"

"Well, if you won't, there's nobody else can," said Coleman, "unless
they get a ladder, or a fire-escape--don't call me proud, gentlemen, if
I look down upon you all, for I assure you it's quite involuntary on my
part."

"A decided case of 'up aloft': he looks quite the cherub, does he not?"
said Lawless.

~79~~"They are making game of you, Coleman," cried Mullins, grinning.

"I hope not," was the reply, "for in that case I should be much too
_high_ to be pleasant."

"They ought to keep you there for an hour longer for that vile pun,"
said Cumberland. "Is your letter ready, Oaklands, for I must be going?"

"It is upstairs, I'll fetch it," replied Oaklands, leaving the room.

"Well, as it seems I am here for life, I may as well make myself
comfortable," said Coleman, and, suiting the action to the word, he
crossed his legs under him like a tailor, and folding his arms leaned
his back against the wall, the picture of ease.

At this moment there was a gentle tap at the door; some one said
"Come in," and, without a word of preparation, Dr. Mildman entered the
apartment. Our surprise and consternation at this apparition may easily
be imagined. Cumberland and Lawless tried to carry it off by assuming
an easy unembarrassed air, as if nothing particular was going on; I felt
strongly disposed to laugh; while Mullins looked much more inclined to
cry; but the expression of Coleman's face, affording a regular series
of "dissolving views" of varied emotions, was the "gem" of the whole
affair. The unconscious cause of all this excitement, whose back was
turned towards the bookcase, walked quietly up to his usual seat,
saying, as he did so:--

[Illustration: page79 The Doctor Makes a Discovery]

"Don't let me disturb you--I only came to look for my eye-glass, which I
think I must have dropped".

"I see it, sir," said I, springing forward and picking it up; "how lucky
none of us happened to tread on it and break it!"

"Thank you, Fairlegh, it is an old friend, and I should have been sorry
to have any harm happen to it," replied he, as he turned to leave the
room, without having once raised his eyes from the ground. Coleman, who
up to this moment had considered a discovery inevitable, gave me a sign
to open the door, and, believing the danger over, was proceeding to
relieve his feelings by making a hideous face at his retiring tutor,
when the bookcase, affected no doubt by the additional weight placed
upon it, suddenly