Exactly what
she wanted to say to him first, if their parent counted on the boy's
greater indulgence, and before he could say anything, was: "Don't
forgive him; don't, don't!"
He was to go up for an examination, poor lad, and during these weeks
his lamp burned till the small hours. It was for the Foreign Office,
and there was to be some frightful number of competitors; but Adela
had great hopes of him--she believed so in his talents and saw with
pity how hard he worked. This would have made her spare him, not
trouble his night, his scanty rest, if anything less dreadful had
been at stake. It was a blessing however that one could count on his
coolness, young as he was--his bright good-looking discretion, the
thing that already made him half a man of the world. Moreover he was
the one who would care most. If Basil was the eldest son--he had as
a matter of course gone into the army and was in India, on the staff,
by good luck, of a governor-general--it was exactly this that would
make him comparatively indifferent. His life was elsewhere, and his
father and he had been in a measure military comrades, so that he
would be deterred by a certain delicacy from protesting; he wouldn't
have liked any such protest in an affair of HIS. Beatrice and Muriel
would care, but they were too young to speak, and this was just why
her own responsibility was so great.
Godfrey was in working-gear--shirt and trousers and slippers and a
beautiful silk jacket.
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