mpliment you, sir, on your
eleven, and I hope we shall have you for a member if you come up to
town."[41]

[41] #Town#: London.

As Tom and the rest of the eleven were turning back into the close,
and everybody was beginning to cry out for another country dance,
encouraged by the success of the night before, the young master, who
was just leaving the close, stopped him, and asked him to come up to
tea at half-past eight, adding, "I won't keep you more than half an
hour, and ask Arthur to come up, too."

"I'll come up with you directly, if you'll let me," said Tom, "for I
feel rather melancholy, and not quite up to the country dance and
supper with the rest."

"Do, by all means," said the master; "I'll wait for you."

So Tom went off to get his boots and things from the tent, to tell
Arthur of the invitation, and to speak to his second in command about
stopping the dancing and shutting up the close as soon as it grew
dusk. Arthur promised to follow as soon as he had had a dance. So Tom
handed his things over to the man in charge of the tent, and walked
quietly away to the gate where the master was waiting, and the two
took their way together up the Hillmorton road.

SHUT OUT.

Of course they found the master's house locked up, and all the
servants away in the close, about this time, no doubt, footing it away
on the grass with extreme delight to themselves, and in utter oblivion
of the unfortunate bachelor, their master, whose one enjoyment in the
shape of meals was his "dish of tea" (as our grandmothers called it)
in the evening; and the phrase was apt in his case, for he always
poured his out into the saucer before drinking. Great was the good
man's horror at finding himself shut out of his own house. Had he been
alone he would have treated it as a matter of course, and would have
strolled contentedly up and down his gravel-walk until some one came
home; but he was hurt at the stain on his character of host,
especially as the guest was a pupil. However, the guest seemed to
think it a great joke, and presently, as they poked about round the
house, mounted a wall, from which he could reach a passage window; the
window, as it turned out, was not bolted, so in another minute Tom was
in the house and down at the front door, which he opened from inside.
The master chuckled grimly at this burglarious entry, and insisted on
leaving the hall-door and two of the front windows open, to frighten
the truants on their