“May I ask why?”
“A boy doesn’t always see a situation—gives up too soon—throws away his rights. My father was a boy.”
“He was twenty-five when he went away.”
“I am fifty!”
Sir William looked up sharply, perplexed. “Fifty?”
“He only knew this life: I know the world.”
“What world?”
“The great North, the South, the seas at four corners of the earth.”
Sir William glanced at the top-boots, the peeping sash, the strong, bronzed face.
“Who was your mother?” he asked abruptly.