"Only long enough to tell you all about it. I told Maman I might sleep here two nights if there was room. Will you let me, mon père?"
"My dear boy, what a question! So you came all this way just to tell me—you left Mademoiselle Solange and your mother, who has you now for such a short time, for that?"
"Mademoiselle Solange sent you a message that she remembered you perfectly, that next time she would not allow me to leave her, and that she should come with me to visit you. As for Maman, when did she ever think of herself? Of course she wanted me to come and tell you. Besides, what a fuss about nothing! Who came over to see me when I was invalided home after the Crimea?"
"Hasn't this promotion followed very quickly on that which you got after the Italian campaign this summer?" asked Dormer, breaking in for the first time.
"You know I have always been luckier than my deserts!" explained the young man laughing. "Tiens! someone at the door!"
It was Mrs. Squire with a tray, and so, in a moment or two Maurice, drinking his coffee, was able to take a swift survey of his companions. There were a few more threads of grey in Tristram's dark, grizzled hair, a line or two more on his face, but yes, he was looking well, and young for his years. But Mr. Dormer—no, for the last twelve years or so he had looked much older than Tristram, and now, not ill exactly, but fragile in the extreme. Everything that was not spirit seemed to have ebbed away from his face, where, by reason of its bloodlessness, the angry line of the great scar was all the more noticeable. Indeed, it was hard to keep one's eyes off it, hard too, to avoid surprising the anxious glances cast by Tristram at his friend, who was evidently very tired.
Voices in altercation had been heard for some time in the hall, and now, as the simple meal drew to its close, reached a climax.
"Whatever is that noise?" exclaimed the visitor. "Not, surely, more ri——" He stopped himself in time.
"I think I had better go and see," said Tristram, getting up.
Maurice laid a hand on his arm. "Let them fight it out, mon père! It is my first night, and I have only two."