im, 'thanks awfully for getting Mr.
Shelford to let me off; he wouldn't have done it but for you.'

'Oh, ah,' said Mark, suddenly remembering his errand of mercy, 'to be
sure, yes. So, he has let you off, has he? Well, I'm very glad I was
of use to you, Langton. It was a hard fight, wasn't it? That's enough,
get along home, and let me find you better up in your Nepos than you
were yesterday.'

Beyond giving the boy his company in facing his judge for the second
time, Mark, as will have been observed, had not been a very energetic
advocate; but as Langton was evidently unaware of the fact, Mark
himself was the last person to allude to it. Gratitude, whether earned
or not, was gratitude, and always worth accepting.

'By Jove,' he thought to himself with half-ashamed amusement, 'I
forgot all about the little beggar; left him to the tender mercies of
old Prawn. All's well that ends well, anyhow!'

As he stood by the _grille_ at the porter's lodge, the old Prawn
himself passed slowly out, with his shoulders bent, and his old eyes
staring straight before him with an absent, lack-lustre expression in
them. Perhaps he was thinking that life might have been more cheerful
for him if his wife Mary had lived, and he had had her and boys like
that young Langton to meet him when his wearisome day was over,
instead of being childless and a widower, and returning to the lonely,
dingy house which he occupied as the incumbent of a musty church hard
by.

Whatever he thought of, he was too engaged to notice Mark, who
followed him with his eyes as he slowly worked his way up the flight
of stone steps which led to the street level. 'Shall I ever come to
that?' he thought. 'If I stay here all my life, I _may_. Ah, there's
Gilbertson--he can tell me about this Speech-day business.'

Gilbertson was a fellow-master, and one of the committee for arranging
the Speech-day entertainment. For the rest he was a nervously fussy
little man, and met Mark with evident embarrassment.

'Well, Gilbertson,' said Mark, as unconcernedly as he could, 'settled
your programme yet?'

'Er--oh yes, quite settled--quite, that is, not definitely as yet.'

'And--my little production?'

'Oh, ah, to be sure, yes, your little production. We all liked it very
much--oh, exceedingly so--the Doctor especially--charmed with it, my
dear Ashburn, charmed!'

'Very glad to hear it,' said Mark, with a sudden thrill; 'and--and
have you decided to take it, then?'

'Wel