("Unassuming!" Yes, and that was why he had been trampled down, but now he was going to assert his just claims. "Conceited!" Ha! the teacher felt himself outstripped by his ungrateful pupil.)
"The warm tears of your mother flow over her cheeks——"
("Mother!" he had no mother, and his stepmother only cried when she was angry! Who the deuce had composed the letter?)
"—when she thinks in solitude about your hard heart——"
(What the dickens has she to do with my heart when she has the housekeeping and seven children to look after?)
"—your unhappy spiritual condition——"
(That's humbug! My soul has never felt so fresh and lively as now.)
"—and your father's heart is nearly breaking with grief and anxiety——"
(That's a lie. He is himself a theist and follows Wallin; besides, he has no time to think about me. He knows that I am industrious and honest, and not immoral. Indeed, he praised me only a day or two ago.)
"You do not notice your mother's sad looks——"