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.