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 because he was at the head of the bank, not only because he controlled Elise's destiny, but because he made him, George, seem like a fool. The very way in which he shouted, "Ha, George!" on seeing him, as if arrest in the king's name was about to follow, drove every sensible idea out of George's mind. The notion, therefore, that this adventurous schoolmaster, this Tristram with blue eyes, was not only free of this terror, but actually contrived to make the great man motor him about the country, was simply intolerable.

"It's out of the question," he said, trying to rouse his parents to some sense of their responsibilities. "It can't be allowed. It ought to be against the law for a man under thirty to own a girls' school—particularly if he is handsome."

"Wouldn't it be amusing," said Mrs. Boyd, "to watch a jury deciding how handsome a man had to be in order to disqualify him."

"It's immoral," announced George.

"George always thinks that anything that doesn't suit him is immoral."

"All nice men do, my dear," said her mother. But in her heart she was a little disturbed, for she really wanted her son,