"I have no doubt you did," said Mr. Kirby. "It 's a curious thing how eagerly a young man will take to expectations!"
"You simply don't know what you 're saying, Charles," answered Mr. Brassington; "and if I didn't know you as well as I do, I 'd walk out of the room."
"I know what I am saying exactly," riposted Mr. Kirby with as much heat as his quizzical countenance would allow. "I was going to follow it up if you hadn't interrupted me. I say it 's a curious thing how a young man will be moved by expectations. That 's why they gamble. Thank God, I never married! They like to see something and work for it. That 's why they gamble. You won't understand me, John," he said, putting up a hand to save an interruption; "but that 's why when I was a boy my father put me into the office and said that if I worked hard something or other would happen, something general and vague—esteem, good conscience, or some footling thing called success."
"I wish you wouldn't say 'footling,'" interjected John Brassington gravely.
"I didn't," answered Mr. Kirby without changing a muscle, "it 's a horrible word. Anyhow, if my dad had said to me, 'Charles,
