She felt, she hardly knew why, a curious pity for him.
"Uncle John--yes, 'poor John,' you always called him.

Why was that ?" she asked, to make them go on talking, which, indeed, they needed little invitation to do.
"That was what his father, old Sir Richard, always called him.

Poor John, or the fool of the family," Mrs.Milvain hastened to inform them.

"The other boys were so brilliant, and he could never pass his examinations, so they sent him to India--a long voyage in those days, poor fellow.

You had your own room, you know, and you did it up.