It has been in my way to know a little about them from time to time.

Mine is not a particular case.

I am not worse used than a hundred others who have put themselves in the same position--than all the others, I was going to say.' 'I don't know that I should find that a consolation, if it were my case; but I am very glad that you do.' 'Understand me! I don't say,' he replied in his steady, planning way, and looking into the distance before him as if his grey eye were measuring it, 'that it's recompense for a man's toil and hope; but it's a certain sort of relief to know that I might have counted on this.' He spoke in that quiet deliberate manner, and in that undertone, which is often observable in mechanics who consider and adjust with great nicety.

It belonged to him like his suppleness of thumb, or his peculiar way of tilting up his hat at the back every now and then, as if he were contemplating some half-finished work of his hand and thinking about it.
'Disappointed ?' he went on, as he walked between them under the trees.
'Yes.

No doubt I am disappointed.