"Forgot to post it! That was unpardonably careless. Where is the letter?"
"I forgot it, sir, until night, and then I ran to the post-office and put it in. Afterwards I heard the clerk say that the Bristol bags were made up, so of course it would not go. I am very sorry, sir," he repeated, after a pause.
"How came you to forget it? You ought to have gone direct from here, and posted it."
"So I did go, sir. That is I was going, but——"
"But what?" returned Mr. Ashley, for William had made a dead standstill.
"The college boys set on me, sir. They were ill-using my brother, and I interfered; and then they turned upon me. It made me forget the letter."
"It was you who got into an affray with the college boys, was it?" cried Mr. Ashley. He had heard his son's version of the affair, without suspecting that it related to William.
William waited by the desk. "If you please, sir, was it of great consequence?"
"It might have been. Do not be guilty of such carelessness again."
"I will try not, sir."