Page:Hornung - Irralies Bushranger.djvu/29

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A BAD IMPRESSION
17

The new owner slapped the other on the back.

"My dear sir, I hope to goodness you aren't thinking of deserting me? Do you expect me to run this place by myself, and without knowing how? Let things go on as they are for another year at least; then, if we must, we can talk of it again."

In the same manner he very properly declined to take the head of his own dinner-table; and the impression was distinctly favorable until the rough shirt and ragged coat came to anchor immediately under the lamp. There fell then an embarrassed silence. Mrs. Villiers had made herself a new gown for the occasion. The tutor had saved up his tallest collar. Everybody had made some little difference, and the condition of the Englishman was an inexplicable insult to one and all.

Heavy, excellent George Young, the overseer, was perhaps the most indignant spirit at the table. But the English tutor, Hodding by name, endured the, keenest dis-