Part 29 (1/2)
Hanbury, who, like most strong men, was helpless against feminine tears, coughed self-consciously.
”It sounds a good arrangement,” he said. ”I suppose it is quite impossible for you two to live together? With the hundred and fifty, and what you could make yourself, Pip--”
”How am I going to make it?” inquired Pip.
”What are your prospects?”
”What are my accomplishments? I am just twenty-five; I am sound in wind and limb; and I sometimes take wickets. Can you suggest anything else?”
”Yes; you possess a stout heart and a hard head.”
”If by hard you mean thick, I do,” agreed Pip dismally.
”Thick heads have their market like everything else. Where are you going to take yours?”
”Where would you suggest? I have my own ideas on the subject, of course, but I should like to hear yours, Ham.”
Hanbury looked across at him quizzically.
”My young friend,” he said, with a flash of his old pedagogic manner, ”long experience of your character warns me that you have determined on some crack-brained scheme, and are now prepared to defend it against all comers. Proceed.”
Pip grinned.
”As you like,” he said. ”But I think a discussion would clear the air.
Here goes! Pipette is appointed chairman. The subject for debate is 'The Choice of a Career for a Young Man without Education, Ability, or Prospects.' Fire away, Ham, and bear in mind that all the learned professions are barred to me.”
”I'm not sure of that. How about school-mastering?”
”At a Preparatory?”
”Yes.”
”Do you recommend the billet?”
”Frankly--no. Preparatory work is all right provided that you don't mind a berth in which your real work only begins at playtime, and which, unless you can afford ultimately to set up for yourself, offers you an absolutely maximum screw of about two hundred a year.”
”I know the sort of thing,” said Pip. ”You start on about eighty, with board--”
”Which means a poky dust-hole to sleep in, meat-tea, and--”
”'_The post is one we can unreservedly recommend_'--I know.”
”'_Write promptly yet carefully,_'” chanted Ham, ”'_to the Princ.i.p.al, the Rev. Adolphus Buggins_--'”
”'_Explaining that you have heard of this vacancy through our agency_--'”
”'_Stating your degree and previous experience (if any)_--'”
”'_If a member of the Church of England_--'”