Breakfast at half past eight, please." When the door of Mrs.Howe's bedroom closed on Edgar, Polly ran upstairs, and sank exhausted on her own bed.
"Now, mamma, 'listen to my tale of woe!' I got off at the wrong station,--yes, it was stupid; but wait: perhaps I was led to be stupid.
I lost my way, could n't find Professor Salazar's house, could n't find anything else.

As I was wandering about in a woodsy road, trying to find a house of some kind, I heard a crowd of boys singing vociferously as they came through the trees.

I did n 't care to meet them, all alone as I was, though of course there was nothing to be afraid of, so I stepped off the road behind some trees and bushes until they should pass.

It turned out to be half a dozen university students, and at first I did n't know that Edgar was among them.

They were teasing somebody to go over to San Francisco for a dinner, then to the minstrels, and then to wind up with a game of billiards, and other gayeties which were to be prolonged indefinitely.