"I don't see how such a thing could have happened that you shouldn't know!" "I've been trying to think, myself," returned the man, still in a dull, emotionless voice.
"It's been so--so much a matter of course.

I supposed everybody knew it," maintained Billy.
"Perhaps that's just it--that it was--so much a matter of course," rejoined the man.

"You see, I know very few of your friends, anyway--who would be apt to mention it to me." "But the announcements--oh, you weren't here then," moaned Billy.

"But you must have known that--that he came here a good deal--that we were together so much!" "To a certain extent, yes," sighed Arkwright.

"But I took your friendship with him and his brothers as--as a matter of course.