"But look at my clothes!" cried the other. "You must have noticed them; and I would have apologized for them before, Mrs. Villiers, had I not felt too ashamed. It is all owing to a mistake. I have nothing better in my valise. But I believe my portmanteaus are on the way up by the coach."
"That's all right; then they'll be here to-morrow," said the manager, with relief only second to that of the tutor. "And now if you'll join me in a pipe on the veranda—for I haven't a cigar fit to offer you—I believe the Company have furnished you with some little papers which we ought to look into together?"
All had risen from the table, and with a fortunate precipitancy the younger men had left the room. There were witnesses enough, however, of the painful flush which now suffused the features of the new owner. And Irralie was one.
"I am very much afraid," he stammered, "that I have lost the papers you—you"
