RODERICK HUDSON
of me! Well, if our young friend 's booked for fame and fortune I don't suppose his going to Rome will stop him. But, mind you, it won't help him such a long way neither. If you 've undertaken to put him through there 's a thing or two you had better remember. The crop we gather depends upon the seed we sow. He may be the biggest genius of the age: his potatoes won't come up without his hoeing them. If he takes things so almighty easy as—well, as one or two young fellows of genius I 've had under my eye—his produce will never gain the prize. Take the word for it of a man who has made his way inch by inch and does n't believe that we wake up to find our work done because we have lain all night a-dreaming of it: anything worth doing is plaguy hard to do! If your young gentleman finds everything all right, and has a good time of it, and says he likes the life, it 's a sign that—as I may say—you had better step round to the office and look at the books. That 's all I desire to remark. No offence intended. I hope you 'll have a first-rate time yourself."
Rowland could honestly reply that this seemed pregnant sense, and he offered Mr. Striker a friendly hand-shake as the latter withdrew. But Mr. Striker's rather grim view of matters cast a momentary shadow on his companions, and Mrs. Hudson seemed to feel that it necessitated between them some little friendly agreement not to be overawed.
Rowland sat for some time longer, partly because he wished to please the two women and partly because he was himself strangely beguiled. There was some-
63
