As he did so, he flushed a little, and having read the letter once, read it again.

Then he quickly replaced it in its cover, and laying it where he had discovered it, beat a rapid retreat.
He played football badly that afternoon, so that his young companion's opinion of him lowered considerably.

Nor was either sorry when the ceremony was over, and the bell warned them to return to their quarters and prepare for the evening's festivities.
Mr Ratman dressed with special care, spending some time before the mirror in an endeavour to set off his person to the best advantage.

As the reader has already been told, Mr Ratman retained some of the traces of a handsome youth.

The fires of honour and sobriety were extinguished, but his well-shaped head and clear-cut features still weathered the storm, and suggested that if their owner was not good- looking now, he might once have been.
Perhaps it was a lingering impression of the lost Roger's portrait which made this vain gentleman adjust his curly locks and pose his head before the glass in a style not unlike his model.