continued the grey man:

"There would be no harm, provided I made enough. It's the law of
nature. One generation earns, the next spends. We must see. In any
case, I think I should prefer Oxford for him."

"It will be so hard parting from him," said my mother.

"There will be the vacations," said the grey man, "when we shall
travel."



CHAPTER II.

IN WHICH PAUL MAKES ACQUAINTANCE OF THE MAN WITH THE UGLY MOUTH.

The case of my father and mother was not normal. You understand they
had been separated for some years, and though they were not young in
age--indeed, before my childish eyes they loomed quite ancient folk,
and in fact my father must have been nearly forty and my mother quit
of thirty--yet, as you will come to think yourself, no doubt, during
the course of my story, they were in all the essentials of life little
more than boy and girl. This I came to see later on, but at that
time, had I been consulted by enquiring maid or bachelor, I might
unwittingly have given wrong impressions concerning marriage in the
general. I should have described a husband as a man who could never
rest quite content unless his wife were by his side; who twenty times
a day would call from his office door: "Maggie, are you doing
anything important? I want to talk to you about a matter of