The trunk was put on the top of a four-wheeler--nothing would induce Hannah to go in a hansom--and we drove back to the old house belonging to the college. It was dark and dismal, for the dim light of one gas-jet in the hall only made the shadows look the deeper. The parlour, too, was quite hideous to behold. It was more than usually untidy, for there had been no one to put the books in order or keep confusion at bay since Dumps had gone. Not that Dumps was in herself in the very least of the tidy sort, but she was a few shades tidier than the boys, Alex and Charley. Alex was sitting by the fire with his shoulders hitched up to his ears; he was conning a Latin treatise, muttering the words aloud. I came in, stole softly up to him, and gave him a slap on the back. "Goodness gracious! who's that?" Alex sprang to his feet. He saw a smartly dressed girl. Alex secretly adored girls. He became immediately his most polite self. "I beg your pardon," he said, "I--" He approached in the direction of the nearest gas-jet in order to turn it up higher. Then he recognised me. He recoiled at once; he was angry with me for misleading him. "Oh, it's you, Dumps! What in the name of fortune did you steal in like that for, like a thief in the night, and slap me on the back to make me--" "Oh, you didn't know me!" I said, catching his hands and jumping softly up and down. "Don't I look nice in my new dress? Tell me I look nice-- tell me--tell me, Alex!" But Alex was really angry. "I don't know anything about it," he said. I had counted much on the impression that I should make on Alex with my dress. I thought he would be respectful and treat me as a lady. I thought he would begin to see that even Dumps, with her hair neatly arranged and in a pretty costume, could look nearly as nice as other girls. But if Alex failed me, Charley did not. Charley came in at that moment, and he was in raptures. On his heels came Von Marlo. And as to Von Marlo, he said quite openly that Miss Rachel was a most charmingly pretty young lady. "You shut up!" said Alex. "It isn't the custom here to praise girls to their faces. Sit down, Von, or go away, but don't stand there looking like a foolish owl." Nothing could put Von Marlo out of countenance. He sank down on the nearest chair, hitched up his great, square shoulders, and gazed at me from under his penthouse of inky-black hair. "Very, very nice indeed," he said. "And where did you get the dress, Miss--Miss Dumps?" I was inclined to be friendly with Von Marlo and with Charley, but I would be quite cold to Alex. Just at that moment Hannah bustled in with the supper. I did think she might have made a little struggle to have something appetising for me to-night; but no, there was the invariable cold mutton bone and potatoes, boiled this time, and not too well boiled at that. There was a dear little dish of something fried, which smelt very good, for father.