To the others, who lived in the immediate present, it was a crisis so remote as scarcely to count at all.

Mary would have liked to be sentimental about it, but from this she was sternly prevented.

There was then nothing more to be said...
Jeremy was suddenly isolated from them all.

His destiny was peculiar.
They were girls, he was a boy.

They understood neither his fears nor his ambitions; he needed terribly a companion.