Just at that moment Hannah bustled in with the supper. I did think she might have made a little struggle to have something appetising for me to-night; but no, there was the invariable cold mutton bone and potatoes, boiled this time, and not too well boiled at that. There was a dear little dish of something fried, which smelt very good, for father.
Then the Professor came in without his glasses. He could never see much without them. He called out to me, as though I had never left the house, “Go and hunt for my spectacles, Dumps.”
Away I went, and of course I found them and brought them to him. He put them on his nose, and his eyes fell on Von Marlo.
“Is that you, Von Marlo?” he said. “Sit down, my dear fellow, and have some supper.—Alex, help Von Marlo to whatever there is.”
He pulled the contents of the hot dish towards himself and began to eat ravenously. There was not even a welcome for me. He had evidently quite forgotten that I had been away. After a time I said, “Father, I have come back.”
“Eh?” said the Professor. “By-the-bye, Von Marlo, did you notice the grand passage you and the other fellows were construing this afternoon? There was a fellow in the form inclined to mock at the magnificent words, but that could not have been you.”
“Oh no, sir,” replied Von Marlo.
“Father, I have come back,” I repeated. “I have come back from Miss Grace Donnithorne’s.”
“Ah!” he said. The fact that I had come back did not move him, but the words “Miss Grace Donnithorne” seemed to rouse him, for he got up, came straight towards me, and put a hand on my right shoulder and a hand on my left, and drew me towards him.
“How is Grace Donnithorne?” he said.