"I had no idea we should find you here, Mark."
Mark answered something which nobody could catch, and Captain Davenal came in.
"Is Henry Oswald with you?"
"No," said Oswald. "He will be in Hallingham tomorrow. He sadly wanted us to stay longer with him, Miss Bettina, and go on straight to London from Thorndyke. What would you have said to that?"
"Thank you," said Miss Davenal, hearing it was impossible to say what. "I shall be happy to see him."
"Have you seen your old friends, Mark?" asked Oswald; "have you been out much?"
"I have not been out at all, and I have seen none of them," responded Mark, gloomily. "I don't want to see them."
"How's Mr. Barker? Have you heard from him lately?"
"I heard the day before I came here," replied Mark, a shade of brightness rising to his countenance. "Barker has all the luck of it in this world. He is in something good again."
"Again!" repeated Oswald, suppressing his strong inclination to laugh.