"I have no doubt he will let me go at once." The old naturalist at once assented upon Frank's telling him that a friend had come who wished him to go out.
"Certainly, my dear boy.

Why, working the hours and hours of overtime that you do, of course you can take a holiday whenever you're disposed." "He will not be back till late," Ruthven said as they went out.

"I shall keep him all the evening." "Oh, indeed, Ruthven, I have no clothes!" "Clothes be bothered," Ruthven said.

"I certainly shall end by punching your head, Frank, before the day's out." Frank remonstrated no more, but committed himself entirely to his friend's guidance.

At the Mansion House they mounted on the roof of an omnibus going west, and at Knightsbridge got off and walked to Eaton Square, where Ruthven's father resided.