Читать книгу The Passionate Quest онлайн

19 страница из 87

Benjamin Stone turned to Philip.

"Have you anything to say for yourself?" he asked.

"I agree with everything that Rosina has said," Philip answered. "I am grateful to you for your help and support, but I hate my work here. I want to get away."

"You are the worst clerk," his uncle pronounced, "I ever kept in my office for twenty-four hours. You cannot add up a column of figures correctly, or post a single entry from the day book into the ledger to the right account. How do you propose to earn your living in London?"

"Not as a clerk," Philip declared, with a little burst of passion.

"Then how?" his uncle persisted.

Philip thought of his little box full of manuscripts, and a tinge of colour flushed his cheeks. It seemed irreverent to speak of them as the means by which he was to earn his living.

"I shall write stories," he announced. "I have written a few already."

"Have you made any money out of them?"

"Not yet."

"Have you tried?"

"Yes!"

"Why do you think you will do better in London?"

"Because no one could write anything worth while in such an atmosphere as this," was the almost fierce reply. "I agree with Rosina. We are in the mud here, drifting into the slough. I would sooner starve in London than own your factory here."