This time the instrument complained that that kind of playing made him very sick, and begged Bar to “fetch on his orchestra.”
In response to this, there followed a very fair medley of imitations of half a dozen different instruments, winding up with a duet between a cat and an accordion, gleefully accompanied by the piano.
“There,” said the latter, “now, if you only get away, I’d like to have the professor for a while. Don’t you wish you could play as well as he can?”
“Indeed I do,” remarked Bar, politely, as he rose from the piano-stool. “I suppose, Professor, I ought to beg your pardon.”
“Oh! no—no, my young frent,” exclaimed the enthusiastic German. “You haf de great genius. Nefer in all de vorlt was dere a biano filled with cats and togs before. I shall ask you to come mit me some tay. It is all fery goot fun.”
So the lady guests declared, but Mrs. Manning determined to have another serious talk with her husband about the very remarkable companion he had selected for Valentine’s next year at school.
A little later and Judge Danvers himself was announced.
The doctor and the lawyer had a long conference of their own in the study, and then Barnaby was sent for.
The judge had a number of questions to ask, especially concerning Bar’s meeting that day with Major Montague, and at the end of it, as if entirely satisfied with the young adventurer’s account of himself, he remarked to Dr. Manning:
“You are right, Doctor. He and Val had better be off as soon as possible. Send them down to the seashore for a few days, and then let them start for Ogleport. It won’t hurt them to get there a little before school begins. Have you secured a boarding-place?”