'You're--Eh ?' laying his finger on the sleeve of his black coat.
'Who's it for, eh ?' 'My father,' replied Nicholas.
'Ah!' said the old gentleman quickly.

'Bad thing for a young man to lose his father.

Widowed mother, perhaps ?' Nicholas sighed.
'Brothers and sisters too?
Eh ?' 'One sister,' rejoined Nicholas.
'Poor thing, poor thing! You are a scholar too, I dare say ?' said the old man, looking wistfully into the face of the young one.
'I have been tolerably well educated,' said Nicholas.
'Fine thing,' said the old gentleman, 'education a great thing: a very great thing! I never had any.

I admire it the more in others.

A very fine thing.