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all up at it; they have no sense. Only the stupid and the phlegmatic should teach.”
“But won’t you allow me, too, a temporary eclipse?”
She laughed and squeezed my hand. “Ah, we wouldn’t be hiding in the shadow, if we were five-and-twenty! We were throwing off sparks like a pair of shooting stars, weren’t we, Oswald? No, I can’t bear teaching for you, Nellie. Why not journalism? You could always make your way easily there.”
“Because I hate journalism. I know what I want to do, and I’ll work my way out yet, if only you’ll give me time.”
“Very well, dear.” She sighed. “But I’m ambitious for you. I’ve no patience with young people when they drift. I wish I could live their lives for them; I’d know how! But there it is; by the time you’ve learned the short cuts, your feet puff up so that you can’t take the road at all. Now tell me about your mother and my Lydia.”
I had hardly begun when she lifted one finger
