‘Am I free to go into town meanwhile?’ asked Atlee.
Walpole nodded assent without speaking.
‘I wonder if this sort of flunkeydom be good for a man,’ muttered Atlee to himself as he sprang down the stairs. ‘I begin to doubt it. At all events, I understand now the secret of the first lieutenant’s being a tyrant: he has once been a middy. And so I say, let me only reach the ward-room, and Heaven help the cockpit!’
CHAPTER XXV
ATLEE’S EMBARRASSMENTS
When Atlee returned to dress for dinner, he was sent for hurriedly by Walpole, who told him that Lord Danesbury’s answer had arrived with the order, ‘Send him over at once, and write fully at the same time.’
‘There is an eleven o’clock packet, Atlee, to-night,’ said he: ‘you must manage to start by that. You’ll reach Holyhead by four or thereabouts, and can easily get to the castle by mid-day.’
‘I wish I had had a little more time,’ muttered the other. ‘If I am to present myself before his Excellency in such a “rig” as this—’
‘I have thought of that. We are nearly of the same size and build; you are, perhaps, a trifle taller, but nothing to signify. Now Buckmaster has just sent me a mass of things of all sorts from town; they are in my dressing-room, not yet unpacked. Go up and look at them after dinner: take what suits you—as much—all, if you like—but don’t delay now. It only wants a few minutes of seven o’clock.’