“Ah, ah, Master Charles, and so you are the culprit, are you?”
“Sir!” I exclaimed, affecting to be ignorant of his meaning.
“My spectacle-case—where is it?”
“Spectacle-case? I have not got it.”
“What! Why, I laid it beside me on the table, and now it is gone! You should not take such liberties with your elders.”
“Why, sir, I have not moved from the spot where I am sitting, and it is a very hard case for me to be accused of removing it.”
“Your joke is impertinent at a time like this. You are the only person, as I said before, who has been in the library since I have been reading here——”
“Excuse me, doctor——”
“Do not interrupt me, Master Charles. I must ring the bell for your father. Boys home for the holidays take so much license nowadays that really they have become an intolerable nuisance. There should be no school holidays if I could have my way.”