He filled in the gaps of the doctor's narrative for himself, and understood.
"She had changed very much.

All the gaiety and laughter gone.

But she was wrapt up in the child as I never saw any woman wrapt up in a brat before or since; and I've known some that were pretty ridiculous in that way," said the doctor, and his voice shook more than ever.

"It was--touching, for she was but a child herself; and Peter, between you and me, was an unpromising doll for a child to play with.

He was ugly and ill-tempered, and he wouldn't be caressed, or dressed up, or made much of, from the first minute he had a will of his own.