"Grimmy waste a 'halfer' bottle-washing! Rot! That isn't his form, Wilson."
"If," said Poulett, impressively, "he has sunk so low, we must give him an 'elpin' 'and, pore feller!"
"Rather. If Lancaster has put the cover over old Grimmy we must get him out somehow. Let's adjourn to see."
The honourable five forthwith moved over to the laboratory, and Grim received his beloved cronies with hot blushes and a rather nervous manner.
"I say, you chaps, what do you want?"
"What did we want?" said Bourne, as though he'd forgotten it. "What was it, Rogers?"
"A fellow, formerly Grimmy, not a nasty bottle-washer," said Rogers, more in sorrow than in anger.
"But yesterday and Grimmy was an average back, and now he's holding up some filthy brew to the sunlight to see how muddy it is. Oh, my great aunt!" chimed in Wilson.
"How are the mighty fallen!" gasped Sharpe.
"Look here, you fellows—" began Grim, with still more vivid blushes mantling his noble face.