But, although I am the master of this house, I seem scarcely ever to see him.

I hear him, though.

I hear him this minute.

He and his chum occupy the room over me, and when they execute a war dance--which occurs on an average six times a day--it makes me tremble for my ceiling.

I have a notion Arthur spends his weekly allowance rather recklessly, and am thinking of suggesting to your father that a reduction might be judicious," etcetera, etcetera.
Had Railsford guessed, as he wrote these rather despondent lines, that his youthful kinsman in the room above was hugging himself for his own astuteness in tracking out his (Railsford's) villainy, he might perhaps have regarded the situation of affairs as still less cheerful.