And Richard's nature, without his knowing, had pined for lack of work.
There had been other setbacks.

Richard lost his mother before he could remember, and his father when he was twelve.

He was an only child, and his father, as well as his mother, had been an only child.

Richard stood as utterly without a family as did the first man.

He grew up with schoolmasters and tutors, looked after by guardians who, infected of a fashion, held that the best place to rear an American was Europe.