there's only some horrid cold stuff upon the table. There never was a
worse housekeeper than Lady Augusta. It's my belief, our servants must
live like fighting cocks; for I am sure the bills are heavy enough, and
_we_ don't get the benefit of them."

"What made you so late this afternoon?" asked Arthur.

"I went round to pay Simms, for one thing; and then I called in upon
Hamish, and stayed talking with him. Wasn't he in a sea of envy when I
told him I had been scoring off that Simms! He wished he could do the
same."

"Hamish does not owe anything to Simms!" cried Arthur, with hasty
retort.

"Doesn't he?" laughed Roland Yorke. "That's all you know about it. Ask
him yourself."

"If you please, sir," interposed Mr. Jenkins, at this juncture, "I
shall soon be waiting for that paper. Mr. Galloway directed me to send
it off by post."

"Bother the paper!" returned Roland; but, nevertheless, he applied
himself to complete it. He was in the habit of discoursing upon private
topics before Jenkins without any reserve, regarding him as a perfect
nonentity.

When Arthur went home in the evening, he found Mr. Galloway sitting
with his father. "Well," cried the proctor, as Arthur entered, "and who
has been at the office this afternoon?"