And, after a great fight, he had his way.

He left Eton to study civil engineering.' Rhoda was listening with an amused smile.
'Then,' pursued her friend, 'came another display of firmness or obstinacy, whichever you like to call it.

He soon found out that he had made a complete mistake.

The studies didn't suit him at all, as others had foreseen.

But he would have worked himself to death rather than confess his error; none of us knew how he was feeling till long after.
Engineering he had chosen, and an engineer he would be, cost him what effort it might.