When he came back to his rooms, followed by two waiters
loaded with parcels, he heard a splashing in the bathroom, and when
they had set down their loads and were gone, Selina came to him and
said, "I should like you to come and look at him, sir."
She had been crying.
Sir Tancred went into the bathroom, and found Hildebrand Anne splashing
in the bath: "Hallo, Tinker," he said cheerfully, and turned sick at
the sight of the wales and bruises about the thin little body.
"Look at that, sir," said Selina fiercely; and she touched the worst of
them.
The child winced at her touch, gentle as it was, and said in his
quaint, thin voice, "Halbut did do that. Mine not like Halbut. No:
mine not like Halbut." And he shook his little head vigorously.
Sir Tancred groaned, and wished with all his heart that he had taken
advantage of his brief meeting with Halbut to give him a sound
thrashing. Then he thought with a vindictive satisfaction how bitterly
the brute would feel the loss of liquors consequent upon the loss of
his income. He went out, rang for a waiter, and bade him send for a
doctor.
When the doctor came he examined the bruises, and felt all the tiny
bones carefully. He declared that none of them were broken and that,
in spite of having been starved, the child was sound and healthy.
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