"You must be a green hand to let 'em turn you inside out like that. If I had five pounds--which I ain't never likely to have! more's the pity--I'd look 'em up and down just once or twice before I'd let 'em walk off with it like that. I wonder if your mother knows you're out." "My mother doesn't know anything at all about it; I've run away from school." Under ordinary circumstances Bertie would have confined that fact within his own bosom; now, with some vague idea of impressing his dignity upon the contemptuous Sam, he blurted it out. Directly the words were spoken a significant look passed from each of his hearers to the other. "Dear, now," said the lady. "Run away from school, have you now? There's a brave young gentleman; and that there Sam knows nothing at all about it. It's more than he dare do." "Never had a school to run away from," murmured Sam. "Did they use you very bad, my dear?" "It wasn't because of that; I wouldn't have minded how they used me. I ran away because I wanted to find the Land of Golden Dreams." Mr. Jenkins put his hand to his mouth as if to choke what sounded very like a laugh; Sam stared with a look of the most profound amazement on his face; a faint smile even flitted across the lady's face. "The Land of Golden Dreams," said Sam. "Never heard tell of such a place." "You never heard tell of nothing," declared the lady. "You ain't a scholar like this young gentleman. And what's the name of the school, my dear?" "Mecklemburg House Collegiate School." Bertie informed them of the name and title of Mr. Fletcher's educational establishment with what he intended to be his grandest air, with a possible intention of impressing them with its splendour. "There's a mouthful," commented Sam. "Oh my eye!" The lady's reception of Bertie's information was more courteous. "There's a beautiful name for a school. And where might it be?" "It's not very far from Cobham. But I don't live there." "No, my dear. And where do you live, my lovey?" The lady became more affectionate in her titles of endearment as she went on. Mr. Jenkins, leaning over the head of the bed, listened with all his ears; but on his countenance was a delighted grin. "I live at Upton." "Upton," said the lady, and glanced at Mr. Jenkins behind the bed. Mr. Jenkins winked at her. "My father's a doctor; he keeps two horses and a carriage; everybody knows him there; he's the best doctor in the place." "And is your mother alive, my dear?" "I should rather think she was, and won't she go it when she knows I've run away!" "Dear now, think of that! I shouldn't be surprised if she was very fond of you, my dear. And I daresay, now, she'd give a deal of money to any one who told her where you were."