'Robinson Crusoe! You'd soon have been like Man Friday before he caught him.'
'But doesn't the matron mend for you?'
'She pretends; but I should like to see her face if one brought her a chance thing to do. My eyes! if that isn't old Staples! I must absquattilate.'
Which after all he had no time to effect, with all his works, before their friend came to ask whether they were relieved about their sister, and was amused at the handy little schoolboy's ingenious preparations. 'After all, I find it is to be more of an affair than I expected; I thought it was to be only ourselves and the Brandons, but they are the kind of people who always pick up every one.'
'Does that yacht belong here?' eagerly asked Lance.
'That! It is the Kittiwake—Captain Audley's.'
'Ha! That's what Fulbert went to Alexandria in! What fun!'
'He is the son of Sir Robert Audley. Do you know him?'
'His brother was my father's fellow-curate,' said Felix, 'and is our guardian and kindest friend. I have seen this one in London. Will he be at this pic-nic?'
'Not likely. He is shy and uncertain, very hearty and friendly when you do meet him, but reluctant to go into society, and often taking no notice one day, when he has seemed like one's best friend the day before. They say he has never got over the loss of his wife; but I don't like such manners.'