“Do you mean that they have really come home to live here?” demanded Julius, with singular indifference to the personal insinuations.
“I am sorry it is so painful to you,” said I Frank, somewhat ironically; “but Sir Harry thinks it right to return and end his days among his own people.”
“Is he ill, then?”
“I can’t gratify you so far,” returned Frank; “he is a fine old fellow of sixty-five. Just what humbugging papers call a regular specimen of an old English gentleman,” he added to Cecil.
“Humbugging indeed, I should hope,” muttered Julius. “The old English gentleman has reason to complain!”
“There’s the charity of the clergy!” exclaimed Frank. “No forgiveness for a man who has spent a little in his youth!”
“As an essential of the old English gentleman?” asked Julius.
“At any rate, the poor old fellow has been punished enough,” said Charlie.
“But what is it? Tell me all about it,” said Cecil. “I am sure my father would not wish me to associate with dissipated people.”
“Ah! Cecil,” said Rosamond. “You’ll have to take refuge with the military, after all!”