If you will wait below, the
necessary papers shall be brought to you. Farewell, young man; and
when you embrace them, assure Captain Barker and Captain Runacles
that I have still some hope of their finding a better mind."
They bowed and withdrew, giving place to the newcomer, who entered at
that moment--an old gentleman in a suit of dark blue edged with
silver. As he passed them in the doorway his eyes scanned Tristram
narrowly, and he appeared to hesitate for a moment as if desirous of
putting a question to the youth.
Unconscious of this look, Tristram followed his father down the
stairs of the auberge. They had hardly reached the bottom, however,
when a voice called from the landing above, and the Earl of
Marlborough descended after them.
"Here are the papers," he said. "But, young sir, would you mind
waiting here for a minute or two while I speak with your father in
private?"
With this he opened a door upon the left and led the way through a
dark passage to a covered skittle-alley at the back of the house.
It was a deserted and ramshackle arcade and offered the poorest cover
from the rain, which dripped through the roof and drifted under the
eaves. The skittles lay here and there, as if the last player, weary
of the game, had been tossing them about at haphazard.
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