through his
spectacles. Mr Armstrong, leaning against the chimney-piece, put up
his glass and gazed leisurely back. The two men understood one another
pretty well already.

"The notice is quite in order. I have Captain Oliphant's instructions."

"And mine?"

"You were not here."

"I am here now, and I object to Hodder's being disturbed. Do I make
myself clear?"

"But--"

"You must excuse me, Mr Pottinger. I shall be glad to discuss the
matter with you in the presence of my co-trustees. Meanwhile, good-
morning."

The lawyer jumped out of his chair like a man shot.

"What, sir--you, an interloper, an adventurer, a nobody, a parasite--do
you suppose I am going to be talked to by you as if I didn't know my own
duty. Do you know, Master Usher, that you can any day receive a week's
notice of dismissal--"

"A month's, I think," observed the tutor, taking up his hat. "In that
respect, perhaps, I have the advantage of the solicitor to the trust.
However, we won't talk of that just now. Good-morning again."

Mr Armstrong looked in on his friend the doctor, whom he found in an
opportune moment at breakfast. The two men had a long chat over their
coffee, and finally adjourned for a walk along the shore, ending up with
a cool spring dip in Sheephaven Cove. After which, much refreshed, and
glad to be once more in his familiar haunts, the tutor strolled
cheerfully back to Maxfield for lunch. He was quite aware things had
undergone a change. He had two new enemies, but he was not afraid of
them. He had a new pupil, but he liked him. He had a devoted new
champion, in the shape of a little girl, but that was no hardship,
Roger, too, despite his new friends, was still loyal to his tutor; and
Mrs Ingleton, by all appearances, still regarded him as a useful
friend. What then was the difference! It could hardly have anything to
do with a certain young person half his own age, with whom the tutor had
not had two hours' continuous conversation in his life, and of whose
behaviour generally he did not at all know whether he approved or not.

"Ridiculous!" said Mr Armstrong to himself with a smile, as he strolled
up the carriage drive.

At that moment the distant hall-door opened, and a light figure stepped
out for a moment on to the door-step to pat the great mastiff that lay
sleeping on the mat. The apparition, the caress, and the vanishing
occupied scarcely half a minute, and when it was past Mr Armstrong wa