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 over and started another without ever seeming to see that we were there. Nobody else took any notice of us either," continued Sprawson, with a sly glance at the still stately Cave. "We might have been a pair of garden statues, or tennis professionals waiting to play an exhibition match."

"It reminds me of Dr. Johnson and Lord Chesterfield," said Heriot darkly. "Your fame is perhaps more parochial, Sprawson. But is it possible that you, Cave, are personally unknown to Major Mangles?"

"I haven't the least idea," replied Charles Cave magnificently. "I should have said he might have known me by the times I've bowled him."

"And you never thought of coming away again? I shouldn't have blamed you, upon my word."

"Of course we thought of it, sir," said Sprawson. "But the carriage had gone round to the stables, and we couldn't very well order it ourselves."

"I should have walked."

"It's a terrible tramp, sir, on a hot afternoon, and in rubber soles!" Sprawson winced involuntarily at the recollection; but the thought of his companion consoled him yet again. "Especially after bowling all the morning," he added, "and expecting to go in the moment you got back!"

"Well, that wouldn't have been necessary," said Heriot. "It must be some satisfaction to you that the Sixth won so easily, even without your certain century, Cave."

"It doesn't alter the fact that he had to walk back after all," said Sprawson, when the greater man had been given ample time to answer for himself.

"So had you!" he thundered then, not like a great man at all, but in a voice that gave some idea of that