“How much did she leave?” his nephew asked.

“Don’t ask impertinent questions.”

“But it’s my money, isn’t it?”

“It will be your money in another six years, if you behave yourself.  Meanwhile half of it will be devoted to paying your premium at the office of my friend Mr. Hitchcock.”

“But I don’t want to be a solicitor.  I want to be a priest,” said Mark.

Uncle Henry produced a number of cogent reasons that would make his nephew’s ambition unattainable.

“Very well, if I can’t be a priest, I don’t want the money, and you can keep it yourself,” said Mark.  “But I’m not going to be a solicitor.”

“And what are you going to be, may I inquire?” asked Uncle Henry.

“In the end I probably shall be a priest,” Mark prophesied.  “But I haven’t quite decided yet how.  I warn you that I shall run away.”

“Run away,” his uncle echoed in amazement.  “Good heavens, boy, haven’t you had enough of running away over this deplorable Pomeroy affair?  Where are you going to run to?”

“I couldn’t tell you, could I, even if I knew?” Mark asked as tactfully as he was able.  “But as a matter of fact, I don’t know.  I only know that I won’t go into Mr. Hitchcock’s office.  If you try to force me, I shall write to The Times about it.”

Such a threat would have sounded absurd in the mouth of a schoolboy before the Pomeroy business; but now Mr. Lidderdale took it seriously and began to wonder if Haverton House would survive any more of such publicity.  When a few days later Mr. Ogilvie, whom Mark had consulted about his future, wrote to propose that Mark should live with him and work under his superintendence with the idea of winning a scholarship at Oxford, Mr. Lidderdale was inclined to treat his suggestion as a solution of the problem, and he replied encouragingly: 

     Haverton House,

     Slowbridge.

     Jan. 15.

     Dear Sir,

Am I to understand from your letter that you are offering to make yourself responsible for my nephew’s future, for I must warn you that I could not accept your suggestion unless such were the case?  I do not approve of what I assume will be the trend of your education, and I should have to disclaim any further responsibility in the matter of my nephew’s future.  I may inform you that I hold in trust for him until he comes of age the sum of L522 8s. 7d. which was left by his mother.  The annual interest upon this I have used until now as a slight contribution to the expense to which I have been put on his account; but I have not thought it right to use any of the capital sum.  This I am proposing to transfer to you.  His mother did not execute any legal document and I have nothing more binding than a moral obligation.  If you undertake the responsibility of looking after him until such time as he is able to earn his own living, I consider that you are entitled to use this money