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Robert Foster’s eyes brightened, and he said:

‘I’m glad of that. I’m not a rich man, and my lad will have to fight his own battles. He has a great inclination to go abroad, and I don’t know that it will not be a good thing for him. His sister will be able to keep me from feeling lonely.’

Dr. Hook looked at Robert Foster with his kindly eyes, and replied:

‘Travel expands the mind. If a lad has plenty of ballast, he will take no harm in any part of the world. Your son is a lad of mettle, and you need have no fear about his future. If I am a judge of character, I should say Edgar Foster is a lad who will surmount difficulties and dangers, and he is bound to be a leader of men.’

Robert Foster was proud of the way in which the head-master spoke of his son. How little do thoughtless schoolboys know the pleasure a father feels in hearing praise bestowed upon his child, or of the pang he feels when the son he loves strays from the right path. Robert Foster loved his son devotedly, although he made very little demonstration of his affection, and Edgar thoroughly understood and appreciated the manly qualities of his father.