less of Mr Jeffreys for
the future; he is not the sort of person--"

"Look here, ma," said Percy, terrifying his parent by the energy with
which he sprang to his feet. "I'm jolly ill, and you'd be awfully sorry
if I had a fit of coughing and brought up blood, wouldn't you? Well, I
shall if you call Jeff a person again. Where _is_ Jeff, I say? I want
Jeff. Why don't you tell him, Raby?"

After this, for a season at any rate, Percy was allowed to have his own
way, and jeopardised his moral welfare by unrestricted intercourse with
the "person" Jeffreys.

They spent their time not wholly unprofitably. For, besides a good deal
of reading of history and classics (for which Percy was rapidly
developing a considerable taste), and a good deal of discussion on all
sorts of topics, they were deep in constructing the model of a new kind
of bookcase, designed by Percy, with some ingenious contrivances for
keeping out dust and for marking, by means of automatic signals, the
place of any book which should be taken from its shelf. This wonderful
work of art promised to eclipse every bookcase ever invented. The only
drawback to it was that it was too good. Percy insisted on introducing
into it every "dodge" of which he was capable, and the poor model more
than once threatened to collapse under the burden of its own ingenuity.
However, they stuck to it, and by dint of sacrificing a "dodge" here and
a "dodge" there, they succeeded in producing a highly curious and not
unworthy model, which Percy was most urgent that his father should
forthwith adopt for his library, all the existing bookcases being
sacrificed for firewood to make way for the new ones.

Mr Rimbolt diplomatically promised to give the matter his
consideration, and consult authorities on the subject when next in
London, and meanwhile was not unsparing in his compliments to the
inventor and his coadjutor.

So the time passed happily enough for Jeffreys, until about three weeks
after the Scarfes' departure, when the following amiable letter reached
him with the Oxford post-mark on the envelope:--

Christ Church, _February 20th_.

"Jeffreys,--You may have supposed that because I left Wildtree without
showing you up in your proper character as a murderer and a hypocrite,
that I have changed my opinions as to what is my duty to Mr Rimbolt and
his family in this matter. It is not necessary for me to explain to you
why I did not do it at once, especially after the