But Viviette regarded him with a
smile--the smile of woman's superior wisdom. How astonishingly little he
knew of Dick!
"Do you really think there is one contented being on earth?" she asked.
"Even I know better than that."
Austin maintained that Dick ought to be contented.
"Dependent for practically all he has on you?"
"I've never let him feel it," he said quickly.
"He does, though. He wants to get away--to earn his own living--make a
way for himself."
"That's the first I've heard of it," said Austin, genuinely surprised.
"I really thought he was perfectly contented here. Of course, now and
then he's grumpy--but he always has had fits of grumpiness. What kind of
work does he want?"
"Something to do with sheep or cattle--in Arizona or New Zealand--the
place doesn't matter--any open-air life."
Austin lit another cigarette and walked about the room. He was a man of
well-regulated habits, and did not like being taken unawares. Dick
ought to have told him. Then there was their mother. Who would look
after her? Dick was a dispensation of Providence.
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