It was almost as
if he had wanted to knit, or do embroidery. Of the idleness
and impatience of discipline which his mother had seemed
to allege against him, Thorpe failed to detect any signs.
The young man was never very late in the morning, and,
beside his tireless devotion to the task of hunting up old
pictures in out-of-the-way places, did most of the steward's
work of the party with intelligence and precision.
He studied the time-tables, audited the hotel-bills, looked
after the luggage, got up the street-maps of towns and
the like, to such good purpose that they never lost a train,
or a bag, or themselves. Truly, an excellent young man.
Thorpe noted with especial satisfaction his fine,
kindly big-brother attitude toward his sister Julia--and
it was impossible for him to avoid the conviction that
Louisa was a simpleton not to appreciate such children.
They did not often allude to their mother; when they did,
it was in language the terms of which seemed more
affectionate than the tone--and Thorpe said often to
himself that he did not blame them. It was not so much
that they had outgrown their mother's point of view.
They had never occupied it.
The journey, so far as Thorpe comprehended its character,
had been shaped with about equal regard for Julia's interest
in the romance of history, and Alfred's more technical
and practical interest in art.
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