"The only boarding school he knows anything about is the one where Lottie was.

If he were not her uncle by marriage I should not object to Lottie as a daughter," was the next remark, whereupon there ensued a conversation touching the merits and demerits of a certain Lottie Gardner, whose father had taken for a second wife Miss Laura Richards.
This Laura had died within a year of her marriage, but Lottie had claimed relationship to the family just the same, grandmaing Mrs.
Richards and aunty-ing the sisters.

John, however, was never called uncle, except in fun.

He was too near her age, the young lady frequently declaring that she had half a mind to throw aside all family ties and lay siege to the handsome young man, who really was very popular with the fair sex.

During this discussion of Lottie, Anna had sat listlessly looking up and down the columns of an old _Herald_, which Dick, Eudora's pet dog, had ferreted out from the table and deposited at her feet.