altusimperius

He could lie. He could lean all the way over to his father's side and claim he was learning to be a textile shipping magnate, except he paid attention to exactly zero of his father's boring lectures about trade in favor of drawing beautiful well-hung men all over the margins of his notes.
Or one might say he took the occasional note in between drawings of hunks.

So, "...politics," he admits, with the sinking feeling the full truth will be out before too long.