Chapter 52

"Perhaps you'll wonder how I could feel like that, and try so hard to make no sign. It was because my real future was so unknown before me. I wanted to have something definite to offer you, and everything was particularly indefinite. I had--so far--disappointed my father in his hopes for me. I had reached the point where it seemed to me I couldn't do that any longer. He had a place for me in Edinburgh, and all summer he has been writing me about it, urging it upon me. He will retire before many years, now, and his …