nd?" said Mr Halgrove. "I'm delighted if you are. You prefer
solitude, so do I. Or perhaps you've been a naughty boy, and are left
behind for your sins."

"I've stayed behind because I didn't want to go," said Percy.

"Well," said Mr Halgrove, "I am sure your relatives are the sufferers
by your decision. By the way, one of the things I came to see your
father about was to ask him to help me out of a money difficulty. I've
just landed from America, and my remittances are not here to meet me.
Consequently I am in the ridiculous position of not being able to pay
for the luxury of an hotel. But I understand there are nice clean
railway-arches at Victoria, and that crusts are frequently to be met
with in the gutters if one keeps his eye open."

Percy was perplexed.

"Do you mean you're really hard up?" said he, "because if you really
are, of course you'd better put up here."

"But I may be a fraud, you know. I may rob the house and murder you in
your bed," said his uncle, "and that would be a pity."

"I'll take my chance of that," said Percy. And so it happened that the
house in Clarges Street had a visitor on the last night of Percy's
lonely month. The boy and his uncle began the evening with a great deal
of suspicion and mutual aversion. But it wore off as the hours passed.
Mr Halgrove had a fund of stories to tell, and the boy was a good
listener; and when at last they adjourned to bed they were on friendly
terms.

Percy, however, took the precaution to take away the front-door key, so
that the visitor could not abscond from the house during the night
without his knowledge. The precaution was unnecessary. Mr Halgrove
rang his bell for shaving water at ten next morning with the confidence
of one who had lived in the house all his life. A few hours later the
travellers arrived in London.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

HIDE AND SEEK.

Percy was in considerable difficulty as to the ceremonies to be observed
in welcoming his family home. For he had no notion of leaving the house
in possession of his suspicious uncle while he went down to the station.
Nor could he bear the idea of not being at the station to meet them.
So he compromised matters by taking his complaisant relative with him,
much to that gentleman's amusement.

It relieved him considerably, when the train arrived, to see that his
mother recognised the stranger, though not effusively, as her veritable
brother. He was thus able to devote his