'It seems very cruel to refuse,' she said at length, 'when
another year may give him the opportunity he's waiting for.'

'Opportunity? What does he mean by his opportunity?'

'He says that it always comes, if a man knows how to wait.'

'And the people who support him may starve meanwhile! Now just
think a bit, mother. Suppose anything were to happen to you, what
becomes of Dora and me? And what becomes of Jasper, too? It's the
truest kindness to him to compel him to earn a living. He gets
more and more incapable of it.'

'You can't say that, Maud. He earns a little more each year. But
for that, I should have my doubts. He has made thirty pounds
already this year, and he only made about twenty-five the whole
of last. We must be fair to him, you know. I can't help feeling
that he knows what he's about. And if he does succeed, he'll pay
us all back.'

Maud began to gnaw her fingers, a disagreeable habit she had in
privacy.

'Then why doesn't he live more economically?'

'I really don't see how he can live on less than a hundred and
fifty a year. London, you know --'

'The cheapest place in the world.'