"I suppose," he said, "that is, I guess, because they haven't told me, that it's the same with them as with me."
"And that is——?"
The professor slapped his empty pockets:
"Want of cash," he said. "I'm used to it in the autumn, just before the engagements begin. Bless you! It's nothing to me; though, when you've had no dinner for a week, you do begin to feel as if you could murder and roast a cat, if no one was looking. I've even begun to wish that the Eighth Commandment was suspended during the autumn."
"Do you mean, man, that you are all hungry?"
"All except old Maliphant, and he doesn't count. Josephus had some dinner, but he says he can't afford supper and dinner too at the rate his heels wear out. Yes, I don't suppose there's been a dinner apiece among us for the last week."
"Good heavens!" Harry hurried off to find the landlady.
She was in the kitchen sitting before the fire, though it was a warm night. She looked up when her lodger entered, and Harry observed that she, too, wore an air of dejection.
"Well, Mrs. Bormalack."
She groaned and wiped away a tear.