"Beggars mustn't be choosers," said Bertie. "We are not exactly what you would call rolling in riches just now. And Bellevue street happens to be about midway between St. Sylvester's and Standon Square, so it will suit us both." "Standon Square?" Percival repeated. "Yes. Oh, didn't I tell you? My mother came to school at Brenthill. It was her old schoolmistress we remembered lived here when we had your letter. So we wrote to her, and the old dear not only promised me some pupils, but it is settled that Judith is to go and teach there every day. Judith thinks we ought to stick to one another, we two." "You're a lucky fellow," said Percival. "You don't know, and won't know, what loneliness is here." "But how do _you_ come to know anything about it? That's what I can't understand. I thought your grandfather died last summer?" "So he did." "But I thought you were to come in for no end of money?" [Illustration: "SHE DREW A SOFT WHITE CLOAK ROUND HER, AND WENT BY."--Page 173.] "I didn't, you see." "But surely he always allowed you a lot," said Lisle, still unsatisfied. "You never used to talk of doing anything." "No, but I found I must. The fact is, I'm not on the best terms with my cousin at Brackenhill, and I made up my mind to be independent. Consequently, I'm a clerk--a copying-clerk, you understand--in a lawyer's office here--Ferguson's in Fisher street--and I lodge accordingly." "I'm very sorry," said Bertie. "Hammond knows all about it," the other went on, "but nobody else does." "I was afraid there was something wrong," said Bertie--"wrong for you, I mean. From our point of view it is very lucky that circumstances have sent you here. But I hope your prospects may brighten; not directly--I can't manage to hope that--but soon." Percival smiled. "Meanwhile," he said with a quiet earnestness of tone, "if there is anything I can do to help you or Miss Lisle, you will let me do it." "Certainly," said Bertie. "We are going out now to look for a grocer. Suppose you come and show us one." "I'm very much at your service. What are you looking at?" "Why--you'll pardon my mentioning it--you have got the biggest smut on your left cheek that I've seen since I came here. They attain to a remarkable size in Brenthill, have you noticed?" Bertie spoke with eager interest, as if he had become quite a connoisseur in smuts. "Yes, that's it. I'll look Judith up, and tell her you are going with us."