"I knew it!" he cried, waving his pipe triumphantly at his wife. "And you haven't run away from school?"
"Indeed I have not, sir. I left school some months ago."
The lady smiled at his crestfallen look. It was plain that, in talking over myself and my situation, he had declared with the positiveness which I found was part of his character, that I had fallen into some trouble at school and fled the consequences.
There was a brief silence; then he said:
"You spoke of work. What can you do?"
"Little enough, sir," I replied. "But I lived for some years on a farm, and could do something in that kind."
Husband and wife glanced at each other, and the gentleman said:
"Well, well, go downstairs now; presently I will send for you again."
I went down, and found my way, by the back of the house, the door standing open, into the garden. I had not taken more than half a dozen paces down the middle path when a big dog of the retriever kind came barking towards me. Stooping down, I patted his head and tickled his ears, a thing which all animals love, and then went on, the dog trotting by my side in most friendly wise.
And at a turn of the walk I came without warning upon the girl who had interposed to save me from a thrashing and had then gone scornfully away, thinking me a liar. The consciousness of my ridiculous appearance rushed upon me in a flood, and, having but small experience of womankind save as represented by Mistress Pennyquick and our maids, I must stand stock still, red to the roots of my hair.