"Oh, well, if it's all right I don't mind," said Tom, thinking he had better make the best of it.
"Are you coming now?" he added, as he put the money into his pocket.
Jack shook his head. "Sit down again, Tom," he said. "What's your hurry, it ain't ten o'clock yet."
"But I must go or I shall get into no end of a row at home, for aunt told me not to go out till I had written that letter."
"Ah! Petticoat government, I understand," said Jack, in a tone meant to be facetious.
"When will you have the rest ready for me?" asked Tom, lingering a minute to lean over Jack's seat.
"Oh, very soon, my boy, very soon; we are good friends, you and I, Tom. I won't hurt you, never fear," he added in a maudlin tone.
"All right," answered Tom. "Good-night." And then he made his way out of the hall and ran home as fast as he could.
With all that money in his pocket he was not afraid to face his aunt and uncle, even though he had not written the letter. But it would not do, he thought, to let them see he had so much money, for they would be sure to ask inconvenient questions.
So before he went indoors, he tied up most of the money in the corner of his pocket-handkerchief, and only put the eighteenpence he wanted for his uncle into his purse.