"then I hope it won't be the happiest time in mine,
that's all! And you may have been happy at the school you went to,
perhaps, but I don't believe you would very much care about being a boy
again like me, and going back to Grimstone's, you know you wouldn't!"

This put Paul on his mettle; he had warmed well to his subject, and
could not let this open challenge pass unnoticed--it gave him such an
opening for a cheap and easy effect.

He still had the stone in his hand as he sank back into his chair,
smiling with a tolerant superiority.

"Perhaps you will believe me," he said, impressively, "when I tell you,
old as I am and much as you envy me, I only wish, at this very moment, I
could be a boy again, like you. Going back to school wouldn't make me
unhappy, I can tell you."

It is so fatally easy to say more than we mean in the desire to make as
strong an impression as possible. Well for most of us that--more
fortunate than Mr. Bultitude--we can generally do so without fear of
being taken too strictly at our word.

As he spoke these unlucky words, he felt a slight shiver, followed by a
curious shrinking sensation all over him. It was odd, too, but the
arm-chair in which he sat seemed to have grown so much bigger all at
once. He felt a passing surprise, but concluded it must be fancy, and
went on as comfortably as before.

"I should like it, my boy, but what's the good of wishing? I only
mention it to prove that I was not speaking at random. I'm an old man
and you're a young boy, and, that being so, why, of course--What the
dooce are you giggling about?"

For Dick, after some seconds of half-frightened open-mouthed staring,
had suddenly burst into a violent fit of almost hysterical giggling,
which he seemed trying vainly to suppress.

This naturally annoyed Mr. Bultitude, and he went on with immense
dignity, "I--ah--I'm not aware that I've been saying anything
particularly ridiculous. You seem to be amused?"

"Don't!" gasped Dick. "It, it isn't anything you're saying--it's,
it's--oh, can't you feel any difference?"

"The sooner you go back to school the better!" said Paul angrily. "I
wash my hands of you. When I do take the trouble to give you any advice,
it's received with ridicule. You always were an ill-mannered little cub.
I've had quite enough of this. Leave the room, sir!"

The wheels must have belonged to some other cab, for none had stopped at
the pavement as yet; but Mr. Bultitude was justly indigna