"Someone must pay for the one pound stamp and other expenses," answered Frank.
"After all this spending of money, perhaps it would not prove," rejoined Mrs. Mathers.
"We won't know if we don't try," retorted Frank; "people don't make fortunes staring about them with their hands in their pockets."
"But you don't mean to say," almost angrily said Mrs. Mathers, "that you would send them your money in that fashion?"
"I do," answered the young man in a decided tone. He was growing impatient at what he thought to be a wanton check of progress on his step-mother's part.
Here, Mr. Mathers left the room without having said a word.
Frank watched him disappear and then remarked: "Do you think these people are going to work for nothing? They would be fools."
"Oh! 'tis not _they_ who are fools," sarcastically remarked his step-mother.
The young man waxed hot. His whole being was rising in wrath within him. He, however, mastered his passions. It was his duty to bend, and he did so. "If I could convince her, if I could make her feel as I myself feel," he thought.
For one minute he was silent, not knowing how to begin the speech that was to bring conviction into her soul.
"Ah!" he thought as he looked at his step-mother who had resumed her work as if the debate was settled, "she checks me when I try to push myself; she tries to nip my plans in the bud. When, with a few words of encouragement, I might soon be a rising man. But I must convince her--I must. If I don't succeed in doing it, I will act alone. The money is mine, why should I not be able to do what I like with it. If, however, I could bring her to think as I do."
"I have always tried to push myself," he began in a somewhat tender and pleading tone, "and you never give me one word of encouragement or praise."
Mrs. Mathers looked up: "You try in the wrong direction," she said, "earn money by all means, but don't throw it away like a simpleton."
Unheeding this, Frank resumed: "If I do not try and make life a success I don't know anyone who will do it for me. I have studied. Many an evening have I sat up with my books thinking of the use my knowledge would be to me in future life; many an outing have I denied myself for the sake of studying; many a pleasure have I sacrificed for the sake of acquiring knowledge. I did not care, work did not seem heavy, because it carried with it a hope of future happiness. I worked on till late in the evening. I rose early in the morning to resume my studies. And, if sometimes I felt discouraged, worn out by the ceaseless toil, I said to myself: 'Take courage--science is bitter but its fruit is sweet.' I have tried to cultivate myself as much as possible, to fill my mind with all that is noble, pure, and elevating--to acquire good habits by shunning bad society and by reading good books--in short, I have sacrificed my past self for the sake of my future self.