Dick sat down heavily on one of the leather benches placed against the wall.
"Eh, what d'you shay?" he gasped. "Shay tharragain."
"You look to me," said Marmaduke slowly, "like some one excellently made up for the part of heavy father, without a notion how to play it. Dick, you young dog, you see I know you! You can't take me in with all this. You'd better tell me all about it."
Dick seemed almost sobered by this shock.
"You've found me out," he repeated dully. "Then it's all up. If you've found me out, everybody elsh can find me out!"
"No, no; it's not so bad as that, my boy. I've better eyes than most people, and then I had the privilege of knowing your excellent father rather well once upon a time. You haven't studied his little peculiarities closely enough; but you'll improve. By the way, where is your excellent father all this time?"
"He's all right," said Dick, beginning to chuckle. "He-he. He's at school, he is!"
"At school. You mean to say you've put him to school at his time of life! He's rather old for that sort of thing, isn't he? They don't take him on the ordinary terms, do they?"
"Ah," said Dick, "that'sh where it is. He isn't old, you see, now, to look at."