Upon my word, why couldn't I have been treated like a man straight off, instead of being washed and dressed and fed with a spoon and wheeled in a perambulator by three respectable middle-aged persons, who all vote me a nuisance." "In the first place, Roger Ingleton, I am not yet middle-aged.

In the second place, I do not vote you a nuisance.

In the third place, if you stand there much longer like that, with your coat off, you will catch your death of cold, which would annoy me exceedingly." This was one of many conversations which took place.

It was difficult to say whether Mr Armstrong took his new duties seriously or not.

He generally contrived to say something flippant about them when his pupil tackled him on the subject, but at the same time he rarely failed to give the boy a hint or two that somewhere hidden away behind the cool, odd exterior of the man, there lurked a very warm corner for the fatherless heir of Maxfield.
For the next week or two the days passed uneventfully.