Then it was time for Mr. Innes to go, but first he gave Harry tea in the members' dining-room, and after that a lift in his hansom as far as Piccadilly. So that Harry reached home both earlier and in better case than he might have done; whereupon Mrs. Ringrose, hearing his key in the latch, came out to meet him with a face of mystery which contrasted oddly with his radiance. "Oh, mother," he cried, "whom do you think I've seen! Innes! Innes! and he's the same as ever, and wants me to go and stay with him, so you were right, and I was wrong! What is it then? Who's here?" His voice sank in obedience to her gestures. "Your Uncle Spencer," she whispered, tragically. "Delighted to see him," cried Harry, who had been made much too happy by one man to be readily depressed by any other. "He has been waiting to see you since five o'clock, my boy." "Has he? Very sorry to hear that, uncle," said Harry, bursting into the sitting-room and greeting the clergyman with the heartiness he was feeling for all the world. Mr. Walthew looked at his watch. "Since a quarter before five, Mary," said he, "and now it wants seven minutes to six. Not that I shall grudge the delay if it be attributable to the only cause I can imagine to account for it. The circumstances, Henry, are hardly those which warrant levity; if you have indeed been successful at last, as I hope to hear----" "Successful, uncle?" "I understand that you have been to see the gentleman on the Stock Exchange, who was kind enough to say that he would see you, and of whom I wrote to you yesterday?" "So I have! I had quite forgotten that." "Forgotten it?" cried Mr. Walthew. "I beg your pardon, Uncle Spencer," said Harry, respectfully enough; "but since I saw your friend I have been with Mr. Innes my old schoolmaster, the best man in the whole world, and I am afraid it has put the other interview right out of my head." "He did give you an interview, however?" "Yes, for about a minute." "And nothing came of it, as usual?" sneered the clergyman. "And nothing came of it--as usual--I am very sorry to say, Uncle Spencer." "And what time was this?" "Between two and three." "You must excuse me, Henry, but I am doing my best to obtain employment for you--I cannot say I have much hope now--still, I am doing my best, and I am naturally interested in the use you make of your time. May I ask--as I think I have a right to ask--where you have spent the afternoon?" "Certainly, Uncle Spencer; at Lord's Cricket-ground." Harry was well aware that he had delivered a bombshell, and he quite expected to receive a broadside in return. But he had forgotten Uncle Spencer's mode of expressing superlative displeasure. It has been said that Mr. Walthew never smiled, but there were occasions when a weird grin shed a sort of storm-light on his habitual gloom. That was when indignation baffled invective, and righteous anger fell back on holy scorn. The present was an occasion in point.