"That must have been my father, sir."

"A good man and a brave one. I am glad to hear he is recovered."

I told him in a word or two of my father's health and of his
blindness.

"And he lives not far from here?" I remembered afterwards that his
voice shook upon the question.

I described Minden Cottage and its position on the road towards
Plymouth. He cut me short hurriedly, and remarked, with a nervous
laugh, that he must be getting back to his pupil. Whereat I, too,
laughed.

"Do you think it wrong of me, boy?" he asked abruptly.

"Wrong, sir?"

"He insists upon coming; and he pays me. He will never learn
anything. By the way, Brooks, I have been inhospitable. An apple,
for instance?"

I declared untruthfully that I never ate apples; and perhaps the lie
was pardonable, since by it I escaped eating Captain Branscome's
Sunday dinner.