This woman , as I learned from others , but never from Uncle Dick , had been a peevish , fretful , exacting creature , and for nearly thirty years Uncle Dick had been a very slave to her whims and caprices . `` Nobody knows what he had to put up with , for he never complained , '' Mrs. Lindsay , my landlady , told me . `` She was out of her mind once and she was liable to go out of it again if she was crossed in anything . He was that good and patient with her . She was dreadful fond of him too , for all she did almost worry his life out . No doubt she was the reason he never married . He could n't leave her and he knew no woman would go in there . Uncle Dick never courted anyone , unless it was Rose Lawrence . She was a cousin of my man 's . I 've heard he had a kindness for her ; it was years ago , before I came to Bayside . But anyway , nothing came of it . Her father 's health failed and he had to go out to California . Rose had to go with him , her mother being dead , and that was the end of Uncle Dick 's love affair . '' But that was not the end of it , as I discovered when Uncle Dick gave me his confidence . One evening I went over and , piloted by the sound of shrieks and laughter , found Uncle Dick careering about the garden , pursued by half a dozen schoolgirls who were pelting him with overblown roses . At sight of the master my pupils instantly became prim and demure and , gathering up their flowery spoil , they beat a hasty retreat down the lane . `` Those little girls are very sweet , '' said Uncle Dick abruptly . `` Little blossoms of life ! Have you ever wondered , Master , why I have n't some of my own blooming about the old place instead of just looking over the fence of other men 's gardens , coveting their human roses ? '' `` Yes , I have , '' I answered frankly .
`` It has been a puzzle to me why you , Uncle Dick , who seem to me fitted above all men I have ever known XXXXX love and husbandhood and fatherhood , should have elected to live your life alone . ''
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