have. All the fellows have proper ones when they're
fifteen or so."

"But you are not fifteen."

"Well, I might wait about the _boots_ till next term. But I do really
want a pair of boxing-gloves dreadfully," he went on energetically, as
the idea occurred to him; "you know I began boxing this term."

"And don't they provide boxing-gloves? How have you managed hitherto?"
asked his mother, in surprise.

"Oh, well, yes--there _are_ gloves; but of course it's much nicer to
have them of one's own. It's horrid always to seem just one of the lot
that can't afford things of their own."

"And if you are _not_ rich--and I dare say nearly all your schoolfellows
are richer than you"--said Elsa, "is it not much better not to sham that
you are?"

"Sham," repeated Geoff, roughly. "Mamma, I do think you should speak
to Elsa.--If you were a boy----" he added, turning to his sister
threateningly. "I don't want to sham about anything; but it's very hard
to be sent to a school when you can't have everything the same as the
others."

A look of pain crept over Mrs. Tudor's tired face. Had she done wrong?
Was it another of her "mistakes"--of which, like all candid people, she
felt she had made many in her life--to have sent Geoff to a first-class
school?

"Geoff," she said weariedly, "you surely do not realize what you cause
me when you speak so. It was almost my principal reason for settling in
London seven years ago, that I might be able to send you to one of the
best schools. We could have lived more cheaply, and more comfortably,
in the country; but you would have had to go to a different class of
school."

"Well, I wish I had, then," said Geoff, querulously. "I perfectly hate
London; I have always told you so. I shouldn't mind what I did if it
was in the country. It isn't that I want to spend money, or that I've
extravagant ideas; but it's too hard to be in a false position, as I am
at school--not able to have things like the other fellows. You would
have made _me_ far happier if you had gone to live in the country and
let me go to a country school. I _hate_ London; and just because I want
things like other fellows, I'm scolded."

Mrs. Tudor did not speak. She looked sad and terribly tired.

"Geoff," said Elsa, putting great control on herself so as to speak very
gently, for she felt as if she could gladly shake him, "you must see
that mamma is very tired. Do wait to talk to her till she is better able
for it. And it is g