David walked on beside his companion, silent and awkward. The explanation seemed a lame one. Mr. Ancrum had left Clough End in May, promising to look out for a place for the lad at once, and to let him know. Six whole months elapsed between that promise and David's own departure. Yes, it was lame; but it was so long ago, and so many things had happened since, that it did not signify. Only he did not somehow feel much effusion in meeting his old friend and playfellow again.
'Getting on, Davy?' said Ancrum presently, looking the lad up and down.
David made a movement of the shoulders which the minister noticed. It was both more free and more graceful than ordinary English gesture. It reawakened in Ancrum at once that impression of something alien and unusual which both David and his sister had often produced in him while they were still children.
'I don't know,' said the boy slowly; and then, after a hesitation or two, fell silent.
'Well, look here,' said Ancrum, stopping short; 'this won't do for talk, as I said before; but I must know all about you, and I must tell you what I can about myself. I lodge in Mortimer Road, you know, up Fallowfield way. You can get there by tram in twenty minutes; when will you come and see me? To-night?'
'Would Wednesday night do, sir? I--I believe I'm going to the music to-night.'
'What, to the "Elijah," in the Free Trade Hall? Appoint me a place to meet--we'll go together--and you shall come home to supper with me afterwards.'
David flushed and looked straight before him.
'I promised to take two young ladies,' he said, after a moment, abruptly.
'Oh!' said Mr. Ancrum, laughing. 'I apologise. Well, Wednesday night, then.--Don't you forget, Davy--half-past seven? Done. _Fourteen_, Mortimer Road. Good-bye.'
And the minister turned and retraced his steps towards Market Place. He walked slowly, like one much preoccupied, and might have run into fresh risks but for the instinctive perception of most passers-by that he was not a person to be hustled. Suddenly he laughed out--thinking of David and his 'young ladies,' and comparing the lad's admission with his former attitude towards 'gells.' Well, time had but wrought its natural work. What a brilliant noticeable creature altogether--how unlike the ordinary run of north-country lads! But that he had been from the beginning--the strain of some nimbler blood had always shown itself.