"Geoffrey, I may be absent several years. It is just possible that we may never meet again."
"I hope so," was the response in my heart, while he continued,
"Your time in this office expires when you reach your majority. Our paths in life are very different, and from that period I must insist upon our remaining perfect strangers to each other."
Before I had time to answer his ungracious speech, he turned upon his heel and left the office, and me literally foaming with passion.
"Thank God he is gone!" cried Harrison. "My dear Geoff, accept my sincere congratulations. It would indeed be a blessing did you never meet again."
"Oh, that he had stayed another minute that I might have demolished his gay plumes! I am so angry, so mortified, George, that I can scarcely control myself."
"Nonsense! His departure is a fortunate event for you."
"Of course—the absence of one so actively annoying, must make my bondage more tolerable."
"Listen to me, petulant boy! there is war in the camp. Theophilus leaves the house under the ban of his father's anger. They have had a desperate quarrel, and he quits London in disgrace; and if you are not a gainer by this change in the domestic arrangements, my name is not George Harrison."
"Why do you think so?"