“I must have been jolly young then,” said Percy.
“You were—about a week. Your father and I were college friends. I gave him up as a deserter when he married, and might have cut his acquaintance altogether, only as he happened to marry my sister, I was bound to keep up appearances and come and inspect my nephew when he made his appearance.”
“You’re my Uncle Halgrove, then? I thought you were dead.”
“I sympathise keenly with your disappointment. I am alive and well, and hoped to find my brother-in-law at home.”
“They’ll be back to-morrow,” said Percy.
“Have you dined, my boy?”
“No, not yet.”
“That’s well; they can lay for two. I’ll sleep here to-night.”
Percy scrutinised his uncle critically.
“Look here, uncle,” he said, rather nervously, “it may be all right, you know, and I’d be awfully sorry not to be civil. But I never saw you before, and didn’t know you were alive. So I think you’d better perhaps stay at your hotel to-night and come to-morrow, when they all come home. Do you mind?”