or behind him.

Captain Baster asked for Sir Maurice cheerfully; and his face fell when
Erebus told him that he had gone back to bed. Mrs. Dangerfield,
informed of her brother's shrinking, had to be very firm with his new
friend to induce him to go for a walk with her and Erebus. He showed
an inclination to linger about the house till his sun should rise.

Then he tried to shorten the walk; but in this matter too Mrs.
Dangerfield was firm. She did not bring him back till half past
twelve, only to learn that Sir Maurice was very busy writing letters in
his bedroom. Captain Baster hoped for an invitation to lunch (he
hinted as much) but he was disappointed. In the end he returned to The
Plough, chafing furiously; he felt that his morning had been barren.

He was soon back at Colet House, but too late; Sir Maurice had started
on a walk with the Terror. Captain Baster said cheerily that he would
overtake them, and set out briskly to do so. He walked hard enough to
compass that end; and it is probable that he would have had a much
better chance of succeeding, had not Erebus sent him eastward whereas
Sir Maurice and the Terror had gone westward.

Captain Baster returned to Colet House in time for tea; and his heart
swelled big within him to learn that Mrs. Dangerfield had invited some
friends to meet him and her brother. Here was his chance to shine, to
show Sir Maurice his social mettle.

He could have wished that the party had been larger. They were only a
dozen all told: Mr. Carruthers, the squire of Little Deeping, the vicar
and his wife, the higher mathematician, father of Wiggins, Mrs.
Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton, and Wiggins himself, who had spent most of
the afternoon with Erebus. Captain Baster would have preferred thirty
or forty, but none the less he fell to work with a will.

Mrs. Dangerfield had taken advantage of the Indian summer afternoon to
have tea in the garden; and it gave him room to expand. He was soon
the life and soul of the gathering. He was humorous with the vicar
about the church, and with the squire about the dulling effect of the
country on the intelligence. He tried to be humorous with Mr.
Carrington, the higher mathematician, whom he took to have retired from
some profession or business. This was so signal a failure that he
dropped humor and became important, telling them of his flat in town
and his country-house, their size and their expensive furniture; he
told them about hi