While he was busy with these thoughts, his companion had finished his
oysters.

"Most through?" he inquired nonchalantly.

"I've got to step out a minute; wait till I come back."

Paul unsuspectingly assented.

He heard his companion say a word to the barkeeper, and then go out.

He waited patiently for fifteen minutes and he did not return; another
quarter of an hour, and he was still absent. Thinking he might have
been unexpectedly detained, he rose to go, but was called back by the
barkeeper.

"Hallo, youngster! are you going off without paying?"

"For what?" inquired Paul, in surprise.

"For the oysters, of course. You don't suppose I give 'em away, do you?"

"I thought," hesitated Paul, "that the one who was with me paid,--the
Governor's son," he added, conscious of a certain pride in his intimacy
with one so nearly related to the chief magistrate of the Commonwealth.

"The Governor's son," laughed the barkeeper. "Why the Governor lives a
hundred miles off and more. That wasn't the Governor's son any more than
I am."