«Most clever people are when they›re young,» Helen replied.
«And of course I am—immensely clever,» said Hirst. «I›m infinitely cleverer than Hewet. It›s quite possible,» he continued in his curiously impersonal manner, «that I›m going to be one of the people who really matter. That›s utterly different from being clever, though one can›t expect one›s family to see it,» he added bitterly.
Helen thought herself justified in asking, «Do you find your family difficult to get on with?»
«Intolerable. . . . They want me to be a peer and a privy councillor. I›ve come out here partly in order to settle the matter. It›s got to be settled. Either I must go to the bar, or I must stay on in Cambridge. Of course, there are obvious drawbacks to each, but the arguments certainly do seem to me in favour
