He paused there, his astonishment greater even than that which he had felt on recognising the tutor.  His eye had lighted on Julia, whose figure was now visible on the threshold.

His companion did not notice this.  He was busy identifying the tutor.  ‘Gad! it is old Thomasson!’ he cried, for he too had been at Pembroke. ‘And a petticoat! And a petticoat!’ he repeated.  ‘Well, I am spun!’

The tutor raised his hands in astonishment.  ‘Lord!’ he said, with a fair show of enthusiasm, ’do I really see my old friend and pupil, Mr. Pomeroy of Bastwick?’

’Who put the cat in your valise?  When you got to London—­kittens?  You do, Tommy.’

‘I thought so!’ Mr. Thomasson answered effusively.  ’I was sure of it!  I never forget a face when my—­my heart has once gone out to it!  And you, my dear, my very dear Lord Almeric, there is no danger I shall ever—­’

‘But, crib me, Tommy,’ Lord Almeric shrieked, cutting him short without ceremony, so great was his astonishment, ‘it’s the Little Masterson!’

‘You old fox!’ Mr. Pomeroy chimed in, shaking his finger at the tutor with leering solemnity; he, belonging to an older generation at the College, did not know her.  Then, ‘The Little Masterson, is it?’ he continued, advancing to the girl, and saluting her with mock ceremony.  ’Among friends, I suppose?  Well, my dear, for the future be pleased to count me among them.  Welcome to my poor house!  And here’s to bettering your taste—­for, fie, my love, old men are naughty.  Have naught to do with them!’ And he laughed wickedly.  He was a tall, heavy man, with a hard, bullying, sneering face; a Dunborough grown older.

‘Hush! my good sir.  Hush!’ Mr. Thomasson cried anxiously, after making more than one futile effort to stop him.  Between his respect for his companion, and the deference in which he held a lord, the tutor was in agony.  ‘My good sir, my dear Lord Almeric, you are in error,’ he continued strenuously.  ‘You mistake, I assure you, you mistake—­’

‘Do we, by Gad!’ Mr. Pomeroy cried, winking at Julia.’  Well, you and I, my dear, don’t, do we?  We understand one another very well.’

The girl only answered by a fierce look of contempt.  But Mr. Thomasson was in despair.  ‘You do not, indeed!’ he cried, almost wringing his hands.  ’This lady has lately come into a—­a fortune, and to-night was carried off by some villains from the Castle Inn at Marlborough in a—­in a post-chaise.  I was fortunately on the spot to give her such protection as I could, but the villains overpowered me, and to prevent my giving the alarm, as I take it, bundled me into the chaise with her.’

‘Oh, come,’ said Mr. Pomeroy, grinning.  ’You don’t expect us to swallow that?’

‘It is true, as I live,’ the tutor protested.  ‘Every word of it.’

‘Then how come you here?’

’Not far from your gate, for no reason that I can understand, they turned us out, and made off.’