All sham! All sham!" He wasn't speaking to Jeremy, but to himself.

However, Jeremy said: "Did you see Jim, Uncle ?" "No, I did not." "He's fatter and redder than last year." "I shouldn't wonder." "Are you going to paint, Uncle ?" "I am." "What ?" "Oh, just lines and circles." Jeremy paused, standing for a moment, and looked puzzled.

Then he said: "Do you like babies, Uncle Samuel ?" "No, I do not." "Not even Barbara ?" "No--certainly not." "I don't, too...

Why don't you paint cows and houses like other people, Uncle Samuel?
I heard Father say once that he never knew what your pictures meant." "That's why I paint them." "Why ?" "So that your father shan't know what they mean." Although he did not understand this any more than he understood his uncle, Jeremy was pleased with this conversation.

It had been, somehow, in tone with the place and the hour; it had conveyed to him in some strange fashion that his uncle cared for all of this rather as he himself cared.