n looking after
his linen. But on the present occasion he fell into some slight
trouble in spite of the innocence of his game. As he quitted his
friend's room he heard the hall-door slammed heavily; then there was
a quick step on the stairs, and on the landing-place above the first
flight he met the master of the house, somewhat flurried, as it
seemed, and not looking comfortable, either as regarded his person or
his temper. "By George, he's been drinking!" Conway said to himself,
after the first glance. Now it certainly was the case that Dobbs
Broughton would sometimes drink at improper hours.

"What the devil are you doing here?" said Dobbs Broughton to his
friend the artist. "You're always here. You're here a doosed sight
more than I like." Husbands when they have been drinking are very apt
to make mistakes as to the purport of the game.

"Why Dobbs," said the painter, "there's something wrong with you."

"No, there ain't. There's nothing wrong; and if there was, what's
that to you? I shan't ask you to pay anything for me, I suppose."

"Well;--I hope not."

"I won't have you here, and let that be an end of it. It's all very
well when I choose to have a few friends to dinner, but my wife can
do very well without your fal-lalling here all day. Will you remember
that, if you please?"

Conway Dalrymple, knowing that he had better not argue any question
with a drunken man, took himself out of the house, shrugging his
shoulders as he thought of the misery of which his poor dear
playfellow would now be called upon to endure.

CHAPTER XXVII

A Hero at Home

On the morning after his visit to Miss Demolines, John Eames found
himself at the Paddington Station asking for a ticket for Guestwick,
and as he picked up his change another gentleman also demanded
a ticket for the same place. Had Guestwick been as Liverpool or
Manchester, Eames would have thought nothing about it. It is a matter
of course that men should always be going from London to Liverpool
and Manchester; but it seemed odd to him that two men should want
first-class tickets for so small a place as Guestwick at the same
moment. And when, afterwards, he was placed by the guard in the
same carriage with this other traveller, he could not but feel some
little curiosity. The man was four or five years Johnny's senior,
a good-looking fellow, with a pleasant face, and the outward
appurtenances of a gentleman. The intelligent reader will no doubt
be aw