Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV . THE NARRATIVE OF EUSTACE JOHN I Wasn't going to let my father off about Campling's, taxing him each day with his perfidy. He assigned reasons for it of the baldest insufficiency. When, next day, I asked him, " Why wasn't me and you went to Scampling's today ? " he replied without shame, as far as I saw, " Because me is the accusative case of the pronoun I"; and, when I repeated my question in another form twenty-four hours later, he took a mean advantage of the circumstances under which I found myself, saying:—" Because Scampling's don't care about little boys that take too much cake at one mouthful." I was obliged to accept these as sound reasons, because I could not meet the gravamen of their contained accusations. But when on the third day I was put off with, " Because you're kicking holes in your father's trousers "; my suspicions of ill-faith became irrepressible and I said, " That is not a question to my answer," a perversion of a reproach often addressed to myself. Varnish interposed upon this, with an absurd pretext that it was possible to carry on communication with me without the knowledge of others present in the flesh. My father was supposed to be unaware of a short homily she addressed to me, to the effect that no young gentleman of the better class ever indulged in such a dis- respeck as contradict his father. She was surprised and shocked, nothing in my extraction or bringing up having warranted an anticipation of such conduct. It was time and plenty I learned to behave, in order to deserve certain privileges now accorded to me. For instance, no renegade against the traditions of his family could be received in Society, which couldn't abide such goings on, notoriously. Most young gentlemen's mars, on hearing of such transgressions, would at once ...