tom said i was punctual or i got no dinner when you were my age returned tom you hadn t a wrong balance to get right and hadn t to dress afterwards never mind that now said well then grumbled tom don t begin with me mrs said perfectly hearing this under strain as it went on your brother s face is quite familiar to me can i have seen him abroad or at some public school perhaps no she returned quite interested he has never been abroad yet and was educated here at home tom love i am telling mr that he never saw you abroad no such luck sir said tom there was little enough in him to her face for he was a sullen young fellow and in his manner even to her so much the greater must have been the solitude of her heart and her need of some one on whom to bestow it so much the more is this the only creature she has ever cared for thought mr james turning it over and over so much the more so much the more both in his sister s presence and after she had left the hard times room the t ok no pains to hide his contempt for mr whenever he could indulge it without the observation of that independent man by making faces or shutting one eye without to these communications mr encouraged him much in the course of the evening and showed an unusual liking for him at last when he rose to return to his hotel and was a little doubtful whether he knew the way by night the immediately proffered his services as guide and turned out with him to escort him thither hard times chapter iii the it was very remarkable that a young gentleman who had been brought up under one continuous system of unnatural restraint should be a but it was certainly the case with tom it was very strange that a young gentleman who had never been left to his own guidance for five minutes should be incapable at last of governing himself but so it was with tom it was altogether unaccountable that a young gentleman whose imagination had been in his cradle should be still by its ghost in the form of but such a monster beyond all doubt was tom do you smoke asked mr james when they came to the hotel u i believe you said tom he could do no less than ask tom up and tom could do no less than go up what with a drink adapted to the weather but not so weak as cool and what with a tobacco than was to be bought in those parts tom was soon in a highly free and easy state at his end of the sofa and more than ever disposed to admire his new friend at the other end tom blew his smoke aside after he had been smoking a little while and took an observation of his friend vol i hard times he don t seem to care about his dress thought tom and yet how he does it what an easy swell he is mr james happening to catch tom s eye remarked that he drank nothing and filled his glass with his own hand thank ee said tom thank ee well mr house i hope you have had about a dose of old to night tom said this with one eye shut up again and looking over his glass at his a very good fellow indeed returned mr james you think so don t you said tom and shut up his eye again mr james smiled and rising from his end of the sofa and lounging with his back against the chimney piece so that he stood before the empty as he smoked in front of tom and looking down at him observed what a brother in law you are what a brother in law old is i think you mean said tom you are a piece of tom retorted mr james there was something so very agreeable in being so intimate with such a waistcoat in being called tom in such an intimate way by such a voice in being on such off hand terms so soon with such a pair of whiskers that tom was uncommonly pleased with himself oh i don t care for old said he if you mean that i have always called old by the same name when i have talked about him and i have hard times always thought of him in the same way i am not going to begin to be polite now about old it would be rather late in the day don t mind me returned james but take care when his wife is by you know his wife said tom my sister loo o yes and he laughed and took a little more of the drink james continued to in the same place and attitude smoking his cigar in his own easy way and looking pleasantly at the as if he knew himself to be a kind of agreeable demon who had only to over him and he must give up his whole soul if required it certainly did seem that the yielded to this influence he looked at his companion he looked at him he looked at him boldly and put up one leg on the sofa my sister loo said tom she never cared for old that s the past tense tom returned mr james striking the ash from his cigar with his little finger we are in the present tense now not to care mood present tense first person singular i do not care second person singular thou dost not care third person singular she does not care returned tom good very quaint said his friend though you don t mean it but i do mean it cried tom upon my 