'I am sorry for _him_,' said Edgar, indicating his brother. 'He is famous stuff for a landlord and member of parliament--plenty of wits and brains--only he wants to be put on a shelf to be got at. Wherever he is, he'll go on there! Now, a start is all I want! Give me my one step--and then--O Gerald, some day I'll lift you all up!'
'What's that?' said Felix, waking as the enthusiastic voice was raised. 'Edgar lifting us all! What a bounce we should all come down with!'
'We were talking of what Papa said at dinner,' explained Cherry. 'What did you think about it, Fee?'
'I didn't think at all, I wished he hadn't,' said Felix, stretching himself.
'Why not?' said Cherry, a little ruffled at even Felix wishing Papa had not.
'There's no use having things put into one's head.'
'O Felix, you don't want to change?' cried Cherry.
'No,' he said; but it was a 'no' in a tone she did not understand. The change he saw that hardship was working was that from which he recoiled.
'That's like you, Blunderbore,' said Edgar. 'Now, the very reason I am glad not to be born a great swell, but only a poor gentleman, is that so much is open to one; and if one does anything great, it is all the greater and more credit.'
'Yes,' said Felix, sitting up; 'when you have once got a scholarship, there will be the whole world before you.'
'Oh yes!' said Edgar; 'but every one knows what happens to a man that takes Orders and marries young; and he had the most extraordinary ill-luck besides! Now, as Ryder says, any man with brains can shine. And I am only doubting whether to take to scholarship or art! I love art more than anything, and it is the speediest.'
The conversation was broken, for just then Wilmet was seen peering about with an anxious, careful eye.
'What is it, my deputy Partlet?' asked her father. 'Which of your brood are you looking for?'
'I can't see Robina,' said Wilmet anxiously. 'She was swinging just now, but neither she nor Lance is with the big boys.'
'Flown up higher,' said Mr. Underwood, pretending to spy among the branches. 'Flapsy, come down! Bobbie, where are you?'
A voice answered him; and in another moment Robina and Lance stood in the glade, and with them a girl newly come to her teens, whom they pulled forward, crying, 'She says she's our cousin!'