"I am very happy working on the farm, and if I have appeared discontented, my looks have belied me." "No, no," said his father, tapping with his finger on the open page before him.

"No! you seem to have a fund of animal spirits; but I am quite aware that your life is uneventful and dull, and I think a young man of your er--er--" (he was going to say "prospects," but thought that would not be politic), "well, a young man of your position should see a little of the world." "My position is that of a farmer, sir, and few farmers can afford to travel about and see the world." "Certainly not, certainly not; and for heaven's sake don't run away with the idea that I can afford it any better than other poor vicars or farmers; but knowing that you have a 100 pounds a year of your own, Cardo, which, by the by, you never spend much of, and which I am glad to hear you are already beginning to save up, I thought it well to suggest to you a little holiday, a little break in your occupation." "Once for all, sir, I have no wish to travel, so do not trouble your head about me; I am perfectly contented and happy." There was a moment's silence, except for the Vicar's tapping fingers, and when he next spoke there was a little shake in his voice and a little droop in his straight back.
"Well," he said at length, "if that is the case, I need not expect you to accede to my proposals.

When a young man is contented and happy, it is not to be expected he will alter his mode of life to please an old man." "And that man his father! Indeed it is," said Cardo, standing up and taking his favourite attitude, with his elbow on the mantelpiece.

"Why do you keep me at arm's length?
Why do you not tell me plainly what I can do for you, father?
There is nothing I would not do, nothing I would not sacrifice, that is--" and he made a mental reservation concerning Valmai.
"That is--nothing except what I am about to ask you, I suppose ?" said the old man.
The words were not amiable.

They might have angered another man; but Cardo detected a tremor in the voice and an anxious look in the eyes which softened their asperity.
"What do you want me to do, sir ?" "In plain words, I want you to go to Australia." "Australia!" gasped Cardo.