He had let slip unintentionally the implied admission that he had never been to a theatre; but when Fitzurse asked in astonishment, "What, have you never been to a theatre?" he merely replied, "Well, I can hardly say I have; at least not for a long time." "Oh, then we must all run down to London some night very soon," said Bruce, "and we'll go together to the Regent." "But I've no friend in London, except--except a clergyman or two, who perhaps might object, you know." "Oh, never mind the clergymen," said Bruce; "you shall all come and stay with me at Vyvyan House." Here was a triumph!--to go to the celebrated Vyvyan House, and that in company with a lord, and to be a partaker of Bruce's hospitality! Of course it would be very rude and wrong to refuse so eligible an invitation. How pleasant it would be to remark casually at hall-time, "I'm just going to run down for the Sunday to Vyvyan House with Bruce and Lord Fitzurse!" "Let me see," said Bruce, "to-day's Monday; supposing you come to wine with me on Thursday, and then we'll see if we can't manage to get to London from Saturday to Monday." "Thursday--I'm afraid I've an engagement on Thursday to--" "To what?" asked Bruce. The more Hazlet coloured and hung back, the more Bruce, in his agreeable way, pressed to know, till at last Hazlet, unable to escape such genial importunity, reluctantly confessed that it was to a prayer-meeting in a friend's rooms. "Oh," said Bruce, with the least little laugh, "tea and hassocks, eh?" He said no more, but the little, scornful laugh, and the few scornful words had done their work more effectually than a volume of ridicule. It need not be added that Hazlet came, not to the prayer-meeting, but to the wine-party. Cards were introduced in the evening, and one of the players was Kennedy. Kennedy played often now, but he certainly did feel a qualm of intense and irrepressible disgust as, with great surprise, he found himself _vis a vis_ with the spectacled visage of Jedediah Hazlet. "But how shall I get my exeat to go to London?" said Hazlet. "Oh, say a particular friend has invited you to spend the Sunday with him. Say you want to hear Starfish preach."