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 which stood bottles, glasses, and a bedroom ewer. This at first was all that was visible to Irralie through the door. Then Jevons came upon the narrow scene to help himself freely from a bottle and sparingly from the ewer; and the Englishman joined him, looking keenly in his flushed face, and as keenly at the prostrate tutor, before he himself opened a bottle of soda-water, and poured it ostentatiously into a glass containing no whiskey at all.

All this time but little had been said, and still less had the girl been able to overhear. The first words she could distinguish were addressed by George Young (who was invisible) to Jevons the storekeeper.

"Hodding's drunk," said he (in a voice which certified the speaker, at any rate, as beyond reproach); "and you mean to get drunker because you can stand more! If I was Mr. Fullarton—well, I wish I was!"

The owner's reply sounded tolerant, for him; it was, however, inaudible; and as he