“I am afraid you must be tired with the long sitting you have so kindly given me,” added Valentine.
“No,” answered Mat, after a moment’s consideration; “not tired. Only sleepy. I’d best go home. What’s o’clock?”
A reference to young Thorpe’s watch showed that it was ten minutes past ten. Mat held out his hand directly to take leave; but Valentine positively refused to let him depart until he had helped himself to something from the supper-table. Hearing this, he poured out a glass of brandy and drank it off; then held out his hand once more, and said good night.
“Well, I won’t press you to stay against your will,” said Mr. Blyth, rather mournfully. “I will only thank you most heartily for your kindness in sitting to me, and say that I hope to see you again when I return from the country. Good bye, Zack. I shall start in the morning by an early train. Pray, my dear boy, be steady, and remember your mother and your promises, and call on Mr. Strather in good time to-morrow, and stick to your work, Zack—for all our sakes, stick to your work!”
As they left the studio, Mat cast one parting glance at the garden door. Would the servant, who had most likely bolted and locked it early in the evening, go near it again, before she went to bed? Would Mr. Blyth walk to the bottom of the room to see that the door was safe, after he had raked the fire out? Important questions these, which only the events of the night could answer.
A little way down Kirk Street, at the end by which Zack and his friend entered it on returning from Mr. Blyth’s, stood the local theater—all ablaze with dazzling gas, and all astir with loitering blackguards. Young Thorpe stopped, as he and his companion passed under the portico, on the way to their lodgings further up the street.
“It’s only half-past ten, now,” he said. “I shall drop in here, and see the last scenes of the pantomime. Won’t you come too?”
“No,” said Mat; “I’m too sleepy. I shall go on home.”
They separated. While Zack entered the theater, Mat proceeded steadily in the direction of the tobacco shop. As soon, however, as he was well out of the glare of gas from the theater door, he crossed the street; and, returning quickly by the opposite side of the way, took the road that led him back to Valentine’s house.