He was also more firmly persuaded than ever--now when it was
unfortunately too late--that he preferred engineering to trade. In spite
of this conviction; in spite of headaches caused by sitting on a high
stool and stooping over ledgers in unwholesome air; in spite of want
of society, and hasty breakfasts, and bad dinners at chop-houses, his
attendance at the office was regular, and his diligence at the desk
unremitting. The head of the department in which he was working might be
referred to if any corroboration of this statement was desired. Such was
the general tenor of the letters; and Frank's correspondent and Frank's
father differed over them as widely as usual. Mr. Vanstone accepted them
as proofs of the steady development of industrious principles in the
writer. Mr. Clare took his own characteristically opposite view. "These
London men," said the philosopher, "are not to be tri fled with by
louts. They ha ve got Frank by the scruff of the neck--he can't wriggle
himself free--and he makes a merit of yielding to sheer necessity."
The three months' interval of Frank's probation in London passed less
cheerfully than usual in the household at Combe-Raven.
Pages:
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135