“I’d like to know where he keeps it,” said Crow; “I never saw it.”
“Oh! I did,” said Hawkesbury, “at school. He was a very amusing fellow at school, wasn’t he, Batchelor? Did Batchelor ever tell you of the great rebellion that he and Smith got up there?”
I had not told the story, and was there and then called upon to do so—which I did, much to the gratification of the company.
“Why don’t you bring this mysterious Mr Smith down to show to us one evening?” asked Whipcord. “We’re always hearing about him. I’d like to see him, wouldn’t you, Twins?”
“Very,” replied Abel, who evidently had been thinking of something else.
“I’m not sure,” said I, “whether he’d come out. I don’t think he cares much about visiting.”
“I hope he doesn’t think it’s wrong to visit,” said the Field-Marshal.
“No, not that,” said I, sorry I had embarked on the subject; “but somehow he doesn’t get on, I think, in company.”
“I should rather say he doesn’t!” said Crow—“at any rate, at Hawk Street, for a more stuck-up, disagreeable, self-righteous prig I never saw.”
“I think,” said Hawkesbury, mildly, “you judge him rather hardly, Crow. Some of us thought the same at school; but I really think he means well.”