"Well," Teddie continued, "the eye certainly looked pretty bad—seemed to be a worse one than I really intended to give him, you know, and it put me in mind of beef steak somehow. So I went to the nearest butcher and bought one." "But, Teddie," said Hazel, much interested, "surely a much smaller piece would have done?" "It never struck me," Teddie declared. "I was never in a butcher’s shop before. I suppose I thought they would not halve it. The master of the shop said: ’What can I do for you, sir?’ I said: ’I want a steak.’ ’The best?’ he said. ’Yes,’ I said; ’the juiciest you have got: it is for—’ I was just going to tell him it was for a black eye, but there was a wretched little errand boy in the shop, grinning, so I said: ’It is for one person.’ He slapped a piece on to the scales and wrapped it up in newspaper, and said it would be one and four—which was lucky, as I had got only one and fivepence halfpenny. I ran back to the office and put it down on the desk, in front of Carrots, and went out again." "Did it do him any good?" Hazel asked. "I don’t know," her brother answered. "I left for good after that, you know." "But, Teddie," she protested, "then you have had no lunch." "Oh, that does not matter," the boy rejoined tragically, as on this reminder healthy pangs of hunger reasserted themselves. "That is quite the least part of the whole bad business—I don’t suppose I _could_ eat, you know, if I tried. It is just possible," he continued, with increased gloom and some irritation, "that the Lout had a rattling lunch with what was over: he could easily fry it on the shovel over the office gas." "It would make the office smell rather, to cook there, wouldn’t it?" suggested Hazel. "Mr. Hamilton might be angry." "An awfully nice smell," groaned Teddie, "enough to make Hamilton want to sit in the outer office all the rest of the afternoon." Hazel, making a shrewd guess at her brother’s innermost feelings and private sufferings, endeavoured to divert his mind from beefsteak or any other subject likely to aggravate them. And again affectionately stroking the shabby coat sleeve, she proceeded to discourse on divers topics, thus whiling away the time, that must otherwise have dragged terribly for poor hungry Teddy, as the two trudged along the somewhat monotonous track of dusty road, under a sun that was only now beginning to be aware that the hot summer day was waning; that it would therefore become him to restrain his ardour, and to relax his fierce and fiery countenance to more gentle demonstrations of his warm and impulsive temperament.