I gravely compared my watch with the clock before replying.

“Upon my word, sir,” I said, “your tortoise would have the advantage of me.”

“The advantage of you!  What do you mean by the advantage of you, you affected puppy?”

“I had no idea,” said I, provokingly, “that you were in unusual haste this morning.”

“Haste!” shouted my father.  “I never said I was in haste.  I never choose to be in haste.  I hate haste!”

“Then why...”

“Because you have been wasting your time and mine, sir,” interrupted he.  “Because I will not permit you to go idling and vagabondizing about the village.”

My sang froid was gone directly.

“Idling and vagabondizing!” I repeated angrily.  “I have done nothing of the kind.  I defy you to prove it.  When have you known me forget that I am a gentleman?”

“Humph!” growled my father, mollified but sarcastic; “a pretty gentleman—­a gentleman of sixteen!”

“It is true,"’ I continued, without heeding the interruption, “that I lingered for a moment to read a placard by the way; but if you will take the trouble, sir, to inquire at the Rectory, you will find that I waited a quarter of an hour before I could send up your letter.”

My father grinned and rubbed his hands.  If there was one thing in the world that aggravated him more than another, it was to find his fire opposed to ice.  Let him, however, succeed in igniting his adversary, and he was in a good humor directly.

“Come, come, Basil,” said he, taking off his spectacles, “I never said you were not a good lad.  Go to your books, boy—­go to your books; and this evening I will examine you in vegetable physiology.”

Silently, but not sullenly, I drew a chair to the table, and resumed my work.  We were both satisfied, because each in his heart considered himself the victor.  My father was amused at having irritated me, whereas I was content because he had, in some sort, withdrawn the expressions that annoyed me.  Hence we both became good-tempered, and, according to our own tacit fashion, continued during the rest of that morning to be rather more than usually sociable.

Hours passed thus—­hours of quiet study, during which the quick travelling of a pen or the occasional turning of a page alone disturbed the silence.  The warm sunlight which shone in so greenly through the vine leaves, stole, inch by inch, round the broken vases in the garden beyond, and touched their brown mosses with a golden bloom.  The patient shadow on the antique sundial wound its way imperceptibly from left to right, and long slanting threads of light and shadow pierced in time between the branches of the poplars.  Our mornings were long, for we rose early and dined late; and while my father paid professional visits, I devoted my hours to study.  It rarely happened that he could thus spend a whole day among his books.  Just as the clock struck four, however, there came a ring at the bell.