Of course he thought it was very silly of his back, and was annoyed that it did not behave more sensibly.

But he didn't let it trouble him over-much, for he was always very philosophical about pain.

Once, when he had a toothache, somebody expressed surprise that he bore it with such stoicism, and asked him jokingly for the secret.

"Oh," he replied, "I just fix my attention on my great toe, or any other part of my body, and think how nice it is that I haven't got a toothache there." Aunt Charlotte had meanwhile grown to have much more respect for Austin than she had ever felt previously.

He was now nearly eighteen, and his character and mental force had developed very rapidly of late.
In spite of his inconceivable ignorance in some respects--geography, for instance--he had shown a shrewdness for which she had been totally unprepared, and a quiet persistence in matters where he felt that he was right and she was wrong that had begun to impress her very seriously.