"
"Are you very keen on it?"
"Very," said Dick. And he added proudly, "It was my own idea."
"But you're not as keen on that as on going abroad?"
"Ah, that!" said Dick. "That, bar one, is the dearest wish of my heart.
And who knows--it might enable me to carry out the other."
The sound of a gong within the house floated through the still June air.
Viviette rose. "I must tidy myself for lunch."
They walked to the house together. On parting she put out both her
hands.
"Do be reasonable, Dick, and don't look for slights in what you call
Austin's airy ways. He is awfully fond of you, and would not hurt you
for the world."
At the luncheon table, however, Austin did hurt him, in utter
unconsciousness, by his gay command of the situation, his eager talk
with Viviette of things Dick did not understand, places he had not
visited, books he had never read, pictures he had never seen. It was
heartache rather than envy. He did not grudge Austin his scholarship and
brilliance. But his soul sank at the sight of Austin and Viviette moving
as familiars in a joyous world as remote from him as Neptune.
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