"Talk to him?" echoed Captain Basset inquiringly.
"Yes. I think he'd listen to you and pay attention to what you say. Couldn't you point out to him it's wrong to be cross with everybody because he's disappointed and unhappy himself? I do think it's very unkind of him, father."
"And rather cowardly, too. I don't suppose he's ever looked at it in that light though. Poor boy! I feel sorry for him."
"So do I. You know, he's being taught by Miss Cummings, and he doesn't like that; he gives her a lot of trouble very often. But he's to go back to boarding-school next term, I believe. The doctor says he will be able to do altogether without his crutch by then—he only uses it a little now."
"So I observe. You like your governess, Josephine?"
"Oh, yes! At first I did not, but now I know her better I do. She lives at Midbury with her mother, who is rather a melancholy sort of person. May and I went to tea with them once during the Christmas holidays. Oh, I did miss you so dreadfully at Christmas! But I didn't tell any one that! Aunt Ann and Uncle John invited all the Belgians from Midbury to a party, and it was good to see how they brightened up and enjoyed it, poor things! May and I helped entertain the children—I liked that. On Christmas Eve we took presents to the wounded at the hospital, and then we found out that, without saying a word about it at home, Uncle John had sent them a gramophone."
"Capital! He always was kindness itself, and Aunt Ann too. But they used to have few interests outside their own household, as well as I remember; now, judging from all I hear, they seem to have a good many."
"It is strange you should have said that, father, for I heard Uncle John say something very like it himself the other day. He was talking to Aunt Ann, and he said, 'The war seems to have taken us out of ourselves, Ann.'"
"What answer did Aunt Ann make?"
"She said, 'There are so many to be cared for and helped, and comforted, and so much work to be done.' She's busy making sand-bags now, you know. Oh, father, this cruel, cruel war! Oh, I do hope it will not last much longer!"