“Mother thought perhaps you’d honour her by taking a cup of tea this warm afternoon, sir,” said Mrs. Armstrong, when Theodore had seated himself opposite the invalid, “and then you can have your little talk over old times while I look after Armstrong’s supper. He’ll eat any bit I choose to give him for his dinner, and there’s days he don’t get no dinner at all, but he always looks for something tasty for supper, don’t he, mother?” Mrs. Dugget acknowledged this trait in her son-in-law’s character, and Theodore having graciously accepted her hospitality, Mrs. Armstrong poured out the tea, and waited upon the distinguished guest, and, having done this, withdrew to her domestic duties. She was visible in front of the window five minutes afterwards, setting out with a basket over her arm, evidently in quest of the “something tasty” that was needful to her husband’s well-being. “Your daughter tells me that you remember my cousin, Lord Cheriton, when he was Mr. Dalbrook,” said Theodore, when he and the old woman were alone together, except for the presence of a very familiar black cat, which pushed its chilly nose into Theodore’s hand, and rubbed its sleek fur against Theodore’s legs, with an air of slavish adulation. “It isn’t everybody that Tom takes to,” said Mrs. Dugget, touched by her favourite’s conduct. “He’s a rare judge of character, is Tom. I’ve had him from a kitten, and his mother before him. Yes, sir, I ought to remember his lordship, seeing that I waited upon him for over eleven years; and a quiet gentleman he was to attend upon, giving next to no trouble, and never using bad language, or coming home the worse for drink, as I’ve known a gentleman behave in that very set.” “Did he live in his chambers all that time?” “Well, sir, nominally he did, but actually he didn’t. He had his bedroom and his bath-room, just as you have; and the rooms was furnished pretty comfortable, and everything about them was very neat, for he was uncommonly particular, was Mr. Dalbrook; and he was always there of a day, and all day long, except when he was at the law courts, for there never was a more persevering gentleman. But after the first three years I can’t say that he _lived_ in Ferret Court. He came there by nine or ten o’clock every morning; and sometimes he stayed till ten o’clock at night, and sometimes he left as early as five in the afternoon; but he didn’t live there no more after the third year, when he was beginning to get on a bit. There was his rooms, and there was nothing altered, except that he took away his dressing-case and a good many of his clothes; but there was everything left that he wanted for his toilet, and all in apple-pie order for him to fall back upon his old ways at any time. Only, as I said before, he didn’t live there no longer; and instead of having his dinner in his own room at seven o’clock, he never took anything more than a biscuit and a glass of sherry, or a brandy and soda.”