He began to be aware that he had only to push and things gave way--a dangerous knowledge, and its coming marks a period in one's life.
He seemed, too, during this summer, to have left his sisters definitely behind him and to stand much more alone than he had done before.

The only person in his world whom he felt that he would like to know better was Uncle Samuel, and that argued, on his part, a certain tendency towards rebellion and individuality.

He was no longer rude to Aunt 'Amy, although he hated her just as he had always done.

She did not seem any longer a question that mattered.

His attitude to his whole family now was independent.
Indeed, he was, in reality, now beginning to live his independent life.
He was perhaps very young to be sent off to school by himself, although in those days for a boy of eight to be plunged without any help but a friendly word of warning into the stormy seas of private school life was common enough--nevertheless, his father, conscious that the child's life had been hitherto spent almost entirely among women, sent him every morning during these last weeks at home down to the Curate of St.
Martin's-in-the-Market to learn a few words of Latin, an easy sum or two, and the rudiments of spelling.