ng something like a pugnacious bull-dog at the prospect
of a possible rival. "I forgot to ask Nan about him; but I dare say he
is after one of the other girls." But these reflections were nipped in
the bud, as the short, sturdy form of Mr. Mayne was dimly visible in
the road.

Dick chuckled softly: he could not help it.

"All right, dear old boy," he said to himself; and then he stepped up
briskly, and took his father's arm.

"Do you call this honorable, sir?" began Mr. Mayne, in a most
irascible voice.

"I call it very neat," returned Dick, cheerfully. "My dear pater,
everything is fair in love and war; and if you will nap at
unseasonable times--but that comes of early rising, as I have often
told you."

"Hold your tongue, sir!" was the violent rejoinder. "It is a mean
trick you have served me, and you know it. We will go back to-night;
nothing will induce me to sleep in this place. You are not to be
trusted. You told me a downright lie. You were humbugging me, sir,
with your naps."

"I will plead guilty to a fib, if you like," was Dick's careless
answer. "What a fuss you are making, father! Did you never tell one in
your life? Now, what is the use of putting yourself out?--it is not
good at your age, sir. What would my mother say? It might bring on
apoplexy, after that port-wine."

"Confound your impertinence!" rejoined Mr. Mayne, angrily; but Dick
patted his coat-sleeve pleasantly:

"There, that will do. I think you have relieved your feelings
sufficiently. Now we will go to business. I have seen Nan, and told
her all about it; and she has had it out with her mother. Mrs.
Challoner will not hear of our writing to each other; and I am not to
show my face at the Friary without your permission. There is no
fibbing or want of honor there: Nan is not the girl to encourage a
fellow to take liberties."

"Oh, indeed!" sneered Mr. Mayne; but he listened attentively for all
that. And his gloomy eyebrows relaxed in the darkness. The girl was
not behaving so badly, after all.

"So we said good-bye," continued Dick, keeping the latter part of the
interview to himself; "and in October I shall go back for the term, as
I promised. We can settle about the other things after Christmas."

"Oh, yes, we can talk about that by and by," replied his father,
hastily; and then he waxed cheerful all at once, and called his son's
attention to some new houses they were building. "After all, Hadleigh
is not such a bad little place