“Did he seem happy in your company?”
“Yes, indeed! We were like brothers. He loved me dearly.”
Walter Cunningham had hard work to suppress a smile, and Bernard felt like choking with laughter.
“Old Puffer is a worse humbug than I supposed,” he said to himself. “How I should like to burst upon him after that big falsehood! Wouldn’t he look disconcerted!”
“Where is the boy now? I should like to see him.”
“He has left England with some friends of the family.”
“Was he sorry to part with you?”
“I don’t like to boast, but, big boy as he is, he shed tears at leaving me.”
“How was it that you gained such an ascendency over him?”
“I really can’t say. I am naturally fond of young people, and they take to me.”