Was there anything John could not do?
There was nothing he could not do much better than anybody else, answered Mr.Ambrose; and the good clergyman's pride in his pupil was perhaps not the less because he had at first received him on charitable considerations, and felt that if he had risked much in being so generous he had also been amply rewarded by the brilliant success of his undertaking.
When John arrived, everybody said he was "so much improved." He had got his growth now, being close upon one and twenty years of age; his blue eyes were deeper set; his downy whiskers had disappeared and a small moustache shaded his upper lip; he looked more intellectual but not less strong, though Mrs.Ambrose said he was dreadfully pale--perhaps he owed some of the improvement observed in his appearance to the clothes he wore.

Poor boy, he had been but scantily supplied in the old days; he looked prosperous, now, by comparison.
"We have had great additions to our society, since you left us," said the vicar.

"We have got a squire at the Hall, and a lady with a little girl at the cottage." "Such a nice little girl," remarked Mrs.Ambrose.
When John found out that the lady at the cottage was no other than the lady in black to whom he had lost his heart two years and a half before, he was considerably surprised.

It would be absurd to suppose that the boyish fancy which had made so much romance in his life for so many months could outlast the excitements of the University.

It would be absurd to dignify such a fancy by any serious name.