Page:Georgie by Dorothea Deakin, 1906.djvu/144

"Georgie" truthfulness, and early rising, and little things like that. Not books, I shouldn't let him read too much; seems to me it rather spoils a chap. You might have been an athlete yourself if you hadn't taken to ink-slinging when you were young enough to know better. I should think you'd be glad to adopt a chap like this. Matthew Arnold will never make a footballer. I don't suppose you'll ever get him to do anything really manly. He's sure to write, or paint, or something—something piffling."

I wondered at Georgie's methods of persuasion.

"I'm sorry," said I grimly, "and it may seem heartless; but we can't adopt your protégé, Georgie. We shall find it as much as we can manage to provide for Matthew Arnold's future, I am afraid. And it will take all the earnings of my piffling pen to keep the Little Mansion over our three heads in modest comfort. And as you say, I am not a sportsman, therefore not qualified to develop his young 128