"Ether—how do you spell it?" asked Jasper, carelessly.
The captain spelt it.
"Not a common name, and he's anything but a common boy; he's a handsome youngster, and I couldn't help pitying him, because he has been left to himself so much—no friends, and all that sort of thing."
"How's that?" asked Jasper, with his eyes cast down, a hungry eagerness eating at his heart. There was some mystery after all, then, about the old man!
"Well, it is this way. It seems he's the son of an old man—a painter, or a writer, or something, who lives away in the country, and who can't bear this boy near him."
"Why?" asked Jasper, examining his nails.
"Because he's like his mother," said the captain, simply.
"And she——?" said Jasper, softly.
"She ran away with another man, and left her boy behind——"
"I understand."