'Very sad about you, Dick.'
'Oh, I say, that isn't fair. Why doesn't she cheer up?'
'It isn't so easy, my boy.'
'It's pretty hard lines on me, you know.'
'How is that?'
'If you are sad, I have to be sad. That's how we have got to work it off. You can't think how we want to be bright.'
'I'll always remember that, and I'll tell your mother. Ah, but she won't believe me, Dick; you will have to tell her yourself.'
'I can't do that, father. I can only come to one.'
'She should have been the one; she loved you best, Dick.'
'Oh, I don't know. Do you ever,' with a slight hesitation, 'see Laura now?'