To think I could ever have doubted her! "Of course, sonny dear," said she, kissing me, "it was very hard.
Still, I am sure it would have been a shabby thing to tell tales." "I wasn't going to do it, at any rate," said I, growing a little cocky, and deciding that some women, at any rate, can see more than meets the eye.
But Mr Girdler, when he called in during the evening, was most disappointing.
"So this is what you call being a comfort to your mother ?" began he, without so much as giving me a chance to say a word.
"Oh, but you don't understand, sir," began I.
"Don't understand!" said he.

"I understand you are a naughty little boy"-- to think that I should live to be called a little boy!--"and that the mischief about your schooling is that you've not been smacked as often as you ought.

Understand, indeed! What do you suppose your mother's to do with a boy like you, that's wasted his time, and then tells people they don't understand ?" "I don't think Tommy meant--" began my mother; but my guardian was too quick for her.
"No, that's just it.

They never do, and yet you pay fifty pounds a year to teach him.

It doesn't matter to some children who else is troubled as long as they enjoy themselves." Children! And I had once caught Parkin at cover-point! "Go up to bed now," said my guardian.