"Not a few francs, even?"

"Perhaps I have a few English pence."

"Haven't you a few English pounds?"

"No, sir."

"Just think a little, before you answer."

"If I had even a pound, I should be likely to remember it, sir."

"I should say you would; and twenty times as likely to remember it, if you had twenty pounds," added the principal.

"O, I haven't anything like that, sir."

"You have an astonishingly bad memory, Perth. You received a letter from your uncle in Glasgow, while you were at Havre. Do you remember that?"

"Certainly I do, sir," replied Perth, wondering what the principal could mean by such pointed questions.