e elder girl returned the bow which Mark risked, though without
giving any sign of remembrance; but Dolly remarked audibly, 'Why,
that's the old man next door that gave your goose something to make it
giddy, isn't it, godpapa?'

'I hope,' said Uncle Solomon, 'that now you've had time to think over
what 'appened yesterday afternoon, you'll see that you went too far in
using the terms that fell from you, more particularly as the bird's as
well as ever, from what I hear this morning?'

'I don't wish to reopen that affair at present,' said the other,
stiffly.

'Well, I've heard about enough of it, too; so if you'll own you used
language that was unwarrantable, I'm willing to say no more about it
for my part.'

'I've no doubt you are, Mr. Lightowler, but you must excuse me from
entering into any conversation on the subject. I can't dismiss it as
lightly as you seem to do--and, in short, I don't mean to discuss it
here, sir.'

'Very well, just as you please. I only meant to be neighbourly--but it
don't signify. I can keep myself _to_ myself as well as other parties,
I daresay.'

'Then have the goodness to do it, Mr. Lightowler. Mabel, the train is
due now. Get your wraps and things and come along.'

He walked fiercely past the indignant Uncle Solomon, followed by Mabel
and Dolly, the former of whom seemed a little ashamed of Mr. Humpage's
behaviour, for she kept her eyes lowered as she passed Mark, while
Dolly looked up at him with childish curiosity.

'Confound these old fools!' thought Mark, angrily; 'what do they want
to squabble for in this ridiculous way? Why, if they had only been on
decent terms, I might have been introduced to her--to Mabel--by this
time; we might even have travelled up to town together.'

'Regular old Tartar, that!' said his uncle, under his breath. 'I
believe he'll try and have the law of me now. Let him--_I_ don't care!
Here's your train at last. You won't be in by the time-table this
morning with all this fog about.'

Mark got into a compartment next to that in which Mr. Humpage had put
Mabel and her sister; it was as near as he dared to venture. He could
hear Mabel's clear soft voice saying the usual last words at the
carriage window, while Uncle Solomon was repeating his exhortations to
study and abstinence from any 'littery nonsense.'

Then the train, after one or two false starts on the greasy rails,
moved out, and Mark had a parting glimpse of the neighbours turning
sharply rou