“That will do, sir.  You need not remain longer in your room, but you will not leave the grounds.  My friend’s ship is at Portsmouth at present, and doubtless I shall receive an answer in the course of a few days.  Until then, the less we see each other, the more pleasant for us both.”

There were few more miserable boys in England than Richard Horton, during the week which elapsed before the answer to the squire’s letter was received.  It cannot be said that, in the true sense of the word, he was sorry for his fault.  He was furious with himself, not because he had lied, but because of the consequences of the lie.  A thousand times he called himself a fool for having imperilled his position, and risked being sent back again to the dingy house in London, merely to excuse himself for being thrashed by a boy smaller than himself.  Mad with his folly, not in having invented the story, but in having neglected to look round, to assure himself that there were no witnesses who would contradict it, he wandered disconsolate about the gardens and park, cursing what he called his fortune.

It was an additional sting to his humiliation, that he knew every servant in and about the house rejoiced at his discomfiture, and he imagined that there was a veiled smile of satisfaction, at his bruised visage and his notorious disgrace with the squire, on the face of every man he met outside, and of every woman who passed him in the house.

During the whole week he did not venture near the stables, for there he knew that he had rendered himself specially obnoxious, and there was nothing for him to do but to saunter listlessly about the garden, until the day arrived that the letter came granting the squire’s request, and begging that he might be sent off at once, as the vessel would probably put to sea in a few days.

“Now, Richard,” the squire said that evening to him, in a kinder voice than he had used on the last occasion, “you understand exactly how we stand towards each other.  That being so, I do not wish to maintain our present uncomfortable relations.  You have had your punishment, and, unless I hear to the contrary, I shall assume that the punishment has had its effect.  When you return from sea, after your first voyage, you will come home here as if nothing had happened, and this business need never be alluded to between us.  If you turn out as I have hitherto believed you to be, I shall receive you as warmly as if my opinion of you had never been shaken.

“I have requested Captain Sinclair to let me know what is the average allowance that the midshipmen receive from their parents, and shall see that you have as much as your messmates.  I have also asked him to kindly allow one of his officers to order you a proper outfit in all respects, and to have the bill sent in to me.  So now, my boy, you will have a fresh and a fair start, and I trust that you will turn out everything that I can wish.”

“I will try, sir.  I will indeed,” Richard said earnestly; and he spoke from his heart, for the inheritance was very dear to him, and it would be a terrible thing indeed to forfeit it.