatient. But I did not
mean to be. You know that, dear, don't you?"

His wife looked up at her big husband in quiet amusement. "Oh, yes! I
know a little about you," she said, "and a little about Gerald, too. He
is only a masculine edition of Eileen--the irresponsible freedom of life
brought out all his faults at once, like a horrid rash; it's due to the
masculine notion of masculine education. His sister's education was
essentially the contrary: humours were eradicated before first symptoms
became manifest. The moral, mental, and physical drilling and schooling
was undertaken and accepted without the s