"Should you like my shoulder, or do you prefer your stick?" Hazel asked, springing to her feet.
"Thank you," her uncle returned drily, "I am more accustomed to the stick—I had better keep to it." But there was a gleam of amusement in his eye, as he surveyed the shoulder in question, squared for action. "You will lunch with me?"
"Thank you," the girl answered. "I had not thought of it, but there is certainly plenty of time."
"Where did you intend to lunch?" her uncle answered when, the laborious journey accomplished, they were seated at the table.
"Where?" Hazel repeated. "Oh, in the waiting room. Teddie bought me twelve halfpenny buns, thinking that I was going to take an earlier train, and that I should not be very late for lunch. I should be glad if I might leave them here," she went on, "It is such a bagful and, however hungry I am, I can never eat more than two halfpenny buns. Can you?"
"I don’t know," returned her uncle with a grim smile. "I have forgotten. Eh, Thomas?"
Thomas was so startled at this most unusually amicable address, that he nearly dropped the dish that he was in the act of handing.
"Teddie knows this—this peculiarity of mine," Hazel continued; "but he is always so generous, and always likes to do things on a large scale. He said he knew I should not eat them, but nevertheless he liked to think I had them."
"I suppose you engaged an outside porter?" her uncle inquired.
The amazed Thomas had not seen him in so jocular a vein for years.
Hazel laughed. "You would like Teddie. Everyone does, without being able to help themselves."
"I could give you another instance of his large-heartedness," the girl went on. "It is a good story, and not long." She proceeded to relate the incident of the quarrel with Carrots, its cause, the black eye, the beefsteak, and of her brother’s subsequent dismissal. Her uncle endeavoured to hide an interest that was manifest.
"What is the boy doing now?" he asked gruffly.
"He is back there," she answered. "Mr. Hamilton soon afterwards discharged Carrots and came to see us and took Teddie back."
"Fifty pounds a year," Hazel replied cheerily, with some pride. "He has had a rise lately—it used to be forty."
Her uncle muttered something in response, then coughed to cover his words.