"My uncle has no idea what he does, and Norbert, they tell me, is just as ignorant, or at all events, professes to be.

Isn't it a queer thing?
He came to grief in business two years ago, and since then he has lived out of sight.

Uncle Ralph supposes he had to take a clerk's place somewhere, and that he doesn't care to talk about it." "Is he such a snob ?" asked Bertha, disinterestedly.
"No one would think so who knows him.

I'm convinced there's some other explanation." "Perhaps the truth is yet more awful," said Bertha solemnly.

"He may have got a place _in a shop_." "Hush! hush!" exclaimed the other, with a pained look.