"Now"-- a moment's hesitation--"there is--Peter Stirling." "Exactly," said Mr.Pierce.

"That is a very case in point, and proves just what I've been saying.

Peter is like the novelists of whom I've been talking.

I don't suppose we ought to blame him for it.

What can you expect of a son of a mill-foreman, who lives the first sixteen years of his life in a mill-village?
If his hereditary tendencies gave him a chance, such an experience would end it.