“When are you going to call on Mrs. Gordon?”
“To-night, probably.”
“I hope Andrew will be at home. It will make him feel blue.”
Herbert carefully abstained from calling our hero Andy, as everyone else did. He was afraid this familiarity would be interpreted into an admission of his social equality, and this he was far from being willing to concede.
When Herbert stayed home from school on an ordinary week day, he found it rather hard to pass the time, having no companions to play with, and not being especially fond of reading.
It struck him that it might be a very good idea to be sauntering along the road between the academy and the Widow Gordon’s, and, intercepting Andy, give him a hint that something disagreeable awaited him.
He proceeded to carry this plan into effect, and so it happened that Andy encountered Herbert, as he supposed, by accident.
Now Andy was not a boy to bear malice, and he accordingly accosted Herbert in his usual pleasant tone.
“Why weren’t you at school to-day, Herbert?” he asked. “Were you sick?”
“No, I’m well enough,” answered the young aristocrat.