"My poor mother!" he said during a Sunday walk the day after the robbery; "I shall have to ask her for the money, and it is precious hard upon her. I have been abominably extravagant, and she is not rich, and there are a lot of us. I owe a good bit to Tiffin, and to my London tailor too, but he will wait any time. Tiffin duns me, hang him! though why he should be devoted to capital punishment for asking for his due I don't know either. I should not have had such a lot of patties, fruit, ices, and stuff. He will have to be paid at latest when I leave; and at that time, if I get into Woolwich, there will be my outfit. And then I must needs buy a gun and a license for just three days' shooting with Gould last Christmas; and tipping the groom and keeper was a heavy item besides. One of my sisters is delicate, and can't walk far; and they could keep a pony-carriage if it wasn't for me. And now, here is another flyer I must rob my mother of, just because I left my keys in my coat when I changed my dress--sheer carelessness!"
"Never mind; you will get into Woolwich next examination, and then you will soon get a commission, and draw pay, and not want so much from your mother."
"Yes, I think of that, and it is some consolation; but still it is in the future, don't you see, and I must ask her for this stolen money at once. By Jove! I wish I had come back unexpectedly for something, and caught the fellow taking it! I wonder who on earth it can be!"
"I have no idea. Not Polly the maid, I'll take my Davey; I have so often left money and things about, and never lost a halfpenny."
That same Sunday Saurin and Edwards were standing with two or three others in the quadrangle, when Gould limped by.
"How is your ankle getting on, Gould?" one of the group called out.
"Better, thanks," he replied, joining them. "I say, if it had kept me in yesterday afternoon Crawley might have thought I took the money! What a joke, eh? Fancy my wanting a paltry four pounds odd."
"You were not in?" cried Edwards; and he could have bitten his tongue out immediately afterwards.
But the surprise was too great for his prudence. He and Saurin had gone to their own tutor's house before repairing to the football field, you may remember, and that route did not pass the Fives Court. So that it was the first intimation Edwards had that Saurin lied when he said he had asked Gould for a loan, and been refused.
