You must have been a mere boy when he ruined his children's prospects.

How have you lived from that time to this?
What were you doing when your aunt's will made an idle man of you for life ?" The question was a searching one.

Arnold answered it, without the slightest hesitation; speaking with an unaffected modesty and simplicity which at once won Sir Patrick's heart.
"I was a boy at Eton, Sir," he said, "when my father's losses ruined him.

I had to leave school, and get my own living; and I have got it, in a roughish way, from that time to this.

In plain English, I have followed the sea--in the merchant-service." "In plainer English still, you met adversity like a brave lad, and you have fairly earned the good luck that has fallen to you," rejoined Sir Patrick.