the bottom
of the stairs, and looking up, said--

"Oh! that's you, is it? I'm all right then. So you knew the old
dog?"

"I should rather think so," said Tom. "I hope I never forget a
dog or horse I have once known."

In the short minute which Drysdale and Jack took to arrive at his
landing, Tom had time for a rush of old college memories, in
which the grave and gay, pleasant and bitter, were strangely
mingled. The light when he had been first brought to his senses
about Patty came up very vividly before him, and the
commemoration days, when he had last seen Drysdale. "How
strange!" he thought, "is my old life coming back again just now?
Here, on the very day after it is all over, comes back the man
with whom I was so intimate up to the day it began, and have
never seen since. What does it mean?"

There was a little touch of embarrassment in the manner of both
of them as they shook hands at the top of the stairs, and turned
into the chambers. Tom motioned to Jack to take his old place at
one end of the sofa, and began caressing him there, the dog
showing unmistakably, by gesture and whine, that delight at
renewing an old friendship for which his race are so nobly
distinguished. Drysdale threw himself down in an arm-chair and
watched them.

"So you knew the old dog, Brown?" he repeated.

"Knew him?--of course I did. Dear old Jack! How well he wears; he
is scarcely altered at all."

"Very little; only steadier. More than I can say for his master.
I'm very glad you knew Jack."

"Come, Drysdale; take the other end of the sofa or it won't look
like old times. There, now I can fancy myself back at St.
Ambrose's."

"By Jove, Brown, you're a real good fellow; I always said so,
even after that last letter. You pitched it rather strong in that
though. I was very near coming back from Norway to quarrel with
you."

"Well, I was very angry at being left in the lurch by you and
Blake."

"You got the coin all right, I suppose? You never acknowledged
it."

"Didn't I? Then I ought to have. Yes, I got it all right about
six months afterwards. I ought to have acknowledged it, and I
thought I had. I'm sorry I didn't. Now we're all quits, and won't
talk any more about that rascally bill."

"I suppose I may light up," said Drysdale, dropping into his old
lounging attitude on the sofa, and pulling out his cigar-case.

"Yes, of course. Will you have anything?"

"A cool drink wouldn't be amiss."

"They make a nice tan