My silence offended him, for he turned away, muttering to himself,-- "Sulky humbug! I declare some people haven't so much as the manners of a kitchen clock." After that I was left to myself, in agony and suspense, to wait the moment of my dissolution.
A long time passed before my master stirred, and when he did the housekeeper's tea was cold.

She bustled about to make him some more, and was so kind in buttering his toast and hunting for some jam, that the drooping spirits of the tired-out boy revived wonderfully.

Indeed, as the meal proceeded he became on friendly and confidential terms even with so awful a personage as Mrs Packer.
"Would you like to see my knife, ma'am ?" he asked.
"Bless me, what a knife it is," cried the lady.

"You'll go doing yourself some harm with it." "That's what the other old lady in the train said," replied Charlie, unconscious of wounding the feelings of his hostess, who fondly imagined she was not more than middle-aged; "but then, you know, she thought it was a fine knife, and I think so too, don't you?
I say, marm, do you know Tom Drift ?" The change of subject was so sudden that Mrs Packer stared at the boy, half wondering whether he was not talking in his sleep.
"What about him ?" she inquired.
"Oh, only the old lady was his mother, and I promised her--at least she said--do you know Tom Drift, ma'am ?" "To be sure; he's one of the boys here." "Yes--I say, ma'am, might I see Tom Drift, do you think?
I've got something to say to him." Mrs Packer, wholly at a loss to understand her youthful guest, but at the same time disposed to be indulgent to his little whims, said Tom would be at lessons now, and she didn't think he would be able to come.
"Wouldn't it do in the morning ?" "Oh no," said Charlie, with the gravest face.

"I must see him to-night, please, if you don't mind." The housekeeper concluded that Charlie had some important message from the mother to her son, and therefore rang for a servant, whom she despatched with a message to Master Drift that some one wanted to see him.
In a very little time that hero made his appearance; and as he was the first Randlebury boy Charlie had set eyes on, he appeared for a moment a very awful and a very sublime personage in that little new boy's eyes.
But Charlie was too intent on his mission to allow himself to be quite overawed.
"Here's a new boy, Master Drift, wants to speak to you." "What do you want, young un--eh ?" "Oh, it's all right, Tom Drift; only I saw your mother, you know, in the train, and she said you were a nice boy, and she sent her love, and I told her I'd let you know the time whenever you wanted, because you ain't got a watch, you know, and I have.