Often he used to think how a few words, from a pride humbled, would have removed the barrier.

But the words never came, nor was the pride ever humbled.
Out of all the thirteen years he could remember only six months of pleasure.

He had been transferred temporarily to Calcutta, where his Colonel, who had received secret information concerning him, had treated him like a gentleman, and had employed him as regimental interpreter, for he spoke French and German and a smattering of Indian tongues.
During his lonely hours he had studied, for he knew that some day he would be called upon to administer a vast fortune....

He laid the pipe on the sill, rested his elbows beside it, and dropped his chin in his hands.

What a fool he had been to waste the best years of his life! His father would have opened to him a boundless career; he would have seen the world under the guidance of a master hand.