"You are a most unsympathetic person, Nan," said Jack, with an aggrieved air.
I glanced at him, and saw that he was more than half in earnest. I was really delighted to hear of his success; but I was feeling a little impatient with him for taking me down the garden just then, for I wanted to finish the task I had in hand before the afternoon was over. I prided myself on my methodical habits, though I got little credit for these at home, where the others constantly prevented my practising them. But my heart smote me when I heard Jack call me unsympathetic. I remembered that he had neither mother nor sister with whom he could discuss the things that most keenly interested him, so I resolved to listen cheerfully to all he had to say.
"Am I, Jack?" I said meekly. "Well, I can only say that if I am deficient in sympathy, it is my misfortune rather than my fault; but such as I have is all yours. You don't know how pleased I am that you have passed."
His face brightened instantly.
"I expect it's a bit of a fluke," he said.
"It's nothing of the kind," I returned. "You have been working hard and you have done what you hoped to do. You need not talk as if you were utterly incapable."
"Then you don't think me altogether good for nothing, Nan?" he said, bending his tall person to look into my face.
"Why should I, Jack?" was my response. "I wish you would not ask such foolish questions."
"I don't see that it is foolish," he said. "I know I am altogether inferior to you, but I did want to please you. I longed to pass for your sake."
"For my sake!" I repeated, growing suddenly hot as I realised that Jack was not speaking in his usual light strain. "For your father's sake, you surely mean."