"Oh! I hope you do not intend any more work to-night, sir."
"Why not?" he asked, his eyes expressing a mild sort of surprise through his spectacles.
"I'm waiting to see the gas out in that table-lamp."
"Can't I see to it myself?"
"I thought so until I found the tap in the india-rubber pipe turned full on last night."
"Did you sit up last night, too?"
"Mr. Wesden has always wished that I should make sure everything was safe."
"But I'm busy just now; you mustn't be a slave as well as myself."
"I hope you're not a slave, Mr. Sidney," said Mattie, assuming that half-familiar style of conversation which was natural to her with her two old friends, and which always escaped in spite of of her, "or that you will not keep one much longer, for it's not improving your looks, I can tell you."
"You can tell me," said Sidney; "well, what's the matter with my looks, Mattie?"