CHAPTER XVIII.
THE ASTHMATIC OLD GENTLEMAN AND HIS RIDDLES--I PLAY TRUANT AGAIN--IN THE BIG GARDEN It was perhaps partly because, like most only children, I was accustomed to be with grown-up people, that I liked the way in which Mr.Andrewes treated me, and resented the very different style of another friend of my father, who always bantered me in a playful, nonsensical fashion, which he deemed suitable to my years.
The friend in question was an old gentleman, and a very benevolent one.

I think he was fond of children, and I am sure he was kind.
He never came without giving me half-a-guinea before he left, generally slipping it down the back of my neck, or hiding it under my plate at dinner, or burying it in an orange.

He had a whole store of funny tricks, which would have amused and pleased me if I might have enjoyed them in peace.

But he never ceased teasing me, and playing practical jokes on me.

And the worst of it was, he teased Rubens also.
Mr.Andrewes often afterwards told of the day when I walked into the Rectory--my indignant air, he vowed, faithfully copied by the dog at my heels, and without preface began: "I know I ought to forgive them that trespass against us, but I can't.