Richard grunted, and Mrs. Burke looked apprehensively from one to the
other.

"What's your idea?" asked Richard.

"Well, I had thought of a writership in the East India Company's service,
or better still, a cadetship in the Company's forces."

"Hark to him!" exclaimed Richard, with a scornful laugh. "A second Clive,
sink me! And where do you suppose the money is to come from?"

"Couldn't you advance me a part of what is to come to me when I am
twenty-one?"

"Not a penny, I tell you at once, not a penny. 'Tis enough to be saddled
with you all these years. You may think yourself lucky if I can scrape
together a tenth of the money that'll be due to you when you're
twenty-one. That's the dead hand, if you like; why father put that
provision in his will it passes common sense to understand. No, you'll
have to stay and earn part of it, though in truth you'll never be worth
your keep."

"That depends on the keeper," retorted Desmond, rather warmly.

"No insolence, now. I repeat, I will not advance one penny! Go and get
some money out of the squire, that is so precious fond of you."

"Richard, Richard!" said his mother anxiously.

"Mother, I'm the boy's guardian. I know what it is. He has been crammed