lscap book.

"What do you think of it?" he said.

"I think it is wonderful. Paul is a very clever child."

"I've often thought so," said Stephen laconically. He thrust his hands
into his pockets and gazed moodily out to sea. Miss Trevor had never
before had an opportunity to talk to him in Paul's absence and she
determined to make the most of it.

"I want to know something about Paul," she said, "all about him. Is he
any relation to you?"

"No. I expected to marry his mother once, though," said Stephen
unemotionally. His hand in his pocket was clutching his pipe fiercely,
but Miss Trevor could not know that. "She was a shore girl and very
pretty. Well, she fell in love with a young fellow that came teaching
up t' the harbour school and he with her. They got married and she
went away with him. He was a good enough sort of chap. I know that
now, though once I wasn't disposed to think much good of him. But
'twas a mistake all the same; Rachel couldn't live away from the
shore. She fretted and pined and broke her heart for it away there in
his world. Finally her husband died and she came back--but it was too
late for her. She only lived a month--and there was Paul, a baby of
two. I took him. There was nobody else. Rachel had no relatives nor
her husband either. I've done what I could for him--not that it's been
much, perhaps."

"I am sure you have done a great deal for him," said Miss Trevor
rather patronizingly. "But I think he should have more than you can
give him now. He should be sent to school."

Stephen nodded.

"Maybe. He never went to school. The harbour school was too far away.
I taught him to read and write and bought him all the books I could
afford. But I can't do any more for him."

"But I can," said Miss Trevor, "and I want to. Will you give Paul to
me, Mr. Kane? I love him dearly and he shall have every advantage. I'm
rich--I can do a great deal for him."

Stephen continued to gaze out to sea with an expressionless face.
Finally he said: "I've been expecting to hear you say something of the
sort. I don't know. If you took Paul away, he'd grow to be a cleverer
man and a richer man maybe, but would he be any better--or happier?
He's his mother's son--he loves the sea and its ways. There's nothing
of his father in him except his hankering after books. But I won't
choose for him--he can go if he likes--he can go if he likes."

In the end Paul "liked," since Stephen refused to influence him by so
m