Page:Adams - A Child of the Age.djvu/74

62 : as you have said, as you have said.—Did Dr. Craven give you any information about the, ah, reason for your journey?' (Looking up at me as before.) 'No? he did not?—Very well. He acted wisely. I have every possible reason to believe that Dr. Craven is a man of distinguished, ah, fore-thought.' (He kept on inserting 'ah's' in that way all the while.)

Another pause. Then:

'I have a very bad piece of news to give you, Mr. Leicester,' he said, 'I am much afraid so; I am much afraid so. But I think that I had better give it you at once, and without, ah, preamble. Your father's small personal fortune, amounting to, ah, from £120 to £130 a year, was invested in—given up to (I am not quite sure about the correct expression; but it is, ah, immaterial)—to a bank in which he had every confidence. I constantly, during his later years, did my best to prevail upon him to—ah, make some other investment with his money: as, ah, I had myself seen a very sad—ah, incident in my own family in connection with—banks. You may have heard that the Great Southern Bank has recently, ah, become insolvent, or whatever it is? No? Well, ah, it is so, and every hour is bringing in worse information on the, ah, matter. It is, you may perhaps see, Mr. Leicester, quite impossible for you to continue your career at—Glastonbury. Every penny of your father's money has—gone. I, ah, have, I am glad to say, absolutely nothing to—to do with it myself personally. Have you any, ah, designs yourself as to a future, ah, career?' I put my hand to my mouth, looking steadily at him. He glanced aside and back again, as before:

'—I am not to return to Glastonbury?' I asked.

'Ah, surely not.'

I spoke rather to myself than to him:

'Not to work any more? not to be able to read my books? not to learn?—Why, all my books are there with all the notes I have taken such, trouble to write out—and I here.… What must I do?'

There was a pause.

I rose, and said: 'I can only think of one thing, sir. I have, I believe,