Then, his chief vexation was with himself: it would have been kinder to set a dish of solid food before the boy, in place of the naked sherry-bottle.

But as usual, his hospitable leanings came too late.
One thing more.

As he lighted Ned and his bundle of stuff through the shop, he was impelled to slip a coin into the boy's hand, with a murmured apology for the trouble he had put him to.

And a something, the merest nuance in Ned's manner of receiving and pocketing the money, flashed the uncomfortable suspicion through the giver's mind that it had been looked for, expected.

And this was the most unpleasant touch of all.
But, bless his soul! did not most large families include at least one poorish specimen ?--he had got thus far, by the time he came to wind up his watch for the night.