"I think it's about time you left us," cried the Squire by-and-by to young Hubert, who sat next him on the other side: and over and over again Mr. Todhetley has repeated to us in later years the very words that passed.
"By George, yes!" put in a bluff and hearty fox-hunter, the master of the hounds, bending forward to look at the lad, for he was in a line with him, and breaking short off an anecdote he was regaling the company with. "I forgot you were there, Master Hubert. Quite time you went to bed."
"I daresay!" laughed the boy. "Please let me alone, all of you. I don't want attention drawn to me."
But the slight commotion had attracted Captain Monk's notice. He saw his son.
"What's that?--Hubert! What brings you there now, you young pirate? I ordered you to go out with the cloth."
"I am not doing any harm, papa," said the boy, turning his fair and beautiful face towards his father.
Captain Monk pointed his stern finger at the door; a mandate which Hubert dared not disobey, and he went out.
The company sat on, an interminable period of time it seemed to the Vicar. He glanced stealthily at his watch. Eleven o'clock.
"Thinking of going, Parson?" said Mr. Threpp. "I'll go with you. My head's not one of the strongest, and I've had about as much as I ought to carry."
They rose quietly, not to disturb the table; intending to steal away, if possible, without being observed. Unluckily, Captain Monk chanced to be looking that way.
"Halloa! who's turning sneak?--Not you, surely, Parson!--" in a meaningly contemptuous tone. "And _you_, Threpp, of all men! Sit down again, both of you, if you don't want to quarrel with me. Odds fish! has my dining-room got sharks in it, that you'd run away? Winter, just lock the door, will you; you are close to it, and pass up the key to me."
Mr. Winter, a jovial old man and the largest tenant on the estate, rose to do the Captain's behest, and sent up the key.
"Nobody quits my room," said the host, as he took it, "until we have seen the old year out and the new one in. What else do you come for--eh, gentlemen?"
The revelry went on. The decanters circulated more quickly, the glasses clinked, the songs became louder, the Captain's sea stories broader. Mr. West perforce made the best of the situation, certain words of Holy Writ running through his memory: