Hutchins looked round keenly and nervously. He had his pipe at the ready in case it should be necessary to put on his don’s act at short notice. Even at first glance Charles could see that the act had grown richer and more professional during his year of close contact with the real thing. There was something in the way he glanced about him—vital, intelligent, and yet with an endearing touch of absent-mindedness—that revealed a fresh mastery of the academic bag of tricks. He sat on the bench appreciatively watching the performance.

‘I was to have been met,’ he heard Hutchins say to the porter. ‘Mr. Braceweight, something, something,’ he could not quite catch what came next, ‘definitely arranged to have me driven over.’

‘Can’t say nothin’ ’bout that. Doano nothin’ ’bout that,’ said the porter over his shoulder, going into a shed marked ‘Staff only.’ He knew, of course, that Mr. Braceweight’s car was outside, and Mr. Braceweight’s chauffeur was sitting on the bench a few yards away, but he had his own job to do.

Hutchins turned round, irresolute. Charles folded his peaked cap and hid it carefully in his pocket. In his brown suit he had nothing about him to suggest the chauffeur. Just in time: Hutchins had spotted him.

‘Well, this is a surprise, Lumley,’ he said, coming up the platform.

‘I’m astonished,’ said Charles.

‘What are you doing down here? Did you come down on that train?’

‘No,’ said Charles, avoiding the larger question, ‘I was here when the train came in.’

‘I’m doing some tutoring for a family down here,’ said Hutchins carelessly. It was wonderful how modest and unassuming he was. He talked about his tutoring as if anybody could have done it. Just as he had said ‘we’ at the Stotwell Literary Society. Success had not spoilt him. ‘Awkward, actually,’ he went on, ‘because I wanted to get across to America to look at some of the stuff in Princeton. I shall have to do that next year instead.’

‘Yes,’ said Charles pleasantly, ‘and meanwhile, tutoring is useful work.’

‘That’s what I thought.’

‘A man like you can do a lot of good by sharing his knowledge.’

‘Just so.’

‘And you can’t have too many friends and patrons among the rich. It all helps.’

Hutchins flushed dully. ‘If you’re implying that my motive in tutoring is an unworthy one, of course, I—’

‘Not at all. Social climbing isn’t unworthy. When a man’s got half-way up the ladder by hard work, as you have, it’s only human for him to decide that he might as well jump the rest of the rungs by a quicker method.’

The old Hutchins might have been drawn by such elementary gambits. But the new one was too snug. The veneer had been applied very skilfully.