"And Sir Lionel by this time should be a Turk in Turkey, a Greek in Greece, or a Persian in Bagdad."
"Perhaps he is. But I was not. I know I shall be very fairly cleared out by the time I get to London; and yet I had expected to have three hundred pounds untouched there."
"Such expectations always fall to the ground--always. Every quarter I allow myself exactly what I shall want, and then I double it for emergencies."
"You are a lucky fellow to have the power to do so."
"Yes, but then I put my quarterly wants at a _very_ low figure; a figure that would be quite unsuitable--quite unintelligible to the nephew of a Croesus."
"The nephew of a Croesus will have to put his quarterly wants at something about fifty pounds, as far as I can see."
"My dear fellow, when I observe that water bubbles up from a certain spot every winter and every spring, and occasionally in the warm weather too, I never think that it has run altogether dry because it may for a while cease to bubble up under the blazing sun of August. Nature, of whose laws I know so much, tells me that the water will come again."
"Yes, water will run in its natural course. But when you have been supplied by an artificial pipe, and have cut that off, it is probable that you may run short."
"In such case I would say, that having a due regard to prudence, I would not cut off that very convenient artificial pipe."
"One may pay too dear, Harcourt, even for one's water."
"As far as I am able to judge, you have had yours without paying for it at all; and if you lose it, it will only be by your own obstinacy. I would I had such an uncle to deal with."
"I would you had; as for me, I tell you fairly, I do not mean to deal with him at all."
"I would I had; I should know then that everything was open to me. Now I have everything to do for myself. I do not despair, however. As for you, the ball is at your foot."
They talked very freely with each other as to their future hopes and future destinies. Harcourt seemed to take it as a settled matter that Bertram should enter himself at the bar, and Bertram did not any longer contradict him. Since he had learnt Miss Waddington's ideas on the subject, he expressed no further desire to go into the church, and had, in fact, nothing serious to say in favour of any of those other professions of which he had sometimes been accustomed to speak. There was nothing but the bar left for him; and therefore when Harcourt at last asked him the question plainly, he said that he supposed that such would be his fate.