The letters and the picture post-cards which his sister sent every day from the odd towns on the continent of Europe, which she visited on her honeymoon, did not cheer the boy.

They merely exasperated him, reminding him of the time when she was all his own, and was too near to him to need to send him post-cards and letters.
The extremely trained nurse, who wore a grey uniform and white cap and apron, disapproved of Philip to the depths of her well-disciplined nature.

'Cantankerous little pig,' she called him to herself.
To the housekeeper she said, 'He is an unusually difficult and disagreeable child.

I should imagine that his education has been much neglected.

He wants a tight hand.' She did not use a tight hand to him, however.