It may, as you say, be a good thing to have a gentleman for a father, sir, but it is a dreadful thing, all the same, to lose him just as you need him most.

I wouldn't hate so many of the things about me if I had him to go to now and then." "Tell me about him and your early life," cried Peter, crossing one leg over the other.

He knew the key had been struck; the boy might now play on as he chose.
"There is very little to tell.

I lived in the old home with an aunt after my father's death.

And went to school and then to college at Hagerstown--quite a small college--where uncle looked after me--he paid the expenses really--and then I was clerk in a law office for a while, and at my aunt's death about a year ago the old place was sold and I had no home, and Uncle Arthur sent for me to come here." "Very decent in him, and you should never forget him for it," and again Peter's eyes roamed around the perfectly appointed room.
"I know it, sir, and at first the very newness and strangeness of everything delighted me.