"Bah! Pooh! Well, really, doctor, I suppose I ought to have spoken when I woke up, and put you all on your guard in case you might have-- Here, what does the old proverb say? `Listeners never hear any good of themselves.' Of course you might have said--you, Mark, boy, I mean-- said that I was a stingy old fellow and didn't allow you enough pocket money." "Well, I don't think you do, father," cried Mark; "but I shouldn't have said so." "Good boy! But I do allow you, sir, twice as much as my father used to allow me when I was your age. And then Dean might have followed it up by talking about my temper." "I shouldn't, uncle." "Ah, I don't know, sir. I am what Mrs Blinks calls a bit trying when my gout's bad. And then I might have heard the doctor say--oh, no, he would say nothing but what would come from a gentleman." "Thank you, sir," said the doctor, as he stood erect now, and his words were followed by a low sigh as if of satisfaction. "Yes, I ought to have spoken, boys," continued the baronet, "but you mustn't set it down as being dishonourable. Why, you ought to have heard me chuckling softly as I lay back there in the darkness, listening. Why, Robertson, this isn't flattery; you have a most astounding memory, and I must compliment you upon the way in which you retain things and then give them out again so that they seem to be life-like and real. And so you have always had a great desire to be a traveller?" "Always, sir," said the doctor gravely. "Hah! And fate has so arranged it that you were to be a student instead, and doomed you to pass your existence drumming learning into the brains of a couple of the stupidest, wooden-headed boys I know." "Oh, I say, dad, only one! I am sharp enough; you said so yourself; and poor old Dozey can't help being such a sleepy-headed fellow." "Eh? What's that?" cried Sir James. "You will show him whether you are sleepy-headed when you get up into your room!" "Then he shouldn't say such things, uncle." "Ha, ha!" laughed Sir James. "But really, my dear Robertson, you have taken me quite by surprise. You would like to travel?" "I must confess I should, Sir James; but pray don't give me the credit of being discontented with my lot. The three years that I have passed at the manor, gladdened as they have been by your consideration and perfect trust, have been happy ones to me."