He would go to his mother, of course, but not quite immediately.
He would think over the matter, endeavouring to ascertain what it was that had made his father's manner and words so painful to him.
But he could not get his thoughts to work rightly;--which getting of the thoughts to work rightly is, by-the-by, as I take it, the hardest work which a man is called upon to do.

Not that the subject to be thought about need in itself be difficult.

Were one to say that thoughts about hydrostatics and pneumatics are difficult to the multitude, or that mental efforts in regions of political economy or ethical philosophy are beyond ordinary reach, one would only pronounce an evident truism, an absurd platitude.

But let any man take any subject fully within his own mind's scope, and strive to think about it steadily, with some attempt at calculation as to results.

The chances are his mind will fly off, will-he-nill-he, to some utterly different matter.