It seemed a pity that Bunting was so far away, right down the house.
But Mrs.Bunting was aware that eccentricity has always been a perquisite, as it were the special luxury, of the well-born and of the well-educated.

Scholars, as she well knew, are never quite like other people, and her new lodger was undoubtedly a scholar.

"Surely I had a bag when I came in ?" he said in a scared, troubled voice.
"Here it is, sir," she said soothingly, and, stooping, picked it up and handed it to him.

And as she did so she noticed that the bag was not at all heavy; it was evidently by no means full.
He took it eagerly from her.

"I beg your pardon," he muttered.
"But there is something in that bag which is very precious to me -- something I procured with infinite difficulty, and which I could never get again without running into great danger, Mrs.Bunting.
That must be the excuse for my late agitation." "About terms, sir ?" she said a little timidly, returning to the subject which meant so much, so very much to her.
"About terms ?" he echoed.