"Oh! I met a boy over by the park, and we went racing. We went up to the trotting-park, and tried the course. I guess I've got up an appetite for supper."
"You will find something on the table," said his aunt; "but, of course, you won't expect to have any thing hot, an hour after supper-time."
"I do at home," replied Felix, looking slightly disconcerted.
"But you must remember you are not at home," replied his father: "there is but one servant here, and you make an extra person in the family, at the best."
Felix sat down at the table, appearing rather out of sorts. Kate did not look very pleasant either, as she waited upon him: ordinarily, she would have had the table cleared and all the dishes washed before that time.
"Are we to have this kind of doings all the time?" she asked of Mrs. Le Bras, as the latter came into the kitchen of an errand.
"No, indeed!" replied Mrs. Le Bras: "this is the very last time, Katie; after this, if Felix is not here at meal-time, the table will be cleared, and nothing will be brought out for him but bread and butter. We shall give him to understand how it will be, and then it will be his own fault if he gets served that way."
When Mr. Louis Le Bras took his leave, he gave much good advice to Felix, and charged him to make as little trouble as possible.
"I sha'n't be any trouble," replied Felix: "I sha'n't be in the house but precious little, anyway. Clyde and I won't see much of the inside of the house till we've scoured all the region round, to begin with."
"But if you are scouring the country, how can your aunt and uncle take care of you?" replied his father. "You may get into all sorts of scrapes and dangers."