For a moment I stood looking round upon the ring of clean-cut, eager faces, tongue-tied and somewhat non-plussed; but seeing with what unaffected and hearty good will they greeted me, nor heeded my disfiguring attire, I made my bow and plunged into a full and particular relation of Jessamy Todd's encounter with the man Tom. As my narrative progressed, the interest of my audience waxed, and I was gratified and stimulated by a ripple of excitement and hushed exclamations which, as I ended, swelled to a ringing cheer for Jessamy Todd. Thereafter my hand was shaken heartily by one and all, with many laudations on my descriptive powers, in the midst of which my uncle Jervas touched me on the shoulder and, bowing my adieux, I took my departure and thus presently found myself in the open air walking, rather sheepishly, between my two relatives. Once beyond eyeshot of the curious, my uncle Jervas paused and fell back a step, the better to behold me, peering through his glass at each individual article of my attire and murmuring such ejaculations as: "Astounding! Astonishing! Amazing!" "Tells me he had 'em of a highwayman, Jervas!" volunteered uncle George. "A most distressing vision!" sighed my uncle Jervas. "A positive walking disgust! And yet--hum!" "And a very creditable pair o' black eyes, Jervas." "True, George! Our youth has been observing life at close quarters, it seems." "B'gad--he has so, brother!" chuckled uncle George. "Tells me he's spent all his money on women!" My uncle Jervas very nearly dropped his eyeglass. "Now--'pon my everlasting--" his voice failed and he gazed at me quite dumbfounded for once. "Think o' Julia!" said uncle George, with a kind of groan. "Think of--'Ode to a Throstle'--poor Julia--sweet soul!" My two uncles turned from my indignant form to regard each other; then, all at once, the grim lips of my uncle Jervas twitched, quivered to a flash of white teeth, but his laughter was drowned by uncle George's cachinnations where he stood on one leg, slapping at the other brawny thigh until the dust flew. "Sirs," said I, folding my arms and glancing from one to other disdainfully, "your mirth is as unwarranted as unseemly! The money in question was expended in the service of--of one who--whose need was instant and great. I have the honour to bid you good-bye!" But, as I turned, my uncle Jervas laid his hand on my arm, a white, elegant hand strangely out of place on my rough and weather-beaten coat-sleeve. "Pray accept our sincerest apologies, Peregrine," said he. Now at this I glanced up in wondering surprise, for in the touch of this slim hand, in voice and look, I had an indefinable sense of comradeship that thrilled me with sudden pride. "My dear Uncle," I exclaimed, grasping his hand, "pray trust me always to remember that I am a Vereker also." "B'gad, and there ye have it, Jervas; couldn't ha' put it better yourself!" "And pray, sirs, how is my dear and best of aunts?"