It would save money; and papa would have more to bring up the boys with." There was further talk of the same practical kind at intervals, and it ended in Rex's being obliged to consent that Anna should go with him when he spoke to his father on the subject.
Of course it was when the rector was alone in his study.

Their mother would become reconciled to whatever he decided on, but mentioned to her first, the question would have distressed her.
"Well, my children!" said Mr.Gascoigne, cheerfully, as they entered.
It was a comfort to see Rex about again.
"May we sit down with you a little, papa ?" said Anna.

"Rex has something to say." "With all my heart." It was a noticeable group that these three creatures made, each of them with a face of the same structural type--the straight brow, the nose suddenly straightened from an intention of being aquiline, the short upper lip, the short but strong and well-hung chin: there was even the same tone of complexion and set of the eye.

The gray-haired father was at once massive and keen-looking; there was a perpendicular line in his brow which when he spoke with any force of interest deepened; and the habit of ruling gave him an air of reserved authoritativeness.

Rex would have seemed a vision of his father's youth, if it had been possible to imagine Mr.Gascoigne without distinct plans and without command, smitten with a heart sorrow, and having no more notion of concealment than a sick animal; and Anna was a tiny copy of Rex, with hair drawn back and knotted, her face following his in its changes of expression, as if they had one soul between them.
"You know all about what has upset me, father," Rex began, and Mr.
Gascoigne nodded.
"I am quite done up for life in this part of the world.