nd if Mr Armstrong flattered himself she
took the slightest interest in his return, he might find out his
mistake.

"I'll join you in a minute, Roger," said he to his ward, "but I must go
and pay my respects to your mother."

"Oh, she'll keep," said Roger; "I want to hear what you've been up to."

"In five minutes," said the tutor, going to the drawing-room.

Mrs Ingleton was there, looking pale and fragile, pouring out afternoon
tea for Captain Oliphant.

"Why, Mr Armstrong," said she, "we had given you up for lost; Roger was
getting quite melancholy without you."

"I understood," began the captain, "when you asked leave--"

"Mrs Ingleton, I must ask you to excuse my long absence. I went to see
a dying friend, and was unable to return earlier."

"You might have written," said the captain, returning to the charge.

Mr Armstrong screwed his eye-glass round and stared at the speaker.

"I beg your pardon," said he.

"I say, sir, you might have written. Let me tell you, Mr Armstrong,
that, as my dear relative's co-trustee and guardian--"

"I am sorry," observed the tutor, addressing Mrs Ingleton, "that
Roger's cough is still troubling him. He is waiting for me upstairs, by
the bye, but I was anxious to offer you my apologies without delay for
my long absence."

"Mr Armstrong," said the captain, stepping between the tutor and the
door, "this will not do, sir. When I speak to you, I expect you to
listen."

Mr Armstrong bowed politely.

"I repeat, sir, your conduct satisfies neither me nor your mistress.
You forget, sir, that you are here on sufferance, and I desire to
caution you that it may become necessary to dispense with your services,
unless-- I am speaking to you, Mr Armstrong."

Mr Armstrong was examining with some curiosity a china group on the
mantelpiece. He turned round gravely.

"You were saying--?" said he.

The captain gave it up.

"We shall discuss this matter some other time," said he.

"Pray, pray," said Mrs Ingleton with tears in her eyes, "let us not
forget that my boy's happiness depends on our harmony. I am sure Mr
Armstrong recognises that I depend on you both."

Mr Armstrong bowed again; and finding that the captain had returned to
his chair, he quietly left the room.

When he entered Roger's room, humming a tune to himself, he neither
looked like a man who had returned from a funeral or from an altercation
in the drawing-room. In five minutes he was in possession of m