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Show 123 Miss Petrov looked distressed, but Karl was so relieved that she'd come only about his staying in school that her distress didn't bother him at first. "Mr. Kerner," she said, facing Hugo, "do you approve of your son leaving school?" "Why shouldn't I, miss?" he asked. "He'll get a job in the mill easy enough." "But he's so young!" "I was a whole lot younger than Karl when I got my first mill job," Hugo told her. "If he would stay in school, he might become educated for some other line of work." Yulyona was trying to remain composed, but Karl could hear her voice rising. "Why should he want other work?" Hugo asked. "The mill's starting to hire again. Work ought to be pretty steady now, and the pay's decent." "Karl has other talents," Yulyona declared. "He could become a musician." "A musician!" Hugo's smile was condescending. "Miss Petrov, do you know how much a musician earns? Why, we had this fellow name of Professor Kitzweiller -- come give our Kathleen piano lessons, We paid him a quarter for an hour lesson, and I swear, if women like my wife hadn't fed the poor man every time he came to give a lesson, he'd have starved to death. Our Kathleen says the man's a fine musician, but do you know what he's doing now? He plays piano in the nickelodeon every day. Our Kathleen only had two years of lessons, and she plays piano in the same nickelodeon each evening, for the |