.

ROMAINE CALLS ME NAMES.
Feeling very much of a fool to be thus taken by surprise, I scrambled to my feet and hastened to make my visitor welcome.

He did not refuse me his hand; but he gave it with a coldness and distance for which I was quite unprepared, and his countenance, as he looked on me, was marked in a strong degree with concern and severity.
'So, sir, I find you here ?' said he, in tones of little encouragement.
'Is that you, George?
You can run away; I have business with your master.' He showed Rowley out, and locked the door behind him.

Then he sat down in an armchair on one side of the fire, and looked at me with uncompromising sternness.
'I am hesitating how to begin,' said he.

'In this singular labyrinth of blunders and difficulties that you have prepared for us, I am positively hesitating where to begin.