m on
their allegiance for a week or so to come.

In a strange turmoil of feelings Jeffreys at mid-day walked to Euston.
Mr Rimbolt was there with Percy's travelling bag and the tickets, but
he did not remain till the train from Watford came in.

"I may be running down to the North myself in about a fortnight," said
he, as he bade good-bye; "we can leave business till then--good-bye."

The train came in at last. Jeffreys could see the boy pacing in a
nonchalant way down the platform, evidently expecting anything but this
meeting.

His eyes seemed by some strange perversity even to avoid the figure
which stood waiting for him; nor was it till Jeffreys quietly stepped in
front of him, and said "Percy," that they took him in and blazed forth a
delighted recognition.

"Jeff," he said, "you've come back--really?"

"Yes, really."

"To stay--for good?"

"For good--old fellow."

Percy heaved a sight of mighty content as he slipped his arm into that
of his friend. And half an hour later the two were whizzing northwards
on their way to Wildtree, with their troubles all behind them.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

A FRESH START.

It is supposed to be the duty of every well-conducted author, after the
curtain has fallen on the final tableau of his little drama, to lift it,
or half lift it, for a momentary last glimpse at the principal actors.

I am not quite sure whether this is not an encouragement to laziness on
the part of the reader. In most respects he is as well able to picture
the future of Jeffreys, and Raby, and Percy, and Tim as I am.

I cannot show them to you in all the dignity of an honoured old age,
because they are only a year or two older to-day than they were when
Percy and Jeffreys took that little run together down to Cumberland.
Nor can I show them to you, after the fashion of a fairy tale, "married
and living happily ever afterwards," because when I met Jeffreys in the
Strand the other day, he told me that although he had just been
appointed to the control of a great public library in the North, it
would still be some months, possibly a year, before he would be able to
set up house on his own account.

However, he seemed contented on the whole to wait a bit; and in a long
talk we had as we walked up and down the Embankment I heard a good many
scraps of information which made it possible to satisfy the reader on
one or two points about which he may still be anxious.

Jeffreys and Percy stayed a