The question, though put with perfect simplicity, was
embarrassing.

'They are tolerably intellectual,' Jasper went on, when he saw
that it would be difficult for her to answer. 'I want to persuade
them to try their hands at literary work of some kind or other.
They give lessons, and both hate it.'

'Would literary work be less--burdensome?' said Marian, without
looking at him.

'Rather more so, you think?'

She hesitated.

'It depends, of course, on--on several things.'

'To be sure,' Jasper agreed. 'I don't think they have any marked
faculty for such work; but as they certainly haven't for
teaching, that doesn't matter. It's a question of learning a
business. I am going through my apprenticeship, and find it a
long affair. Money would shorten it, and, unfortunately, I have
none.'

'Yes,' said Marian, turning her eyes upon the stream, 'money is a
help in everything.'

'Without it, one spends the best part of one's life in toiling
for that first foothold which money could at once purchase. To