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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Vice Versa, by F. Anstey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Vice Versa
+       or A Lesson to Fathers
+
+Author: F. Anstey
+
+Release Date: October 9, 2008 [EBook #26853]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VICE VERSA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Clarke, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+VICE VERSÂ
+
+OR
+
+A LESSON TO FATHERS
+
+BY F. ANSTEY
+
+LONDON
+
+JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
+
+
+     FIRST EDITION (_Smith, Elder & Co._)               _June 1882_
+
+     FIFTIETH IMPRESSION                                 _May 1915_
+
+     _Reprinted_ (_F'cap 8vo_) (_John Murray_)       _October 1917_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                       _March 1918_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                     _January 1920_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                      _August 1924_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                        _June 1926_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                      _August 1928_
+
+     _Reprinted_ (_Cr. 8vo_)                       _September 1929_
+
+     _Reprinted_ (_F'cap 8vo_)                      _December 1931_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                    _November 1937_
+
+     _Reprinted_ (_Cr. 8vo_)                            _June 1949_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                     _October 1954_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                       _March 1962_
+
+
+PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY LOWE AND BRYDONE (PRINTERS) LIMITED, LONDON,
+N.W.10
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                      PAGE
+
+    PREFACE                              1
+
+ 1. BLACK MONDAY                         3
+
+ 2. A GRAND TRANSFORMATION SCENE        15
+
+ 3. IN THE TOILS                        31
+
+ 4. A MINNOW AMONGST TRITONS            48
+
+ 5. DISGRACE                            69
+
+ 6. LEARNING AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS        87
+
+ 7. CUTTING THE KNOT                   104
+
+ 8. UNBENDING THE BOW                  120
+
+ 9. A LETTER FROM HOME                 133
+
+10. THE COMPLETE LETTER-WRITER         146
+
+11. A DAY OF REST                      155
+
+12. AGAINST TIME                       169
+
+13. A RESPITE                          185
+
+14. AN ERROR OF JUDGMENT               195
+
+15. THE RUBICON                        207
+
+16. HARD PRESSED                       221
+
+17. A PERFIDIOUS ALLY                  240
+
+18. RUN TO EARTH                       258
+
+19. THE RECKONING                      269
+
+
+
+
+_PREFACE_
+
+
+There is an old story of a punctiliously polite Greek, who, while
+performing the funeral of an infant daughter, felt bound to make his
+excuses to the spectators for "bringing out such a ridiculously small
+corpse to so large a crowd."
+
+The Author, although he trusts that the present production has more
+vitality than the Greek gentleman's child, still feels that in these
+days of philosophical fiction, metaphysical romance, and novels with a
+purpose, some apology may perhaps be needed for a tale which has the
+unambitious and frivolous aim of mere amusement.
+
+However, he ventures to leave the tale to be its own apology, merely
+contenting himself with the entreaty that his little fish may be spared
+the rebuke that it is not a whale.
+
+In submitting it with all possible respect to the Public, he conceives
+that no form of words he could devise would appeal so simply and
+powerfully to their feelings as that which he has ventured to adopt from
+a certain Anglo-Portuguese Phrase-Book of deserved popularity.
+
+Like the compilers of that work, he--"expects then who the little book,
+for the care what he wrote him and her typographical corrections, will
+commend itself to the--_British Paterfamilias_--at which he dedicates
+him particularly."
+
+
+
+
+1. _Black Monday_
+
+     "In England, where boys go to boarding schools, if the holidays
+     were not long there would be no opportunity for cultivating the
+     domestic affections."--_Letter of Lord Campbell's, 1835_.
+
+
+On a certain Monday evening late in January, 1881, Paul Bultitude, Esq.
+(of Mincing Lane, Colonial Produce Merchant), was sitting alone in his
+dining-room at Westbourne Terrace after dinner.
+
+The room was a long and lofty one, furnished in the stern uncompromising
+style of the Mahogany Age, now supplanted by the later fashions of
+decoration which, in their outset original and artistic, seem fairly on
+the way to become as meaningless and conventional.
+
+Here were no skilfully contrasted shades of grey or green, no dado, no
+distemper on the walls; the woodwork was grained and varnished after the
+manner of the Philistines, the walls papered in dark crimson, with heavy
+curtains of the same colour, and the sideboard, dinner-waggon, and row
+of stiff chairs were all carved in the same massive and expensive style
+of ugliness. The pictures were those familiar presentments of dirty
+rabbits, fat white horses, bloated goddesses, and misshapen boors, by
+masters who, if younger than they assume to be, must have been quite old
+enough to know better.
+
+Mr. Bultitude was a tall and portly person, of a somewhat pompous and
+overbearing demeanour; not much over fifty, but looking considerably
+older. He had a high shining head, from which the hair had mostly
+departed, what little still remained being of a grizzled auburn,
+prominent pale blue eyes with heavy eyelids and fierce, bushy
+whitey-brown eyebrows. His general expression suggested a conviction of
+his own extreme importance, but, in spite of this, his big underlip
+drooped rather weakly and his double chin slightly receded, giving a
+judge of character reason for suspecting that a certain obstinate
+positiveness observable in Mr. Bultitude's manner might possibly be due
+less to the possession of an unusually strong will than to the
+circumstance that, by some fortunate chance, that will had hitherto
+never met with serious opposition.
+
+The room, with all its æsthetic shortcomings, was comfortable enough,
+and Mr. Bultitude's attitude--he was lying back in a well-wadded leather
+arm-chair, with a glass of claret at his elbow and his feet stretched
+out towards the ruddy blaze of the fire--seemed at first sight to imply
+that happy after-dinner condition of perfect satisfaction with oneself
+and things in general, which is the natural outcome of a good cook, a
+good conscience, and a good digestion.
+
+At first sight; because his face did not confirm the impression--there
+was a latent uneasiness in it, an air of suppressed irritation, as if he
+expected and even dreaded to be disturbed at any moment, and yet was
+powerless to resent the intrusion as he would like to do.
+
+At the slightest sound in the hall outside he would half rise in his
+chair and glance at the door with a mixture of alarm and resignation,
+and as often as the steps died away and the door remained closed, he
+would sink back and resettle himself with a shrug of evident relief.
+
+Habitual novel readers on reading thus far will, I am afraid, prepare
+themselves for the arrival of a faithful cashier with news of
+irretrievable ruin, or a mysterious and cynical stranger threatening
+disclosures of a disgraceful nature.
+
+But all such anticipations must at once be ruthlessly dispelled. Mr.
+Bultitude, although he was certainly a merchant, was a fairly successful
+one--in direct defiance of the laws of fiction, where any connection
+with commerce seems to lead naturally to failure in one of the three
+volumes.
+
+He was an elderly gentleman, too, of irreproachable character and
+antecedents; no Damocles' sword of exposure was swinging over his bald
+but blameless head; he had no disasters to fear and no indiscretions to
+conceal. He had not been intended for melodrama, with which, indeed, he
+would not have considered it a respectable thing to be connected.
+
+In fact, the secret of his uneasiness was so absurdly simple and
+commonplace that I am rather ashamed to have made even a temporary
+mystery of it.
+
+His son Dick was about to return to school that evening, and Mr.
+Bultitude was expecting every moment to be called upon to go through a
+parting scene with him; that was really all that was troubling him.
+
+This sounds very creditable to the tenderness of his feelings as a
+father--for there are some parents who bear such a bereavement at the
+close of the holidays with extraordinary fortitude, if they do not
+actually betray an unnatural satisfaction at the event.
+
+But it was not exactly from softness of heart that he was restless and
+impatient, nor did he dread any severe strain upon his emotions. He was
+not much given to sentiment, and was the author of more than one of
+those pathetically indignant letters to the papers, in which the British
+parent denounces the expenses of education and the unconscionable length
+and frequency of vacations.
+
+He was one of those nervous and fidgety persons who cannot understand
+their own children, looking on them as objectionable monsters whose next
+movements are uncertain--much as Frankenstein must have felt towards
+_his_ monster.
+
+He hated to have a boy about the house, and positively writhed under the
+irrelevant and irrepressible questions, the unnecessary noises and
+boisterous high spirits which nothing would subdue; his son's society
+was to him simply an abominable nuisance, and he pined for a release
+from it from the day the holidays began.
+
+He had been a widower for nearly three years, and no doubt the loss of a
+mother's loving tact, which can check the heedless merriment before it
+becomes intolerable, and interpret and soften the most peevish and
+unreasonable of rebukes, had done much to make the relations between
+parent and children more strained than they might otherwise have been.
+
+As it was, Dick's fear of his father was just great enough to prevent
+any cordiality between them, and not sufficient to make him careful to
+avoid offence, and it is not surprising if, when the time came for him
+to return to his house of bondage at Dr. Grimstone's, Crichton House,
+Market Rodwell, he left his father anything but inconsolable.
+
+Just now, although Mr. Bultitude was so near the hour of his
+deliverance, he still had a bad quarter of an hour before him, in which
+the last farewells must be said, and he found it impossible under these
+circumstances to compose himself for a quiet half-hour's nap, or retire
+to the billiard-room for a cup of coffee and a mild cigar, as he would
+otherwise have done--since he was certain to be disturbed.
+
+And there was another thing which harassed him, and that was a haunting
+dread lest at the last moment some unforeseen accident should prevent
+the boy's departure after all. He had some grounds for this, for only a
+week before, a sudden and unprecedented snowstorm had dashed his hopes,
+on the eve of their fulfilment, by forcing the Doctor to postpone the
+day on which his school was to re-assemble, and now Mr. Bultitude sat on
+brambles until he had seen the house definitely rid of his son's
+presence.
+
+All this time, while the father was fretting and fuming in his
+arm-chair, the son, the unlucky cause of all this discomfort, had been
+standing on the mat outside the door, trying to screw up enough courage
+to go in as if nothing was the matter with him.
+
+He was not looking particularly boisterous just then. On the contrary,
+his face was pale, and his eyelids rather redder than he would quite
+care for them to be seen by any of the "fellows" at Crichton House. All
+the life and spirit had gone out of him for the time; he had a
+troublesome dryness in his throat, and a general sensation of chill
+heaviness, which he himself would have described--expressively enough,
+if not with academical elegance--as "feeling beastly."
+
+The stoutest hearted boy, returning to the most perfect of schools,
+cannot always escape something of this at that dark hour when the sands
+of the holidays have run out to their last golden grain, when the boxes
+are standing corded and labelled in the hall, and some one is going to
+fetch the fatal cab.
+
+Dick had just gone the round of the house, bidding dreary farewells to
+all the servants; an unpleasant ordeal which he would gladly have
+dispensed with, if possible, and which did not serve to raise his
+spirits.
+
+Upstairs, in the bright nursery, he had found his old nurse sitting
+sewing by the high wire fender. She was a stern, hard-featured old lady,
+who had systematically slapped him through infancy into boyhood, and he
+had had some stormy passages with her during the past few weeks; but she
+softened now in the most unexpected manner as she said good-bye, and
+told him he was a "pleasant, good-hearted young gentleman, after all,
+though that aggravating and contrairy sometimes." And then she
+predicted, with some of the rashness attaching to irresponsibility, that
+he would be "the best boy this next term as ever was, and work hard at
+all his lessons, and bring home a prize"--but all this unusual
+gentleness only made the interview more difficult to come out of with
+any credit for self-control.
+
+Then downstairs, the cook had come up in her evening brown print and
+clean collar, from her warm spice-scented kitchen, to remark cheerily
+that "Lor bless his heart, what with all these telegrafts and things,
+time flew so fast nowadays that they'd be having him back again before
+they all knew where they were!" which had a certain spurious consolation
+about it, until one saw that, after all, it put the case entirely from
+her own standpoint.
+
+After this Dick had parted from his elder sister Barbara and his young
+brother Roly, and had arrived where we found him first, at the mat
+outside the dining-room door, where he still lingered shivering in the
+cold foggy hall.
+
+Somehow, he could not bring himself to take the next step at once; he
+knew pretty well what his father's feelings would be, and a parting is a
+very unpleasant ceremony to one who feels that the regret is all on his
+own side.
+
+But it was no use putting it off any longer; he resolved at last to go
+in and get it over, and opened the door accordingly. How warm and
+comfortable the room looked--more comfortable than it had ever seemed to
+him before, even on the first day of the holidays!
+
+And his father would be sitting there in a quarter of an hour's time,
+just as he was now, while he himself would be lumbering along to the
+station through the dismal raw fog!
+
+How unspeakably delightful it must be, thought Dick enviously, to be
+grown up and never worried by the thoughts of school and lesson-books;
+to be able to look forward to returning to the same comfortable house,
+and living the same easy life, day after day, week after week, with no
+fear of a swiftly advancing Black Monday.
+
+Gloomy moralists might have informed him that we cannot escape school by
+simply growing up, and that, even for those who contrive this and make
+a long holiday of their lives, there comes a time when the days are
+grudgingly counted to a blacker Monday than ever made a school-boy's
+heart quake within him.
+
+But then Dick would never have believed them, and the moralists would
+only have wasted much excellent common sense upon him.
+
+Paul Bultitude's face cleared as he saw his son come in. "There you are,
+eh?" he said, with evident satisfaction, as he turned in his chair,
+intending to cut the scene as short as possible. "So you're off at last?
+Well, holidays can't last for ever--by a merciful decree of Providence,
+they don't last quite for ever! There, good-bye, good-bye, be a good boy
+this term, no more scrapes, mind. And now you'd better run away, and put
+on your coat--you're keeping the cab waiting all this time."
+
+"No, I'm not," said Dick, "Boaler hasn't gone to fetch one yet."
+
+"Not gone to fetch a cab yet!" cried Paul, with evident alarm, "why, God
+bless my soul, what's the man thinking about? You'll lose your train! I
+know you'll lose the train, and there will be another day lost, after
+the extra week gone already through that snow! I must see to this
+myself. Ring the bell, tell Boaler to start this instant--I insist on
+his fetching a cab this instant!"
+
+"Well, it's not my fault, you know," grumbled Dick, not considering so
+much anxiety at all flattering, "but Boaler has gone now. I just heard
+the gate shut."
+
+"Ah!" said his father, with more composure, "and now," he suggested,
+"you'd better shake hands, and then go up and say good-bye to your
+sister--you've no time to spare."
+
+"I've said good-bye to them," said Dick. "Mayn't I stay here till--till
+Boaler comes?"
+
+This request was due, less to filial affection than a faint desire for
+dessert, which even his feelings could not altogether stifle. Mr.
+Bultitude granted it with a very bad grace.
+
+"I suppose you can if you want to," he said impatiently, "only do one
+thing or the other--stay outside, or shut the door and come in and sit
+down quietly. I cannot sit in a thorough draught!"
+
+Dick obeyed, and applied himself to the dessert with rather an injured
+expression.
+
+His father felt a greater sense of constraint and worry than ever; the
+interview, as he had feared, seemed likely to last some time, and he
+felt that he ought to improve the occasion in some way, or, at all
+events, make some observation. But, for all that, he had not the
+remotest idea what to say to this red-haired, solemn boy, who sat
+staring gloomily at him in the intervals of filling his mouth. The
+situation grew more embarrassing every moment.
+
+At last, as he felt himself likely to have more to say in reproof than
+on any other subject, he began with that.
+
+"There's one thing I want to talk to you about before you go," he began,
+"and that's this. I had a most unsatisfactory report of you this last
+term; don't let me have that again. Dr. Grimstone tells me--ah, I have
+his letter here--yes, he says (and just attend, instead of making
+yourself ill with preserved ginger)--he says, 'Your son has great
+natural capacity, and excellent abilities; but I regret to say that,
+instead of applying himself as he might do, he misuses his advantages,
+and succeeds in setting a mischievous example to--if not actually
+misleading--his companions.' That's a pleasant account for a father to
+read! Here am I, sending you to an expensive school, furnishing you with
+great natural capacity and excellent abilities, and--and--every other
+school requisite, and all you do is to misuse them! It's disgraceful!
+And misleading your companions, too! Why, at your age, they ought to
+mislead _you_--No, I don't mean that--but what I may tell you is that
+I've written a very strong letter to Dr. Grimstone, saying what pain it
+gave me to hear you misbehaved yourself, and telling him, if he ever
+caught you setting an example of any sort, mind that, _any_ sort, in the
+future--he was to, ah, to remember some of Solomon's very sensible
+remarks on the subject. So I should strongly advise you to take care
+what you're about in future, for your own sake!"
+
+This was not a very encouraging address, perhaps, but it did not seem to
+distress Dick to any extent; he had heard very much the same sort of
+thing several times before, and had been fully prepared for it then.
+
+He had been seeking distraction in almonds and raisins, but now they
+only choked instead of consoling him, and he gave them up and sat
+brooding silently over his hard lot instead, with a dull, blank
+dejection which those only who have gone through the same thing in their
+boyhood will understand. To others, whose school life has been one
+unchequered course of excitement and success, it will be
+incomprehensible enough--and so much the better for them.
+
+He sat listening to the grim sphinx clock on the black marble
+chimneypiece, as it remorselessly ticked away his last few moments of
+home-life, and he ingeniously set himself to crown his sorrow by
+reviving recollections of happier days.
+
+In one of the corners of the overmantel there was still a sprig of
+withered laurel left forgotten, and his eye fell on it now with grim
+satisfaction. He made his thoughts travel back to that delightful
+afternoon on Christmas Eve, when they had all come home riotous through
+the brilliant streets, laden with purchases from the Baker Street
+Bazaar, and then had decorated the rooms with such free and careless
+gaiety.
+
+And the Christmas dinner too! He had sat just where he was sitting now,
+with, ah, such a difference in every other respect--the time had not
+come then when the thought of "only so many more weeks and days left"
+had begun to intrude its grisly shape, like the skull at an ancient
+feast.
+
+And yet he could distinctly recollect now, and with bitter remorse, that
+he had not enjoyed himself then as much as he ought to have done; he
+even remembered an impious opinion of his that the proceedings were
+"slow." Slow! with plenty to eat, and three (four, if he had only known
+it) more weeks of holiday before him; with Boxing Day and the brisk
+exhilarating drive to the Crystal Palace immediately following, with all
+the rest of a season of licence and varied joys to come, which he could
+hardly trust himself to look back upon now! He must have been mad to
+think such a thing.
+
+Overhead his sister Barbara was playing softly one of the airs from "The
+Pirates" (it was Frederic's appeal to the Major-General's daughters),
+and the music, freed from the serio-comic situation which it
+illustrates, had a tenderness and pathos of its own which went to Dick's
+heart and intensified his melancholy.
+
+He had gone (in secret, for Mr. Bultitude disapproved of such
+dissipations) to hear the Opera in the holidays, and now the piano
+conjured the whole scene up for him again--there would be no more
+theatre-going for him for a very long time!
+
+By this time Mr. Bultitude began to feel the silence becoming once more
+oppressive, and roused himself with a yawn. "Heigho!" he said, "Boaler's
+an uncommonly long time fetching that cab!"
+
+Dick felt more injured than ever, and showed it by drawing what he
+intended for a moving sigh.
+
+Unfortunately it was misunderstood.
+
+"I do wish, sir," said his parent testily, "you would try to break
+yourself of that habit of breathing hard. The society of a grampus (for
+it's no less) delights no one and offends many--including me--and for
+Heaven's sake, Dick, don't kick the leg of the table in that way; you
+know it simply maddens me. What do you do it for? Why can't you learn to
+sit at table like a gentleman?"
+
+Dick mumbled some apology, and then, having found his tongue and
+remembered his necessities, said, with a nervous catch in his voice,
+"Oh, I say, father, will you--can you let me have some pocket-money,
+please, to go back with?"
+
+Mr. Bultitude looked as if his son had petitioned for a latch-key.
+
+"Pocket-money!" he repeated, "why, you can't want money. Didn't your
+grandmother give you a sovereign as a Christmas-box? And I gave you ten
+shillings myself!"
+
+"I do want it, though," said Dick; "that's all spent. And you know you
+always _have_ given me money to take back."
+
+"If I do give you some, you'll only go and spend it," grumbled Mr.
+Bultitude, as if he considered money an object of art.
+
+"I shan't spend it all at once, and I shall want some to put in the
+plate on Sundays. We always have to put in the plate when it's a
+collection. And there's the cab to pay."
+
+"Boaler has orders to pay your cab--as you know well enough," said his
+father, "but I suppose you must have some, though you cost me enough,
+Heaven knows, without this additional expense."
+
+And at this he brought up a fistful of loose silver and gold from one of
+his trouser-pockets, and spread it deliberately out on the table in
+front of him in shining rows.
+
+Dick's eyes sparkled at the sight of so much wealth; for a moment or two
+he almost forgot the pangs of approaching exile in the thought of the
+dignity and credit which a single one of those bright new sovereigns
+would procure for him.
+
+It would ensure him surreptitious luxuries and open friendships as long
+as it lasted. Even Tipping, the head boy of the school, who had gone
+into tails, brought back no more, and besides, the money would bring
+him handsomely out of certain pecuniary difficulties to which an
+unexpected act of parental authority had exposed him; he could easily
+dispose of all claims with such a sum at command, and then his father
+could so easily spare it out of so much!
+
+Meanwhile Mr. Bultitude, with great care and precision, selected from
+the coins before him a florin, two shillings, and two sixpences, which
+he pushed across to his son, who looked at them with a disappointment he
+did not care to conceal.
+
+"An uncommonly liberal allowance for a young fellow like you," he
+observed. "Don't buy any foolishness with it, and if, towards the end of
+the term you want a little more, and write an intelligible letter asking
+for it, and I think proper to let you have it--why, you'll get it, you
+know."
+
+Dick had not the courage to ask for more, much as he longed to do so, so
+he put the money in his purse with very qualified expressions of
+gratitude.
+
+In his purse he seemed to find something which had escaped his memory,
+for he took out a small parcel and unfolded it with some hesitation.
+
+"I nearly forgot," he said, speaking with more animation than he had yet
+done, "I didn't like to take it without asking you, but is this any use?
+May I have it?"
+
+"Eh?" said Mr. Bultitude, sharply, "what's that? Something else--what is
+it you want now?"
+
+"It's only that stone Uncle Duke brought mamma from India; the thing, he
+said, they called a 'Pagoda stone,' or something, out there."
+
+"Pagoda stone? The boy means Garudâ Stone. I should like to know how you
+got hold of that; you've been meddling in my drawers, now, a thing I
+will not put up with, as I've told you over and over again."
+
+"No, I haven't, then," said Dick, "I found it in a tray in the
+drawing-room, and Barbara said, perhaps, if I asked you, you might let
+me have it, as she didn't think it was any use to you."
+
+"Then Barbara had no right to say anything of the sort."
+
+"But may I have it? I may, mayn't I?" persisted Dick.
+
+"Have it? certainly not. What could you possibly want with a thing like
+that? It's ridiculous. Give it to me."
+
+Dick handed it over reluctantly enough. It was not much to look at,
+quite an insignificant-looking little square tablet of greyish green
+stone, pierced at one angle, and having on two of its faces faint traces
+of mysterious letters or symbols, which time had made very difficult to
+distinguish.
+
+It looked harmless enough as Mr. Bultitude took it in his hand; there
+was no kindly hand to hold him back, no warning voice to hint that there
+might possibly be sleeping within that small marble block the pent-up
+energy of long-forgotten Eastern necromancy, just as ready as ever to
+awake into action at the first words which had power to evoke it.
+
+There was no one; but even if there had been such a person, Paul
+Bultitude was a sober prosaic individual, who would probably have
+treated the warning as a piece of ridiculous superstition.
+
+As it was, no man could have put himself in a position of extreme peril
+with a more perfect unconsciousness of his danger.
+
+
+
+
+2. _A Grand Transformation Scene_
+
+     "Magnaque numinibus vota exaudita malignis."
+
+
+Paul Bultitude put on his glasses to examine the stone more carefully,
+for it was some time since he had last seen or thought about it. Then he
+looked up and said once more, "What use would a thing like this be to
+you?"
+
+Dick would have considered it a very valuable prize indeed; he could
+have exhibited it to admiring friends--during lessons, of course, when
+it would prove a most agreeable distraction; he could have played with
+and fingered it incessantly, invented astonishing legends of its powers
+and virtues; and, at last, when he had grown tired of it, have bartered
+it for any more desirable article that might take his fancy. All these
+advantages were present to his mind in a vague shifting form, but he
+could not find either courage or words to explain them.
+
+Consequently he only said awkwardly, "Oh, I don't know, I should like
+it."
+
+"Well, any way," said Paul, "you certainly won't have it. It's worth
+keeping, whatever it is, as the only thing your uncle Marmaduke was ever
+known to give to anybody."
+
+Marmaduke Paradine, his brother-in-law, was not a connection of whom he
+had much reason to feel particularly proud. One of those persons endowed
+with what are known as "insinuating manners and address," he had, after
+some futile attempts to enter the army, been sent out to Bombay as agent
+for a Manchester firm, and in that capacity had contrived to be mixed up
+in some more than shady transactions with rival exporters and native
+dealers up the country, which led to an unceremonious dismissal by his
+employers.
+
+He had brought home the stone from India as a propitiatory token of
+remembrance, more portable and less expensive than the lacquered
+cabinets, brasses, stuffs and carved work which are expected from
+friends at such a distance, and he had been received with pardon and
+started once more, until certain other proceedings of his, shadier
+still, had obliged Paul to forbid him the house at Westbourne Terrace.
+
+Since then little had been heard of him, and the reports which reached
+Mr. Bultitude of his disreputable relative's connection with the
+promotion of a series of companies of the kind affected by the widow and
+curate, and exposed in money articles and law courts, gave him no
+desire to renew his acquaintance.
+
+"Isn't it a talisman, though?" said Dick, rather unfortunately for any
+hopes he might have of persuading his father to entrust him with the
+coveted treasure.
+
+"I'm sure I can't tell you," yawned Paul, "how do you mean?"
+
+"I don't know, only Uncle Duke once said something about it. Barbara
+heard him tell mamma. I say, perhaps it's like the one in Scott, and
+cures people of things, though I don't think it's that sort of talisman
+either, because I tried it once on my chilblains, and it wasn't a bit of
+good. If you would only let me have it, perhaps I might find out, you
+know."
+
+"You might," said his father drily, apparently not much influenced by
+this inducement, "but you won't have the chance. If it has a secret, I
+will find it out for myself" (he little knew how literally he was to be
+taken at his word), "and, by the way, there's your cab--at last."
+
+There was a sound of wheels outside, and, as Dick heard them, he grew
+desperate in his extremity; a wish he had long secretly cherished
+unspoken, without ever hoping for courage to give it words, rose to his
+lips now; he got up and moved timidly towards his father.
+
+"Father," he said, "there's something I want to say to you so much
+before I go. Do let me ask you now."
+
+"Well, what is it?" said Paul. "Make haste, you haven't much time."
+
+"It's this. I want you to--to let me leave Grimstone's at the end of the
+term."
+
+Paul stared at him, angry and incredulous, "Let you leave Dr.
+Grimstone's (oblige me by giving him his full title when you speak of
+him)," he said slowly. "Why, what do you mean? It's an excellent
+school--never saw a better expressed prospectus in my life. And my old
+friend Bangle, Sir Benjamin Bangle, who's a member of the School Board,
+and ought to know something about schools, strongly recommended
+it--would have sent his own son there, if he hadn't entered him at Eton.
+And when I pay for most of the extras for you too. Dancing, by Gad, and
+meat for breakfast. I'm sure I don't know what you would have."
+
+"I'd like to go to Marlborough, or Harrow, or somewhere," whimpered
+Dick. "Jolland's going to Harrow at Easter. (Jolland's one of the
+fellows at Grimstone's--Dr. Grimstone's I mean.) And what does old
+Bangle know about it? He hasn't got to go there himself! And--and
+Grimstone's jolly enough to fellows he likes, but he doesn't like
+_me_--he's always sitting on me for something--and I hate some of the
+fellows there, and altogether it's beastly. Do let me leave! If you
+don't want me to go to a public school, I--I could stop at home and have
+a private tutor--like Joe Twitterley!"
+
+"It's all ridiculous nonsense, I tell you," said Paul angrily,
+"ridiculous nonsense! And, once for all, I'll put a stop to it. I don't
+approve of public schools for boys like you, and, what's more, I can't
+afford it. As for private tutors, that's absurd! So you will just make
+up your mind to stay at Crichton House as long as I think proper to keep
+you there, and there's an end of that!"
+
+At this final blow to all his hopes, Dick began to sob in a subdued
+hopeless kind of way, which was more than his father could bear. To do
+Paul justice, he had not meant to be quite so harsh when the boy was
+about to set out for school, and, a little ashamed of his irritation, he
+sought to justify his decision.
+
+He chose to do this by delivering a short homily on the advantages of
+school, by which he might lead Dick to look on the matter in the calm
+light of reason and common sense, and commonplaces on the subject began
+to rise to the surface of his mind, from the rather muddy depths to
+which they had long since sunk.
+
+He began to give Dick the benefit of all this stagnant wisdom, with a
+feeling of surprise as he went on, at his own powerful and original way
+of putting things.
+
+"Now, you know, it's no use to cry like that," he began. "It's--ah--the
+usual thing for boys at school, I'm quite aware, to go about fancying
+they're very ill-used, and miserable, and all the rest of it, just as if
+people in my position had their sons educated out of spite! It's one of
+those petty troubles all boys have to go through. And you mark my words,
+my boy, when they go out into the world and have real trials to put up
+with, and grow middle-aged men, like me, why, they see what fools
+they've been, Dick; they see what fools they've been. All the--hum, the
+innocent games and delights of boyhood, and that sort of thing, you
+know--come back to them--and then they look back to those hours passed
+at school as the happiest, aye, the very happiest time of their life!"
+
+"Well," said Dick, "then I hope it won't be the happiest time in mine,
+that's all! And you may have been happy at the school you went to,
+perhaps, but I don't believe you would very much care about being a boy
+again like me, and going back to Grimstone's, you know you wouldn't!"
+
+This put Paul on his mettle; he had warmed well to his subject, and
+could not let this open challenge pass unnoticed--it gave him such an
+opening for a cheap and easy effect.
+
+He still had the stone in his hand as he sank back into his chair,
+smiling with a tolerant superiority.
+
+"Perhaps you will believe me," he said, impressively, "when I tell you,
+old as I am and much as you envy me, I only wish, at this very moment, I
+could be a boy again, like you. Going back to school wouldn't make me
+unhappy, I can tell you."
+
+It is so fatally easy to say more than we mean in the desire to make as
+strong an impression as possible. Well for most of us that--more
+fortunate than Mr. Bultitude--we can generally do so without fear of
+being taken too strictly at our word.
+
+As he spoke these unlucky words, he felt a slight shiver, followed by a
+curious shrinking sensation all over him. It was odd, too, but the
+arm-chair in which he sat seemed to have grown so much bigger all at
+once. He felt a passing surprise, but concluded it must be fancy, and
+went on as comfortably as before.
+
+"I should like it, my boy, but what's the good of wishing? I only
+mention it to prove that I was not speaking at random. I'm an old man
+and you're a young boy, and, that being so, why, of course--What the
+dooce are you giggling about?"
+
+For Dick, after some seconds of half-frightened open-mouthed staring,
+had suddenly burst into a violent fit of almost hysterical giggling,
+which he seemed trying vainly to suppress.
+
+This naturally annoyed Mr. Bultitude, and he went on with immense
+dignity, "I--ah--I'm not aware that I've been saying anything
+particularly ridiculous. You seem to be amused?"
+
+"Don't!" gasped Dick. "It, it isn't anything you're saying--it's,
+it's--oh, can't you feel any difference?"
+
+"The sooner you go back to school the better!" said Paul angrily. "I
+wash my hands of you. When I do take the trouble to give you any advice,
+it's received with ridicule. You always were an ill-mannered little cub.
+I've had quite enough of this. Leave the room, sir!"
+
+The wheels must have belonged to some other cab, for none had stopped at
+the pavement as yet; but Mr. Bultitude was justly indignant, and could
+stand the interview no longer. Dick, however, made no attempt to move;
+he remained there, choking and shaking with laughter, while his father
+sat stiffly on his chair, trying to ignore his son's unmannerly conduct,
+but only partially succeeding.
+
+No one can calmly endure watching other people laughing at him like
+idiots, while he is left perfectly incapable of guessing what he has
+said or done to amuse them. Even when this is known, it requires a
+peculiarly keen sense of humour to see the point of a joke against
+oneself.
+
+At last his patience gave out, and he said coldly, "Now, perhaps, if you
+are quite yourself again, you will be good enough to let me know what
+the joke is?"
+
+Dick, looking flushed and half-ashamed, tried again and again to speak,
+but each time the attempt was too much for him. After a time he did
+succeed, but his voice was hoarse and shaken with laughter as he spoke.
+"Haven't you found it out yet? Go and look at yourself in the glass--it
+will make you roar!"
+
+There was the usual narrow sheet of plate glass at the back of the
+sideboard, and to this Mr. Bultitude walked, almost under protest, and
+with a cold dignity. It occurred to him that he might have a smudge on
+his face or something wrong with his collar and tie--something to
+account to some extent for his son's frivolous and insulting behaviour.
+No suspicion of the terrible truth crossed his mind as yet.
+
+Meanwhile Dick was looking on eagerly with a chuckle of anticipation, as
+one who watches the dawning appreciation of an excellent joke.
+
+But no sooner had Paul met the reflection in the glass than he started
+back in incredulous horror--then returned and stared again and again.
+
+Surely, surely, this could not be he!
+
+He had expected to see his own familiar portly bow-windowed presence
+there--but somehow, look as he would, the mirror insisted upon
+reflecting the figure of his son Dick. Could he possibly have become
+invisible and have lost the power of casting a reflection--or how was it
+that Dick, and only Dick, was to be seen there?
+
+How was it, too, when he looked round, there was the boy still sitting
+there? It could not be Dick, evidently, that he saw in the glass.
+Besides, the reflection opposite him moved when he moved, returned when
+he returned, copied his every gesture!
+
+He turned round upon his son with angry and yet hopeful suspicion. "You,
+you've been playing some of your infernal tricks with this mirror, sir,"
+he cried fiercely. "What have you done to it?"
+
+"Done! how could I do anything to it? As if you didn't know that!"
+
+"Then," stammered Paul, determined to know the worst, "then do you, do
+you mean to tell me you can see any--alteration in me? Tell me the truth
+now!"
+
+"I should just think I could!" said Dick emphatically. "It's very queer,
+but just look here," and he came up to the sideboard and placed himself
+by the side of his horrified father. "Why," he said, with another
+giggle, "we're--he-he--as like as two peas!"
+
+They were indeed; the glass reflected now two small boys, each with
+chubby cheeks and auburn hair, both dressed, too, exactly alike, in Eton
+jackets and broad white collars; the only difference to be seen between
+them was that, while one face wore an expression of intense glee and
+satisfaction, the other--the one which Mr. Bultitude was beginning to
+fear must belong to him--was lengthened and drawn with dismay and
+bewilderment.
+
+"Dick," said Paul faintly, "what is all this? Who has been, been taking
+these liberties with me?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know," protested Dick. "It wasn't me. I believe you
+did it all yourself."
+
+"Did it all myself!" repeated Paul indignantly. "Is it likely I should?
+It's some trickery, I tell you, some villainous plot. The worst of it
+is," he added plaintively, "I don't understand who I'm supposed to be
+now. Dick, who am I?"
+
+"You can't be me," said Dick, "because here I am, you know. And you're
+not yourself, that's very plain. You must be _somebody_, I suppose," he
+added dubiously.
+
+"Of course I am. What do you mean?" said Paul angrily. "Never mind who
+I am. I feel just the same as I always did. Tell me when you first began
+to notice any change. Could you see it coming on at all, eh?"
+
+"It was all at once, just as you were talking about school and all that.
+You said you only wished---- Why of course; look here, it must be the
+stone that did it!"
+
+"Stone! what stone?" said Paul. "I don't know what you're talking
+about."
+
+"Yes, you do--the Garudâ Stone! You've got it in your hand still. Don't
+you see? It's a real talisman after all! How jolly!"
+
+"I didn't do anything to set it off; and besides, oh, it's perfectly
+absurd! How can there be such things as talismans nowadays, eh? Tell me
+that."
+
+"Well, something's happened to you, hasn't it? And it must have been
+done somehow," argued Dick.
+
+"I was holding the confounded thing, certainly," said Paul, "here it is.
+But what could I have said to start it? What has it done this to me
+for?"
+
+"I know!" cried Dick. "Don't you remember? You said you wished you were
+a boy again, like me. So you are, you see, exactly like me! What a lark
+it is, isn't it? But, I say, you can't go up to business like that, you
+know, can you? I tell you what, you'd better come to Grimstone's with me
+now, and see how you like it. I shouldn't mind so much if you came too.
+Grimstone's face would be splendid when he saw two of us. Do come!"
+
+"That's ridiculous nonsense you're talking," said Paul, "and you know
+it. What should I do at school at my age? I tell you I'm the same as
+ever inside, though I may have shrunk into a little rascally boy to look
+at. And it's simply an abominable nuisance, Dick, that's what it is! Why
+on earth couldn't you let the stone alone? Just see what mischief
+you've done by meddling now--put me to all this inconvenience!"
+
+"You shouldn't have wished," said Dick.
+
+"Wished!" echoed Mr. Bultitude. "Why, to be sure," he said, with a gleam
+of returning hopefulness, "of course--I never thought of that. The
+thing's a wishing stone; it must be! You have to hold it, I suppose, and
+then say what you wish aloud, and there you are. If that's the case, I
+can soon put it all right by simply wishing myself back again. I--I
+shall have a good laugh at all this by and by--I know I shall!"
+
+He took the stone, and got into a corner by himself where he began
+repeating the words, "I wish I was back again," "I wish I was the man I
+was five minutes ago," "I wish all this had not happened," and so on,
+until he was very exhausted and red in the face. He tried with the stone
+held in his left hand, as well as his right, sitting and standing, under
+all the various conditions he could think of, but absolutely nothing
+came of it; he was just as exasperatingly boyish and youthful as ever at
+the end of it.
+
+"I don't like this," he said at last, giving it up with a rather
+crestfallen air. "It seems to me that this diabolical invention has got
+out of order somehow; I can't make it work any more!"
+
+"Perhaps," suggested Dick, who had shown throughout the most
+unsympathetic cheerfulness, "perhaps it's one of those talismans that
+only give you one wish, and you've had it, you know?"
+
+"Then it's all over!" groaned Paul. "What the dooce am I to do? What
+shall I do? Suggest something, for Heaven's sake; don't stand cackling
+there in that unfeeling manner. Can't you see what a terrible, mess I've
+got into? Suppose--only suppose your sister or one of the servants were
+to come in, and see me like this!"
+
+This suggestion simply enchanted Dick. "Let's have 'em all up," he
+laughed; "it would be such fun! How they will laugh when we tell them!"
+And he rushed to the bell.
+
+"Touch that bell if you dare!" screamed Paul. "I won't be seen in this
+condition by anybody! What on earth could have induced that scoundrelly
+uncle of yours to bring such a horrible thing as this over I can't
+imagine! I never heard of such a situation as this in my life. I can't
+stay like this, you know--it's not to be thought of! I--I wonder whether
+it would be any use to send over to Dr. Bustard and ask him to step in;
+he might give me something to bring me round. But then the whole
+neighbourhood would hear about it! If I don't see my way out of this
+soon, I shall go raving mad!"
+
+And he paced restlessly up and down the room with his brain on fire.
+
+All at once, as he became able to think more coherently, there occurred
+to him a chance, slender and desperate enough, but still a chance, of
+escaping even yet the consequences of his folly.
+
+He was forced to conclude that, however improbable and fantastic it
+might appear in this rationalistic age, there must be some hidden power
+in this Garudâ Stone which had put him in his present very unpleasant
+position. It was plain too that the virtues of the talisman refused to
+exert themselves any more at his bidding.
+
+But it did not follow that in another's hands the spell would remain as
+powerless. At all events, it was an experiment well worth the trial, and
+he lost no time in explaining the notion to Dick, who, by the sparkle in
+his eyes and suppressed excitement in his manner, seemed to think there
+might be something in it.
+
+"I may as well try," he said, "give it to me."
+
+"Take it, my dear boy," said Paul, with a paternal air that sorely tried
+Dick's recovered gravity, it contrasted so absurdly with his altered
+appearance. "Take it, and wish your poor old father himself again!"
+
+Dick took it, and held it thoughtfully for some moments, while Paul
+waited in nervous impatience. "Isn't it any use?" he said dolefully at
+last, as nothing happened.
+
+"I don't know," said Dick calmly, "I haven't wished yet."
+
+"Then do so at once," said Paul fussily, "do so at once. There's no time
+to waste, every moment is of importance--your cab will be here directly.
+Although, although I'm altered in this ridiculous way, I hope I still
+retain my authority as a father, and as a father, by Gad, I expect you
+to obey me, sir!"
+
+"Oh, all right," said Dick indifferently, "you may keep the authority if
+you like."
+
+"Then do what I tell you. Can't you see how urgent it is that a scandal
+like this shouldn't get about? I should be the laughing-stock of the
+city. Not a soul must ever guess that such a thing has happened. You
+must see that yourself."
+
+"Yes," said Dick, who all this time was sitting on a corner of the
+table, swinging his legs, "I see that. It will be all right. I'm going
+to wish in a minute, and no one will guess there has been anything the
+matter."
+
+"That's a good boy!" said Paul, much relieved, "I know your heart is in
+the right place--only do make haste."
+
+"I suppose," Dick asked, "when you are yourself again, things would go
+on just as usual?"
+
+"I--I hope so."
+
+"I mean you will go on sitting here, and I shall go off to Grimstone's?"
+
+"Of course, of course," said Paul; "don't ask so many questions. I'm
+sure you quite understand what has to be done, so get on. We might be
+found like this any minute."
+
+"That settles it," said Dick, "any fellow would do it after that."
+
+"Yes, yes, but you're so slow about it!"
+
+"Don't be in a hurry," said Dick, "you mayn't like it after all when
+I've done it."
+
+"Done what?" asked Mr. Bultitude sharply, struck by something sinister
+and peculiar in the boy's manner.
+
+"Well, I don't mind telling you," said Dick, "it's fairer. You see, you
+wished to be a boy just like me, didn't you?"
+
+"I didn't mean it," protested Paul.
+
+"Ah, you couldn't expect a stone to know that; at any rate, it made you
+into a boy like me directly. Now, if I wish myself a man just like you
+were ten minutes ago, before you took the stone, that will put things
+all right again, won't it?"
+
+"Is the boy mad?" cried Paul, horrified at this proposal. "Why, why,
+that would be worse than ever!"
+
+"I don't see that," objected Dick, stubbornly. "No one would know
+anything about it then."
+
+"But, you little blockhead, can't I make you understand? It wouldn't do
+at all. We should both of us be wrong then--each with the other's
+personal appearance."
+
+"Well," said Dick blandly, "I shouldn't mind that."
+
+"But I should--I mind very much. I object strongly to such a--such a
+preposterous arrangement. And what's more, I won't have it. Do you hear,
+I forbid you to think of any such thing. Give me back that stone. I
+can't trust you with it after this."
+
+"I can't help it," said Dick doggedly. "You've had your wish, and I
+don't see why I shouldn't have mine. I mean to have it, too."
+
+"Why, you unnatural little rascal!" cried the justly-enraged father, "do
+you mean to defy me? I tell you I will have that stone! Give it up this
+instant!" and he made a movement towards his son, as if he meant to
+recover the talisman by main force.
+
+But Dick was too quick for him. Slipping off the table with great
+agility, he planted himself firmly on the hearth-rug, with the hand that
+held the stone clenched behind his back, and the other raised in
+self-defence.
+
+"I'd much rather you wouldn't make me hit you, you know," he said,
+"because, in spite of what's happened, you're still my father, I
+suppose. But if you interfere with me before I've done with this stone,
+I'm afraid I shall have to punch your head."
+
+Mr. Bultitude retreated a few steps apprehensively, feeling himself no
+match for his son, except in size and general appearance; and for some
+moments of really frightful intensity they stood panting on the
+hearth-rug, each cautiously watching the other, on his guard against
+stratagem and surprise.
+
+It was one of those painful domestic scenes which are fortunately rare
+between father and son.
+
+Overhead, the latest rollicking French polka was being rattled out, with
+a savage irony of which pianos, even by the best makers, can at times be
+capable.
+
+Suddenly Dick drew himself up. "Stand out of my way!" he cried
+excitedly, "I am going to do it. I wish I was a man like you were just
+now!"
+
+And as he spoke, Mr. Bultitude had the bitterness of seeing his
+unscrupulous son swell out like the frog in the fable, till he stood
+there before him the exact duplicate of what Paul had so lately been!
+
+The transformed Dick began to skip and dance round the room in high
+glee, with as much agility as his increased bulk would allow. "It's all
+right, you see," he said. "The old stone's as good as ever. You can't
+say anyone would ever know, to look at us."
+
+And then he threw himself panting into a chair, and began to laugh
+excitedly at the success of his unprincipled manoeuvres.
+
+As for Paul, he was perfectly furious at having been so outwitted and
+overreached. It was a long time before he could command his voice
+sufficiently to say, savagely: "Well, you've had your way, and a pretty
+mess you've made of it. We're both of us in false positions now. I hope
+you're satisfied, I'm sure. Do you think you'll care about going back to
+Crichton House in that state?"
+
+"No," said Dick, very decidedly: "I'm quite sure I shouldn't."
+
+"Well, I can't help it. You've brought it on yourself; and, provided the
+Doctor sees no objection to take you back as you are and receive you as
+one of his pupils, I shall most certainly send you there."
+
+Paul did not really mean this, he only meant to frighten him; for he
+still trusted that, by letting Boaler into the secret, the charm might
+be set in motion once more, and the difficulty comfortably overcome. But
+his threat had a most unfortunate effect upon Dick; it hardened him to
+take a course he might otherwise have shrunk from.
+
+"Oh," he said, "you're going to do that? But doesn't it strike you that
+things are rather altered with us now?"
+
+"They are, to a certain extent, of course," said Paul, "through my folly
+and your wicked cunning; but a word or two of explanation from me----"
+
+"You'll find it will take more explanation than you think," said Dick;
+"but, of course, you can try, if you think it worth while--when you get
+to Grimstone's."
+
+"When I,--I don't understand. When I,--what did you say?" gasped Paul.
+
+"Why, you see," exclaimed Dick, "it would never have done for us both to
+go back; the chaps would have humbugged us so, and as I hate the place
+and you seem so fond of being a boy and going back to school and that, I
+thought perhaps it would be best for you to go and see how you liked
+it!"
+
+"I never will! I'll not stir from this room! I dare you to try to move
+me!" cried Paul. And just then there was the sound of wheels outside
+once more. They stopped before the house, the bell rang sharply--the
+long-expected cab had come at last.
+
+"You've no time to lose," said Dick, "get your coat on."
+
+Mr. Bultitude tried to treat the affair as a joke. He laughed a ghastly
+little laugh.
+
+"Ha! ha! you've fairly caught your poor father this time; you've proved
+him in the wrong. I admit I said more than I exactly meant. But that's
+enough. Don't drive a good joke too far; shake hands, and let us see if
+we can't find a way out of this!"
+
+But Dick only warmed his coat tails at the fire as he said, with a very
+ungenerous reminiscence of his father's manner: "You are going back to
+an excellent establishment, where you will enjoy all the comforts of
+home--I can specially recommend the stickjaw; look out for it on
+Tuesdays and Fridays. You will once more take part in the games and
+lessons of happy boyhood. (Did you ever play 'chevy' when you were a boy
+before? You'll enjoy chevy.) And you will find your companions easy
+enough to get on with, if you don't go giving yourself airs; they won't
+stand airs. Now good-bye, my boy, and bless you!"
+
+Paul stood staring stupidly at this outrageous assumption; he could
+scarcely believe yet that it was meant in cruel earnest. Before he could
+answer, the door opened and Boaler appeared.
+
+"Had a deal of trouble to find a keb, sir, on a night like this," he
+said to the false Dick, "but the luggage is all on top, and the man says
+there's plenty of time still."
+
+"Good-bye then, my boy," said Dick, with well-assumed tenderness, but a
+rather dangerous light in his eye. "My compliments to the Doctor,
+remember."
+
+Paul turned indignantly from him to the butler; he, at least, would
+stand by him. Boaler would not see a master who had always been fair, if
+not indulgent, to him driven from his home in this cold-blooded manner!
+
+He made two or three attempts to speak, for his brain whirled so with
+scathing, burning things to say. He would expose the fraud then and
+there, and defy the impudent usurper; he would warn every one against
+this spurious pinchbeck imitation of himself. The whole household should
+be summoned and called upon to judge between the two!
+
+No doubt, if he had had enough self-command to do all this effectually,
+while Dick had as yet not had the time thoroughly to adapt himself to
+his altered circumstances, he might have turned the situation at the
+outset, and spared himself some very painful experiences.
+
+But it is very often precisely those words which are the most vitally
+important to be said that refuse to pass our lips on a sudden emergency.
+We feel all the necessity of saying something at once, but the necessary
+words unaccountably desert us at the critical moment.
+
+Mr. Bultitude felt himself in this unfortunate position. He made more
+wild efforts to explain, but the sense of his danger only petrified his
+mind instead of stimulating it. Then he was spared further conflict. A
+dark mist rose before his eyes; the walls of the room receded into
+infinite space; and, with a loud singing in his ears, he fell, and
+seemed to himself to be sinking down, down, through the earth to the
+very crust of the antipodes. Then the blackness closed over him--and he
+knew no more.
+
+
+
+
+3. _In the Toils_
+
+     "I beseech you let his lack of years be no impediment to let him
+     lack a reverend estimation, for I never knew so young a body with
+     so old a head."--_Merchant of Venice_, Act iv.
+
+
+When Mr. Bultitude recovered his senses, which was not for a
+considerable time, he found that he was being jolted along through a
+broad well-lit thoroughfare, in a musty four-wheeler.
+
+His head was by no means clear yet, and for some minutes he could hardly
+be said to think at all; he merely lay back dreamily listening to the
+hard grinding jar of the cab windows vibrating in their grooves.
+
+His first distinct sensation was a vague wonder what Barbara might be
+intending to give him for dinner, for, oddly enough, he felt far from
+hungry, and was conscious that his palate would require the adroitest
+witching.
+
+With the thought of dinner his dining-room was almost inseparably
+associated, and then, with an instant rush of recollection, the whole
+scene there with the Garudâ Stone surged into his brain. He shuddered as
+he did so; it had all been so real, so hideously vivid and coherent
+throughout. But all unpleasant impressions soon yielded to the delicious
+luxury of his present security.
+
+As his last conscious moment had been passed in his own dining-room, the
+fact that he opened his eyes in a cab, instead of confirming his worst
+fears, actually helped to restore the unfortunate gentleman's serenity;
+for he frequently drove home from the city in this manner, and believed
+himself now, instead of being, as was actually the case, in that
+marvellous region of cheap photography, rocking-horses, mild stone
+lions, and wheels and ladders--the Euston Road--to be bowling along
+Holborn.
+
+Now that he was thoroughly awake he found positive amusement in going
+over each successive incident of his nightmare experience with the
+talisman, and smiling at the tricks his imagination had played him.
+
+"I wonder now how the dickens I came to dream such outrageous nonsense!"
+he said to himself, for even his dreams were, as a rule, within the
+bounds of probability. But he was not long in tracing it to the devilled
+kidneys he had had at the club for lunch, and some curious old brown
+sherry Robinson had given him afterwards at his office.
+
+"Gad, what a shock the thing has given me!" he thought. "I can hardly
+shake off the feeling even now."
+
+As a rule, after waking up on the verge of a fearful crisis, the effect
+of the horror fades swiftly away, as one detail after another evades a
+memory which is never too anxious to retain them, and each moment
+brings a deeper sense of relief and self-congratulation.
+
+But in Paul's case, curiously enough, as he could not help thinking, the
+more completely roused he became, the greater grew his uneasiness.
+
+Perhaps the first indication of the truth was suggested to him by a
+lurking suspicion--which he tried to dismiss as mere fancy--that he
+filled rather less of the cab than he had always been accustomed to do.
+
+To reassure himself he set his thoughts to review all the proceedings of
+that day, feeling that if he could satisfactorily account for the time
+up to his taking the cab, that would be conclusive as to the unreality
+of any thing that appeared to have happened later in his own house. He
+got on well enough till he came to the hour at which he had left the
+office, and then, search his memory as he would, he could not remember
+hailing any cab!
+
+Could it be another delusion, too, or was it the fact that he had found
+himself much pressed for time and had come home by the Underground to
+Praed Street? It must have been the day before, but that was Sunday.
+Saturday, then? But the recollection seemed too recent and fresh; and
+besides, on Saturday, he had left at two, and had taken Barbara to see
+Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke's performance.
+
+Slowly, insidiously, but with irresistible force, the conviction crept
+upon him that he had dined, and dined well.
+
+"If I have dined already," he told himself, "I can't be going home to
+dinner; and if I am not going home to dinner, what--what am I doing in
+this cab?"
+
+The bare idea that something might be wrong with him after all made him
+impatient to put an end to all suspense. He must knock this scotched
+nightmare once for all on the head by a deliberate appeal to his senses.
+
+The cab had passed the lighted shops now, and was driving between
+squares and private houses, so that Mr. Bultitude had to wait until the
+sickly rays of a street lamp glanced into the cab for a moment, and, as
+they did so, he put his feet up on the opposite seat and examined his
+boots and trousers with breathless eagerness.
+
+It was not to be denied; they were not his ordinary boots, nor did he
+ever wear such trousers as he saw above them! Always a careful and
+punctiliously neat person, he was more than commonly exacting concerning
+the make and polish of his boots and the set of his trousers.
+
+These boots were clumsy, square-toed, and thick-soled; one was even
+patched on the side. The trousers were heavy and rough, of the kind
+advertised as "wear-resisting fabrics, suitable for youths at school,"
+frayed at the ends, and shiny--shamefully shiny--about the knees!
+
+In hot despair he rapidly passed his hands over his body. It felt
+unusually small and slim, Mr. Bultitude being endowed with what is
+euphemistically termed a "presence," and it was with an agony rarely
+felt at such a discovery that he realised that, for the first time for
+more than twenty years, he actually had a waist.
+
+Then, as a last resource, he took off his hat and felt for the broad,
+smooth, egg-like surface, garnished by scanty side patches of thin hair,
+which he knew he ought to find.
+
+It was gone--hidden under a crop of thick close curling locks!
+
+This last disappointment completely overcame him; he had a kind of short
+fit in the cab as the bitter truth was brought home to him unmistakably.
+
+Yes, this was no dream of a distempered digestion, but sober reality.
+The whole of that horrible scene in the dining-room had really taken
+place; and now he, Paul Bultitude, the widely-respected merchant of
+Mincing Lane, a man of means and position, was being ignominiously
+packed off to school as if he were actually the schoolboy some hideous
+juggle had made him appear!
+
+It was only with a violent effort that he could succeed in commanding
+his thoughts sufficiently to decide on some immediate action. "I must be
+cool," he kept muttering to himself, with shaking lips, "quite cool and
+collected. Everything will depend on that now!"
+
+It was some comfort to him in this extremity to recognise on the box the
+well-known broad back of Clegg, a cabman who stabled his two horses in
+some mews near Praed Street, and whom he had been accustomed to
+patronise in bad weather for several years.
+
+Clegg would know him, in spite of his ridiculous transformation.
+
+His idea was to stop the cab, and turn round and drive home again, when
+they would find that he was not to be got rid of again quite so easily.
+If Dick imagined he meant to put up tamely with this kind of treatment,
+he was vastly mistaken; he would return home boldly and claim his
+rights!
+
+No reasonable person could be perverse enough to doubt his identity when
+once matters came to the proof; though at first, of course, he might
+find a difficulty in establishing it. His children, his clerks, and his
+servants would soon get used to his appearance, and would learn to look
+below the mere surface, and then there was always the possibility of
+putting everything right by means of the magic stone.
+
+"I won't lose a minute!" he said aloud; and letting down the window,
+leaned out and shouted "Stop!" till he was hoarse.
+
+But Clegg either could not or would not hear; he drove on at full speed,
+a faster rate of progress than that adopted by most drivers of
+four-wheeled cabs being one of his chief recommendations.
+
+They were now passing Euston. It was a muggy, slushy night, with a thin
+brown fog wreathing the houses and fading away above their tops into a
+dull, slate-blue sky. The wet street looked like a black canal; the
+blurred forms, less like vehicles than nondescript boats, moving over
+its inky surface, were indistinctly reflected therein; the gas-lights
+flared redly through the murky haze. It was not a pleasant evening in
+which to be out-of-doors.
+
+Paul would have opened the cab-door and jumped out had he dared, but his
+nerve failed him, and, indeed, considering the speed of the cab, the
+leap would have been dangerous to a far more active person. So he was
+forced to wait resignedly until the station should be reached, when he
+determined to make Clegg understand his purpose with as little loss of
+time as possible.
+
+"I must pay him something extra," he thought; "I'll give him a sovereign
+to take me back." And he searched his pockets for the loose coin he
+usually carried about with him in such abundance; there was no gold in
+any of them.
+
+He found, however, a variety of minor and less negotiable articles,
+which he fished out one by one from unknown depths--a curious
+collection. There was a stumpy German-silver pencil case, a broken prism
+from a crystal chandelier, a gilded Jew's harp, a little book in which
+the leaves on being turned briskly, gave a semblance of motion to the
+sails of a black windmill drawn therein, a broken tin soldier, some
+Hong-Kong coppers with holes in them, and a quantity of little cogged
+wheels from the inside of a watch; while a further search was rewarded
+by an irregular lump of toffee imperfectly enfolded in sticky brown
+paper.
+
+He threw the whole of these treasures out of the window with
+indescribable disgust, and, feeling something like a purse in a side
+pocket, opened it eagerly.
+
+It held five shillings exactly, the coins corresponding to those he had
+pushed across to his son such a little while ago! It did not seem to him
+quite such a magnificent sum now as it had done then; he had shifted his
+point of view.
+
+It was too clear that the stone must have carried out his thoughtless
+wish with scrupulous and conscientious exactness in every detail. He had
+wanted, or said he wanted, to be a boy again like Dick, and accordingly
+he had become a perfect duplicate, even to the contents of the pockets.
+Evidently nothing on the face of things showed the slightest difference.
+Yet--and here lay the sting of the metamorphosis--he was conscious under
+it all of being his old original self, in utter discordance with the
+youthful form in which he was an unwilling prisoner.
+
+By this time the cab had driven up the sharp incline, and under the high
+pointed archway of St. Pancras terminus, and now drew up with a jerk
+against the steps leading to the booking office.
+
+Paul sprang out at once in a violent passion. "Here, you, Clegg!" he
+said, "why the devil didn't you pull up when I told you? eh?"
+
+Clegg was a burly, red-faced man, with a husky voice and a general
+manner which conveyed the impression that he regarded teetotalism, as a
+principle, with something more than disapproval.
+
+"Why didn't I pull up?" he said, bending stiffly down from his box.
+"'Cause I didn't want to lose a good customer, that's why I didn't pull
+up!"
+
+"Do you mean to say you don't know me?"
+
+"Know yer?" said Clegg, with an approach to sentiment: "I've knowed yer
+when you was a babby in frocks. I've knowed yer fust nuss (and a fine
+young woman she were till she took to drinking, as has been the ruin of
+many). I've knowed yer in Infancy's hour and in yer byhood's bloom! I've
+druv yer to this 'ere werry station twice afore. Know yer!"
+
+Paul saw the uselessness of arguing with him. "Then, ah--drive me back
+at once. Let those boxes alone. I--I've important business at home which
+I'd forgotten."
+
+Clegg gave a vinous wink. "Lor, yer at it agin," he said with
+admiration. "What a artful young limb it is! But it ain't what yer may
+call good enough, so to speak, it ain't. Clegg don't do that no more!"
+
+"Don't do what?" asked Paul.
+
+"Don't drive no young gents as is a-bein' sent to school back agin into
+their family's bosims," said Clegg sententiously. "You was took ill
+sudden in my cab the larst time. Offal bad you was, to be sure--to hear
+ye, and I druv' yer back; and I never got no return fare, I didn't, and
+yer par he made hisself downright nasty over it, said as if it occurred
+agin he shouldn't employ me no more. I durstn't go and offend yer par;
+he's a good customer to me, he is."
+
+"I'll give you a sovereign to do it," said Paul.
+
+"If yer wouldn't tell no tales, I might put yer down at the corner
+p'raps," said Clegg, hesitating, to Paul's joy; "not as it ain't cheap
+at that, but let's see yer suffering fust. Why," he cried with lofty
+contempt as he saw from Paul's face that the coin was not producible,
+"y'ain't got no suffering! Garn away, and don't try to tempt a pore
+cabby as has his livin' to make. What d'ye think of this, porter, now?
+'Ere's a young gent a tryin' to back out o' going to school when he
+ought to be glad and thankful as he's receivin' the blessin's of a good
+eddication. Look at me. I'm a 'ard-workin' man. I am. I ain't 'ad no
+eddication. The kids, they're a learnin' French, and free'and drorin,
+and the bones on a skellington at the Board School, and I pays my
+coppers down every week cheerful. And why, porter? Why, young master?
+'Cause I knows the vally on it! But when I sees a real young gent a
+despisin' of the oppertoonities as a bountiful Providence and a
+excellent par has 'eaped on his 'ed, it--it makes me sick, it inspires
+Clegg with a pity and a contemp' for such ingratitood, which he cares
+not for to 'ide from public voo!"
+
+Clegg delivered this harangue with much gesture and in a loud tone,
+which greatly edified the porters and disgusted Mr. Bultitude.
+
+"Go away," said the latter, "that's enough. You're drunk!"
+
+"Drunk!" bellowed the outraged Clegg, rising on the box in his wrath.
+"'Ear that. 'Ark at this 'ere young cock sparrer as tells a fam'ly man
+like Clegg as he's drunk! Drunk, after drivin' his par in this 'ere
+werry cab through frost and fine fifteen year and more! I wonder yer
+don't say the old 'orse is drunk; you'll be sayin' that next! Drunk! oh,
+cert'nly, by all means. Never you darken my cab doors no more. I shall
+take and tell your par, I shall. Drunk, indeed! A ill-conditioned young
+wiper as ever I see. Drunk! yah!"
+
+And with much cursing and growling, Clegg gathered up his reins and
+drove off into the fog, Boaler having apparently pre-paid the fare.
+
+"Where for, sir, please?" said a porter, who had been putting the
+playbox and portmanteau on a truck during the altercation.
+
+"Nowhere," said Mr. Bultitude. "I--I'm not going by this train; find me
+a cab with a sober driver."
+
+The porter looked round. A moment before there had been several cabs
+discharging their loads at the steps; now the last had rolled away
+empty.
+
+"You might find one inside the station by the arrival platform," he
+suggested; "but there'll be sure to be one comin' up here in another
+minute, sir, if you like to wait."
+
+Paul thought the other course might be the longer one, and decided to
+stay where he was. So he walked into the lofty hall in which the booking
+offices are placed and waited there by the huge fire that blazed in the
+stove until he should hear the cab arrive which could take him back to
+Westbourne Terrace.
+
+One or two trains were about to start, and the place was full. There
+were several Cambridge men "going up" after the Christmas vacation, in
+every variety of ulster; some tugging at refractory white terriers, one
+or two entrusting bicycles to dubious porters with many cautions and
+directions. There were burly old farmers going back to their quiet
+countryside, flushed with the prestige of a successful stand under
+cross-examination in some witness-box at the Law Courts; to tell and
+retell the story over hill and dale, in the market-place and
+bar-parlour, every week for the rest of their honest lives. There was
+the usual pantomime "rally" on a mild scale, with real frantic
+passengers, and porters, and trucks, and trays of lighted lamps.
+
+Presently, out of the crowd and confusion, a small boy in a thick pilot
+jacket and an immensely tall hat, whom Paul had observed looking at him
+intently for some time, walked up to the stove and greeted him
+familiarly.
+
+"Hallo, Bultitude!" he said, "I thought it was you. Here we are again,
+eh? Ugh!" and he giggled dismally.
+
+He was a pale-faced boy with freckles, very light green eyes, long,
+rather ragged black hair, a slouching walk, and a smile half-simpering,
+half-impudent.
+
+Mr. Bultitude was greatly staggered by the presumption of so small a boy
+venturing to address him in this way. He could only stare haughtily.
+
+"You might find a word to say to a fellow!" said the boy in an aggrieved
+tone. "Look here; come and get your luggage labelled."
+
+"I don't want it labelled," said Paul stiffly, feeling bound to say
+something. "I'm waiting for a cab to take me home again."
+
+The other gave a loud whistle. "That'll make it rather a short term,
+won't it, if you're going home for the holidays already? You're a cool
+chap, Bultitude! If I were to go back to my governor now, he wouldn't
+see it. It would put him in no end of a bait. But you're chaffing----"
+
+Paul walked away from him with marked coolness. He was not going to
+trouble himself to talk to his son's schoolfellows.
+
+"Aren't you well?" said the boy, not at all discouraged by his
+reception, following him and taking his arm. "Down in the mouth? It is
+beastly, isn't it, having to go back to old Grimstone's! The snow gave
+us an extra week, though--we've that much to be thankful for. I wish it
+was the first day of the holidays again, don't you? What's the matter
+with you? What have I done to put you in a wax?"
+
+"Nothing at present," said Paul. "I don't speak to you merely because I
+don't happen to have the--ah--pleasure of your acquaintance."
+
+"Oh, very well, then; I daresay you know best," said the other huffily.
+"Only I thought--considering we came the same half, and have been chums,
+and always sat next one another ever since--you might perhaps just
+recollect having met me before, you know."
+
+"Well, I don't," said Mr. Bultitude. "I tell you I haven't the least
+idea what your name is. The fact is there has been a slight mistake,
+which I can't stop to talk about now. There's a cab just driven up
+outside now. You must excuse me, really, my boy, I want to go."
+
+He tried to work his arm free from the close and affectionate grip of
+his unwelcome companion, who was regarding him with a sort of admiring
+leer.
+
+"What a fellow you are, Bultitude!" he said; "always up to something or
+other. You know me well enough. What is the use of keeping it up any
+longer? Let's talk, and stop humbugging. How much grub have you brought
+back this time?"
+
+To be advised to stop humbugging, and be persecuted with such idle
+questions as these, maddened the poor gentleman. A hansom really had
+rolled up to the steps outside. He must put an end to this waste of
+precious time, and escape from this highly inconvenient small boy.
+
+He forced his way to the door, the boy still keeping fast hold of his
+arm. Fortunately the cab was still there, and its late occupant, a tall,
+broad man, was standing with his back to them paying the driver. Paul
+was only just in time.
+
+"Porter!" he cried. "Where's that porter? I want my box put on that cab.
+No, I don't care about the luggage; engage the cab. Now, you little
+ruffian, are you going to let me go? Can't you see I'm anxious to get
+away?"
+
+Jolland giggled more impishly than ever. "Well, you _have_ got cheek!"
+he said. "Go on, I wish you may get that cab, I'm sure!"
+
+Paul, thus released, was just hurrying towards the cab, when the
+stranger who had got out of it settled the fare with satisfaction to
+himself and turned sharply round.
+
+The gas-light fell full on his face, and Mr. Bultitude recognised that
+the form and features were those of no stranger--he had stumbled upon
+the very last person he had expected or desired to meet just then--his
+flight was intercepted by his son's schoolmaster, Dr. Grimstone himself!
+
+The suddenness of the shock threw him completely off his balance. In an
+ordinary way the encounter would not of course have discomposed him, but
+now he would have given worlds for presence of mind enough either to
+rush past to the cab and secure his only chance of freedom before the
+Doctor had fully realised his intention, or else greet him affably and
+calmly, and, taking him quietly aside, explain his awkward position with
+an easy man-of-the-world air, which would ensure instant conviction.
+
+But both courses were equally impossible. He stood there, right in Dr.
+Grimstone's path, with terrified starting eyes and quivering limbs, more
+like an unhappy guinea-pig expecting the advances of a boa, than a
+British merchant in the presence of his son's schoolmaster! He was sick
+and faint with alarm, and the consciousness that appearances were all
+against him.
+
+There was nothing in the least extraordinary in the fact of the Doctor's
+presence at the station. Mr. Bultitude might easily have taken this
+into account as a very likely contingency and have provided accordingly,
+had he troubled to think, for it was Dr. Grimstone's custom, upon the
+first day of the term, to come up to town and meet as many of his pupils
+upon the platform as intended to return by a train previously specified
+at the foot of the school-bills; and Paul had even expressly insisted
+upon Dick's travelling under surveillance in this manner, thinking it
+necessary to keep him out of premature mischief.
+
+It makes a calamity doubly hard to bear when one looks back and sees by
+what a trivial chance it has come upon us, and how slight an effort
+would have averted it altogether; and Mr. Bultitude cursed his own
+stupidity as he stood there, rooted to the ground, and saw the hansom (a
+"patent safety" to him in sober earnest) drive off and abandon him to
+his fate.
+
+Dr. Grimstone bore down heavily upon him and Jolland, who had by this
+time come up. He was a tall and imposing personage, with a strong black
+beard and small angry grey eyes, slightly blood-tinged; he wore garments
+of a semi-clerical cut and colour, though he was not in orders. He held
+out a hand to each with elaborate geniality.
+
+"Ha, Bultitude, my boy, how are you? How are you, Jolland? Come back
+braced in body and mind by your vacation, eh? That's as it should be.
+Have you tickets? No? follow me then. You're both over age, I believe.
+There you are; take care of them."
+
+And before Paul could protest, he had purchased tickets for all three,
+after which he laid an authoritative hand upon Mr. Bultitude's shoulder
+and walked him out through the booking hall upon the platform.
+
+"This is awful," thought Paul, shrinking involuntarily; "simply awful.
+He evidently has no idea who I really am. Unless I'm very careful I
+shall be dragged off to Crichton House before I can put him right. If I
+could only get him away alone somewhere."
+
+As if in answer to the wish, the Doctor guided him by a slight pressure
+straight along by the end of the station, saying to Jolland as he did
+so, "I wish to have a little serious conversation with Richard in
+private. Suppose you go to the bookstall and see if you can find out any
+of our young friends. Tell them to wait for me there."
+
+When they were alone the Doctor paced solemnly along in silence for some
+moments, while Paul, who had always been used to consider himself a
+fairly prominent object, whatever might be his surroundings, began to
+feel an altogether novel sensation of utter insignificance upon that
+immense brown plain of platform and under the huge span of the arches
+whose girders were lost in wreaths of mingled fog and smoke.
+
+Still he had some hope. Was it not possible, after all, that the Doctor
+had divined his secret and was searching for words delicate enough to
+convey his condolences?
+
+"I wished to tell you, Bultitude," said the Doctor presently, and his
+first words dashed all Paul's rising hopes, "that I hope you are
+returning this term with the resolve to do better things. You have
+caused your excellent father much pain in the past. You little know the
+grief a wilful boy can inflict on his parent."
+
+"I think I have a very fair idea of it," thought Paul, but he said
+nothing.
+
+"I hope you left him in good health? Such a devoted parent,
+Richard--such a noble heart!"
+
+At any other time Mr. Bultitude might have felt gratified by these
+eulogies, but just then he was conscious that he could lay no claim to
+them. It was Dick who had the noble heart now, and he himself felt even
+less of a devoted parent than he looked.
+
+"I had a letter from him during the vacation," continued Dr. Grimstone,
+"a sweet letter, Richard, breathing in every line a father's anxiety and
+concern for your welfare."
+
+Paul was a little staggered. He remembered having written, but he would
+scarcely perhaps have described his letter as "sweet," as he had not
+done much more than enclose a cheque for his son's account and object to
+the items for pew-rent and scientific lectures with the diorama as
+excessive.
+
+"But--and this is what I wanted to say to you, Bultitude--his is no
+blind doting affection. He has implored me, for your own sake, if I see
+you diverging ever so slightly from the path of duty, not to stay my
+hand. And I shall not forget his injunctions."
+
+A few minutes ago, and it would have seemed to Paul so simple and easy a
+matter to point out to the Doctor the very excusable error into which he
+had fallen. It was no more than he would have to do repeatedly upon his
+return, and here was an excellent opportunity for an explanation.
+
+But, somehow the words would not come. The schoolmaster's form seemed so
+tremendous and towering, and he so feeble and powerless before him, that
+he soon persuaded himself that a public place, like a station platform,
+was no scene for domestic revelations of so painful a character.
+
+He gave up all idea of resistance at present. "Perhaps I had better
+leave him in his error till we get into the train," he thought; "then we
+will get rid of that other boy, and I can break it to him gradually in
+the railway carriage as I get more accustomed to him."
+
+But in spite of his determination to unbosom himself without further
+delay, he knew that a kind of fascinated resignation was growing upon
+him and gaining firmer hold each minute.
+
+Something must be done to break the spell and burst the toils which were
+being woven round him before all effort became impossible.
+
+"And now," said the Doctor, glancing up at the great clock-face on which
+a reflector cast a patch of dim yellow light, "we must be thinking of
+starting. But don't forget what I have said."
+
+And they walked back towards the book-stalls with their cheery warmth
+of colour, past the glittering buffet, and on up the platform, to a part
+where six boys of various sizes were standing huddled forlornly together
+under a gaslight.
+
+"Aha!" said Dr. Grimstone, with a slight touch of the ogre in his tone,
+"more of my fellows, eh? We shall be quite a party. How do you do, boys?
+Welcome back to your studies."
+
+And the six boys came forward, all evidently in the lowest spirits, and
+raised their tall hats with a studied politeness.
+
+"Some old friends here, Bultitude," said the Doctor, impelling the
+unwilling Paul towards the group. "You know Tipping, of course; Coker,
+too, you've met before--and Coggs. How are you, Siggers? You're looking
+well. Ah, by the way, I see a new face--Kiffin, I think? Kiffin, this is
+Bultitude, who will make himself your mentor, I hope, and initiate you
+into our various manners and customs."
+
+And, with a horrible dream-like sense of unreality, Mr. Bultitude found
+himself being greeted by several entire strangers with a degree of
+warmth embarrassing in the extreme.
+
+He would have liked to protest and declare himself there and then in his
+true colours, but if this had been difficult alone with the Doctor under
+the clock, it was impossible now, and he submitted ruefully enough to
+their unwelcome advances.
+
+Tipping, a tall, red-haired, raw-boned boy, with sleeves and trousers he
+had outgrown, and immense boots, wrung Paul's hand with misdirected
+energy, saying "how-de-do?" with a gruff superiority, mercifully
+tempered by a touch of sheepishness.
+
+Coggs and Coker welcomed him with open arms as an equal, while Siggers,
+a short, slight, sharp-featured boy, with a very fashionable hat and
+shirt-collars, and a horse-shoe pin, drawled, "How are you, old boy?"
+with the languor of a confirmed man about town.
+
+The other two were Biddlecomb, a boy with a blooming complexion and a
+singularly sweet voice, and the new-comer, Kiffin, who did not seem much
+more at home in the society of other boys than Mr. Bultitude himself,
+for he kept nervously away from them, shivering with the piteous
+self-abandonment of an Italian greyhound.
+
+Paul was now convinced that unless he exerted himself considerably, his
+identity with his son would never even be questioned, and the danger
+roused him to a sudden determination.
+
+However his face and figure might belie him, nothing in his speech or
+conduct should encourage the mistake. Whatever it might cost him to
+overcome his fear of the Doctor, he would force himself to act and talk
+ostentatiously, as much like his own ordinary self as possible, during
+the journey down to Market Rodwell, so as to prepare the Doctor's mind
+for the disclosures he meant to make at the earliest opportunity. He was
+beginning to see that the railway carriage, with all those boys sitting
+by and staring, would be an inconvenient place for so delicate and
+difficult a confession.
+
+The guard having warned intending passengers to take their seats, and
+Jolland, who had been unaccountably missing all this time, having
+appeared from the direction of the refreshment buffet, furtively
+brushing away some suspicious-looking flakes and crumbs from his coat,
+and contrived to join the party unperceived, they all got into a
+first-class compartment--Paul with the rest.
+
+He longed for moral courage to stand out boldly and refuse to leave
+town, but, as we have seen, it was beyond his powers, and he temporised.
+Very soon the whistle had sounded and the train had begun to glide
+slowly out beyond the platform and arch, past the signal boxes and long
+low sheds and offices which are the suburbs of a large terminus--and
+then it was too late.
+
+
+
+
+4. _A Minnow amongst Tritons_
+
+     "Boys are capital fellows in their own way among their mates; but
+     they are unwholesome companions for grown people."--_Essays of
+     Elia._
+
+
+For some time after they were fairly started the Doctor read his evening
+paper with an air of impartial but severe criticism, and Mr. Bultitude
+as he sat opposite him next to the window, found himself overwhelmed
+with a new and very unpleasant timidity.
+
+He knew that, if he would free himself, this utterly unreasonable
+feeling must be wrestled with and overcome; that now, if ever, was the
+time to assert himself, and prove that he was anything but the raw youth
+he was conscious of appearing. He had merely to speak and act, too, in
+his ordinary everyday manner; to forget as far as possible the change
+that had affected his outer man, which was not so very difficult to do
+after all--and yet his heart sank lower and lower as each fresh
+telegraph post flitted past.
+
+"I will let him speak first," he thought; "then I shall be able to feel
+my way." But there was more fear than caution in the resolve.
+
+At last, however, the Doctor laid down his paper, and, looking round
+with the glance of proprietorship on his pupils, who had relapsed into a
+decorous and gloomy silence, observed: "Well, boys, you have had an
+unusually protracted vacation this time--owing to the unprecedented
+severity of the weather. We must try to make up for it by the zest and
+ardour with which we pursue our studies during the term. I intend to
+reduce the Easter holidays by a week by way of compensation."
+
+This announcement (which by no means relieved the general
+depression--the boys receiving it with a sickly interest) was good news
+to Paul, and even had the effect of making him forget his position for
+the time.
+
+"I'm uncommonly glad to hear it, Dr. Grimstone," he said heartily, "an
+excellent arrangement. Boys have too many holidays as it is. There's no
+reason, to my mind, why parents should be the sufferers by every
+snowstorm. It's no joke, I can assure you, to have a great idle boy
+hanging about the place eating his empty head off!"
+
+A burglar enlarging upon the sanctity of the law of property, or a sheep
+exposing the fallacies of vegetarianism, could hardly have produced a
+greater sensation.
+
+Every boy was roused from his languor to stare and wonder at these
+traitorous sentiments, which, from the mouth of any but a known and
+tried companion, would have roused bitter hostility and contempt. As it
+was, their wonder became a rapturous admiration, and they waited for the
+situation to develop with a fearful and secret joy.
+
+It was some time before the Doctor quite recovered himself; then he said
+with a grim smile, "This is indeed finding Saul amongst the prophets;
+your sentiments, if sincere, Bultitude--I repeat, if sincere--are very
+creditable. But I am obliged to look upon them with suspicion!" Then, as
+if to dismiss a doubtful subject, he inquired generally, "And how have
+you all been spending your holidays, eh!"
+
+There was no attempt to answer this question, it being felt probably
+that it was, like the conventional "How do you do?" one to which an
+answer is neither desired nor expected, especially as he continued
+almost immediately, "I took my boy Tom up to town the week before
+Christmas to see the representation of the 'Agamemnon' at St. George's
+Hall. The 'Agamemnon,' as most of you are doubtless aware, is a drama by
+Æschylus, a Greek poet of established reputation. I was much pleased by
+the intelligent appreciation Tom showed during the performance. He
+distinctly recognised several words from his Greek Grammar in the course
+of the dialogue."
+
+No one seemed capable of responding except Mr. Bultitude, who dashed
+into the breach with an almost pathetic effort to maintain his
+accustomed stiffness.
+
+"I may be old-fashioned," he said, "very likely I am; but
+I--ah--decidedly disapprove of taking children to dramatic exhibitions
+of any kind. It unsettles them, sir--unsettles them!"
+
+Dr. Grimstone made no answer, but he put a hand on each knee, and glared
+with pursed lips and a leonine bristle of the beard at his youthful
+critic for some moments, after which he returned to his _Globe_ with a
+short ominous cough.
+
+"I've offended him now," thought Paul. "I must be more careful what I
+say. But I'll get him into conversation again presently."
+
+So he began at the first opportunity: "You have this evening's paper, I
+see. No telegrams of importance, I suppose?"
+
+"No, sir," said the Doctor shortly.
+
+"I saw a report in to-day's _Times_," said poor Mr. Bultitude, with a
+desperate attempt at his most conversational and instructive manner, "I
+saw a report that the camphor crop was likely to be a failure this
+season. Now, it's a very singular thing about camphor, that the
+Japanese----" (he hoped to lead the conversation round to colonial
+produce, and thus open the Doctor's eyes by the extent of his
+acquaintance with the subject).
+
+"I am already acquainted with the method of obtaining camphor, thank
+you, Bultitude," said the Doctor, with dangerous politeness.
+
+"I was about to observe, when you interrupted me," said Paul, "(and this
+is really a fact that I doubt if you are aware of), that the Japanese
+never----"
+
+"Well, well," said the Doctor, with some impatience, "probably they
+never do, sir, but I shall have other opportunities of finding out what
+you have read about the Japanese."
+
+But he glanced over the top of the paper at the indignant Paul, who was
+not accustomed to have his information received in this manner, with
+less suspicion and a growing conviction that some influence during the
+holidays had changed the boy from a graceless young scapegrace into a
+prig of the first water.
+
+"He's most uncivil"--Mr. Bultitude told himself--"almost insulting, but
+I'll go on. I'm rousing his curiosity. I'm making way with him; he sees
+a difference already." And so he applied himself once more.
+
+"You're a smoker, of course, Dr. Grimstone?" he began. "We don't stop
+anywhere, I think, on the way, and I must confess myself, after dinner,
+a whiff or two--I think I can give you a cigar you'll appreciate."
+
+And he felt for his cigar-case, really forgetting that it was gone, like
+all other incidents of his old self; while Jolland giggled with
+unrestrained delight at such charming effrontery.
+
+"If I did not know, sir," said the Doctor, now effectually roused, "that
+this was ill-timed buffoonery, and not an intentional insult, I should
+be seriously angry. As it is, I can overlook any exuberance of mirth
+which is, perhaps, pardonable when the mind is elated by the return to
+the cheerful bustle and activity of school-life. But be very careful."
+
+"He needn't be so angry," thought Paul, "how could I know he doesn't
+smoke? But I'm afraid he doesn't quite know me, even now."
+
+So he began again: "Did I hear you mention the name of Kiffin amongst
+those of your pupils here, Doctor? I thought so. Not the son of Jordan
+Kiffin, of College Hill, surely? Yes? Why, bless my soul, your father
+and I, my little fellow, were old friends in days before you were born
+or thought of--born or thought of. He was in a very small way then, a
+very small---- Eh, Dr. Grimstone, don't you feel well?"
+
+"I see what you're aiming at, sir. You wish to prove to me that I'm
+making a mistake in my treatment of you."
+
+"That was my idea, certainly," said Paul, much pleased. "I'm very glad
+you take me, Doctor."
+
+"I shall take you in a way you won't appreciate soon, if this goes on,"
+said the Doctor under his breath.
+
+"When the time comes I shall know how to deal with you. Till then
+you'll have the goodness to hold your tongue," he said aloud.
+
+"It's not a very polite way of putting it," Paul said to himself, "but,
+at any rate, he sees how the case stands now, and after all, perhaps, he
+only speaks like that to put the boys off the scent. If so, it's
+uncommonly considerate and thoughtful of him, by Gad. I won't say any
+more."
+
+But by-and-by, the open window made him break his resolution. "I'm sorry
+to inconvenience you, Dr. Grimstone," he said, with the air of one used
+to having his way in these matters, "but I positively must ask you
+either to allow me to have this window up or to change places with you.
+The night air, sir, at this time of the year is fatal, my doctor tells
+me, simply fatal to a man of my constitution."
+
+The Doctor pulled up the window with a frown, and yet a somewhat puzzled
+expression. "I warn you, Bultitude," he said, "you are acting very
+imprudently."
+
+"So I am," thought Paul, "so I am. Good of him to remind me. I must keep
+it up before all these boys. This unpleasant business mustn't get about.
+I'll hold my tongue till we get in. Then, I daresay, Grimstone will see
+me off by the next train up, if there is one, and lend me enough for a
+bed at an hotel for the night. I couldn't get to St. Pancras till very
+late, of course. Or he might offer to put me up at the school. If he
+does, I think I shall very possibly accept. It might be better."
+
+And he leant back in his seat in a much easier frame of mind; it was
+annoying, of course, to have been turned out of his warm dining-room,
+and sent all the way down to Market Rodwell on a fool's errand like
+this; but still, if nothing worse came of it, he could put up with the
+temporary inconvenience, and it was a great relief to be spared the
+necessity of an explanation.
+
+The other boys watched him furtively with growing admiration, which
+expressed itself in subdued whispers, varied by little gurgles and
+"squirks" of laughter; they tried to catch his eye and stimulate him to
+further feats of audacity, but Mr. Bultitude, of course, repulsed all
+such overtures with a coldness and severity which at once baffled and
+piqued them.
+
+At last his eccentricity took a shape which considerably lessened their
+enthusiasm. Kiffin, the new boy, occupied the seat next to Paul; he was
+a nervous-looking little fellow, with a pale face and big pathetic brown
+eyes like a seal's, and his dress bore plain evidence of a mother's
+careful supervision, having all the uncreased trimness and specklessness
+rarely to be observed except in the toilettes of the waxen prodigies in
+a shop-window.
+
+It happened that, as he lay back in the padded seat between the
+sheltering partitions, watching the sickly yellow dregs of oil surging
+dismally to and fro with the motion in the lamp overhead, or the black
+indistinct forms flitting past through the misty blue outside, the
+pathos of his situation became all at once too much for him.
+
+He was a home-bred boy, without any of that taste for the companionship
+and pursuits of his fellows, or capacity for adapting himself to their
+prejudices and requirements, which give some home-bred boys a ready
+passport into the roughest communities.
+
+His heart throbbed with no excited curiosity, no conscious pride, at
+this his first important step in life; he was a forlorn little stranger,
+in an unsympathetic strange land, and was only too well aware of his
+position.
+
+So that it is not surprising that as he thought of the home he had left
+an hour or two ago which now seemed so shadowy, so inaccessible and
+remote, his eyes began to smart and sting, and his chest to heave
+ominously, until he felt it necessary to do something to give a partial
+vent to his emotions and prevent a public and disgraceful exhibition of
+grief.
+
+Unhappily for him he found this safety-valve in a series of suppressed
+but distinctly audible sniffs.
+
+Mr. Bultitude bore this for some time with no other protest than an
+occasional indignant bounce or a lowering frown in the offender's
+direction, but at last his nerves, strung already to a high pitch by all
+he had undergone, could stand it no longer.
+
+"Dr. Grimstone," he said with polite determination, "I'm not a man to
+complain without good reason, but really I must ask you to interfere.
+Will you tell this boy here, on my right, either to control his feelings
+or to cry into his pocket-handkerchief, like an ordinary human being? A
+good honest bellow I can understand, but this infernal whiffling and
+sniffing, sir, I will not put up with. It's nothing less than unnatural
+in a boy of that size."
+
+"Kiffin," said the Doctor, "are you crying?"
+
+"N--no, sir," faltered Kiffin; "I--I think I must have caught cold,
+sir."
+
+"I hope you are telling me the truth, because I should be sorry to
+believe you were beginning your new life in a spirit of captiousness and
+rebellion. I'll have no mutineers in my camp. I'll establish a spirit of
+trustful happiness and unmurmuring content in this school, if I have to
+flog every boy in it as long as I can stand over him! As for you,
+Richard Bultitude, I have no words to express my pain and disgust at the
+heartless irreverence with which you persist in mimicking and
+burlesquing a fond and excellent parent. Unless I perceive, sir, in a
+very short time a due sense of your error and a lively repentance, my
+disapproval will take a very practical form."
+
+Mr. Bultitude fell back into his seat with a gasp. It was hard to be
+accused of caricaturing one's own self, particularly when conscious of
+entire innocence in that respect, but even this was slight in comparison
+with the discovery that he had been so blindly deceiving himself!
+
+The Doctor evidently had failed to penetrate his disguise, and the
+dreaded scene of elaborate explanation must be gone through after all.
+
+The boys (with the exception of Kiffin) still found exquisite enjoyment
+in this extraordinary and original exhibition, and waited eagerly for
+further experiment on the Doctor's patience.
+
+They were soon gratified. If there was one thing Paul detested more than
+another, it was the smell of peppermint--no less than three office boys
+had been discharged by him because, as he alleged, they made the clerks'
+room reek with it,--and now the subtle searching odour of the hated
+confection was gradually stealing into the compartment and influencing
+its atmosphere.
+
+He looked at Coggs, who sat on the seat opposite to him, and saw his
+cheeks and lips moving in slow and appreciative absorption of something.
+Coggs was clearly the culprit.
+
+"Do you encourage your boys to make common nuisances of themselves in a
+public place, may I ask, Dr. Grimstone?" he inquired, fuming.
+
+"Some scarcely seem to require encouragement, Bultitude," said the
+Doctor pointedly: "what is the matter now?"
+
+"If he takes it medicinally," said Paul, "he should choose some other
+time and place to treat his complaint. If he has a depraved liking for
+the abominable stuff, for Heaven's sake make him refrain from it on
+occasions when it is a serious annoyance to others!"
+
+"Will you explain? Who and what are you talking about?"
+
+"That boy opposite," said Paul, pointing the finger of denunciation at
+the astonished Coggs; "he's sucking an infernal peppermint lozenge
+strong enough to throw the train off the rails!"
+
+"Is what Bultitude tells me true, Coggs?" demanded the Doctor in an
+awful voice.
+
+Coggs, after making several attempts to bolt the offending lozenge, and
+turning scarlet meanwhile with confusion and coughing, stammered huskily
+something to the effect that he had "bought the lozenges at a
+chemist's," which he seemed to consider, for some reason, a mitigating
+circumstance.
+
+"Have you any more of this pernicious stuff about you?" said the Doctor.
+
+Very slowly and reluctantly Coggs brought out of one pocket after
+another three or four neat little white packets, made up with that
+lavish expenditure of time, string, and sealing-wax, by which the
+struggling chemist seeks to reconcile the public mind to a charge of two
+hundred and fifty per cent. on cost price, and handed them to Dr.
+Grimstone, who solemnly unfastened them one by one, glanced at their
+contents with infinite disgust, and flung them out of window.
+
+Then he turned to Paul with a look of more favour than he had yet shown
+him. "Bultitude," he said, "I am obliged to you. A severe cold in the
+head has rendered me incapable of detecting this insidious act of
+insubordination and self-indulgence, on which I shall have more to say
+on another occasion. Your moral courage and promptness in denouncing the
+evil thing are much to your credit."
+
+"Not at all," said Paul, "not at all, my dear sir. I mentioned it
+because I--ah--happen to be peculiarly sensitive on the subject and----"
+Here he broke off with a sharp yell, and began to rub his ankle. "One of
+these young savages has just given me a severe kick; it's that fellow
+over there, with the blue necktie. I have given him no provocation, and
+he attacks me in this brutal manner, sir; I appeal to you for
+protection!"
+
+"So, Coker" (Coker wore a blue necktie), said the Doctor, "you emulate
+the wild ass in more qualities than those of stupidity and stubbornness,
+do you? You lash out with your hind legs at an inoffensive
+school-fellow, with all the viciousness of a kangaroo, eh? Write out all
+you find in Buffon's Natural History upon those two animals a dozen
+times, and bring it to me by to-morrow evening. If I am to stable wild
+asses, sir, they shall be broken in!"
+
+Six pairs of sulky glowering eyes were fixed upon the unconscious Paul
+for the rest of the journey; indignant protests and dark vows of
+vengeance were muttered under cover of the friendly roar and rattle of
+tunnels. But the object of them heard nothing; his composure was
+returning once more in the sunshine of Dr. Grimstone's approbation, and
+he almost decided on declaring himself in the station fly.
+
+And now at last the train was grinding along discordantly with the
+brakes on, and, after a little preliminary jolting and banging over the
+points, drew up at a long lighted platform, where melancholy porters
+paced up and down, croaking "Market Rodwell!" like so many Solomon
+Eagles predicting woe.
+
+Paul got out with the others, and walked forward to the guard's van,
+where he stood shivering in the raw night air by a small heap of
+portmanteaux and white clamped boxes.
+
+"I should like to tell him all about it now," he thought, "if he wasn't
+so busy. I'll get him to go in a cab alone with me, and get it over
+before we reach the house."
+
+Dr. Grimstone certainly did not seem in a very receptive mood for
+confidences just then. No flys were to be seen, which he took as a
+personal outrage, and visited upon the station-master in hot
+indignation.
+
+"It's scandalous, I tell you," he was saying: "scandalous! No cabs to
+meet the train. My school reassembles to-day, and here I find no
+arrangements made for their accommodation! Not even an omnibus! I shall
+write to the manager and report this. Let some one go for a fly
+immediately. Boys, go into the waiting room till I come to you.
+Stay--there are too many for one fly. Coker, Coggs, and, let me see,
+yes, Bultitude, you all know your way. Walk on and tell Mrs. Grimstone
+we are coming."
+
+Paul Bultitude was perhaps more relieved than disappointed by this
+postponement of a disagreeable interview, though, if he had seen Coker
+dig Coggs in the side with a chuckle of exultant triumph, he might have
+had misgivings as to the prudence of trusting himself alone with them.
+
+As it was he almost determined to trust the pair with his secret. "They
+will be valuable witnesses," he said to himself, "that, whoever else I
+may be, I am not Dick."
+
+So he went on briskly ahead over a covered bridge and down some
+break-neck wooden steps, and passed through the wicket out upon the
+railed-in space, where the cabs and omnibuses should have been, but
+which was now a blank spectral waste with a white ground-fog lurking
+round its borders.
+
+Here he was joined by his companions, who, after a little whispering,
+came up one on either side and put an arm through each of his.
+
+"Well," said Paul, thinking to banter them agreeably; "here you are,
+young men, eh? Holidays all over now! Work while you're young, and
+then---- Gad, you're walking me off my legs. Stop; I'm not as young as I
+used to be----"
+
+"Grim can't see us here, can he, Coker?" said Coggs when they had
+cleared the gates and palings.
+
+"Not he!" said Coker.
+
+"Very well, then. Now then, young Bultitude, you used to be a decent
+fellow enough last term, though you _were_ coxy. So, before we go any
+further--what do you mean by this sort of thing?"
+
+"Because," put in Coker, "if you aren't quite right in your head,
+through your old governor acting like a brute all the holidays, as you
+said he does, just say so, and we won't be hard on you."
+
+"I--he--always an excellent father," stammered Paul. "What am I to
+explain?"
+
+"Why, what did you go and sneak of _him_ for bringing tuck back to
+school for, eh?" demanded Coker.
+
+"Yes, and sing out when he hacked your shin?" added Coggs; "and tell
+Grimstone that new fellow was blubbing? Where's the joke in all that,
+eh? Where's the joke?"
+
+"You don't suppose I was bound to sit calmly down and allow you to suck
+your villainous peppermints under my very nose, do you?" said Mr.
+Bultitude. "Why shouldn't I complain if a boy annoys me by sniffing, or
+kicks me on the ankle? Just tell me that? Suppose my neighbour has a
+noisy dog or a smoky chimney, am I not to venture to tell him of it? Is
+he to----"
+
+But his arguments, convincing as they promised to be, were brought to a
+sudden and premature close by Coker, who slipped behind him and
+administered a sharp jog below his back, which jarred his spine and
+caused him infinite agony.
+
+"You little brute!" cried Paul, "I could have you up for assault for
+that!"
+
+But upon this Coggs did the very same thing only harder. "Last term
+you'd have shown fight for much less, Bultitude," they both observed
+severely, as some justification for repeating the process.
+
+"Now, perhaps, you'll drop it for the future," said Coker. "Look here!
+we'll give you one more chance. This sneaking dodge is all very well for
+Chawner. Chawner could do that sort of thing without getting sat upon,
+because he's a big fellow; but we're not going to stand it from you.
+Will you promise on your sacred word of honour, now, to be a decent sort
+of chap again, as you were last term?"
+
+But Mr. Bultitude, though he longed for peace and quietness, dreaded
+doing or saying anything to favour the impression that he was the
+schoolboy he unluckily appeared to be, and he had not skill and tact
+enough to dissemble and assume a familiar genial tone of equality with
+these rough boys.
+
+"You don't understand," he protested feebly. "If I could only tell
+you----"
+
+"We don't want any fine language, you know," said the relentless Coggs.
+"Yes or no. Will you promise to be your old self again?"
+
+"I only wish I could," said poor Mr. Bultitude--"but I can't!"
+
+"Very well, then," said Coggs firmly, "we must try the torture. Coker,
+will you screw the back of his hand, while I show him how they make
+barley-sugar?"
+
+And he gave Paul an interesting illustration of the latter branch of
+industry by twisting his right arm round and round till he nearly
+wrenched it out of the socket, while Coker seized his left hand and
+pounded it vigorously with the first joint of his forefinger, causing
+the unfortunate Paul to yell for mercy.
+
+At last he could bear no more, and breaking away from his tormentors
+with a violent effort, he ran frantically down the silent road towards a
+house which he knew from former visits to be Dr. Grimstone's.
+
+He was but languidly pursued, and, as the distance was short, he soon
+gained a gate on the stuccoed posts of which he could read "Crichton
+House" by the light of a neighbouring gas-lamp.
+
+"This is a nice way," he thought, as he reached it breathless and
+trembling, "for a father to visit his son's school!"
+
+He had hoped to reach sanctuary before the other two could overtake him;
+but he soon discovered that the gate was shut fast, and all his efforts
+would not bring him within reach of the bell-handle--he was too short.
+
+So he sat down on the doorstep in resigned despair, and waited for his
+enemies. Behind the gate was a large many-windowed house, with steps
+leading up to a portico. In the playground to his right the school
+gymnasium, a great gallows-like erection, loomed black and grim through
+the mist, the night wind favouring the ghastliness of its appearance by
+swaying the ropes till they creaked and moaned weirdly on the hooks, and
+the metal stirrups clinked and clashed against one another in irregular
+cadence.
+
+He had no time to observe more, as Coker and Coggs joined him, and, on
+finding he had not rung the bell, seized the occasion to pummel him at
+their leisure before announcing their arrival.
+
+Then the gate was opened, and the three--the revengeful pair assuming an
+air of lamb-like inoffensiveness--entered the hall and were met by Mrs.
+Grimstone.
+
+"Why, here you are!" she said, with an air of surprise, and kissing them
+with real kindness. "How cold you look! So you actually had to walk. No
+cabs as usual. You poor boys! come in and warm yourselves. You'll find
+all your old friends in the schoolroom."
+
+Mr. Bultitude submitted to be kissed with some reluctance, inwardly
+hoping that Dr. Grimstone might never hear of it.
+
+Mrs. Grimstone, it may be said here, was a stout, fair woman, not in the
+least intellectual or imposing, but with a warm heart, and a way of
+talking to and about boys that secured her the confidence of mothers
+more effectually, perhaps, than the most polished conversation and
+irreproachable deportment could have done.
+
+She did not reserve her motherliness for the reception room either, as
+some schoolmasters' wives have a tendency to do, and the smallest boy
+felt less homesick when he saw her.
+
+She opened a green baize outer door, and the door beyond it, and led
+them into a long high room, with desks and forms placed against the
+walls, and a writing table, and line of brown-stained tables down the
+middle. Opposite the windows there was a curious structure of shelves
+partitioned into lockers, and filled with rows of shabby schoolbooks.
+
+The room had been originally intended for a drawing-room, as was evident
+from the inevitable white and gold wall-paper and the tarnished gilt
+beading round the doors and window shutters; the mantelpiece, too, was
+of white marble, and the gaselier fitted with dingy crystal lustres.
+
+But sad-coloured maps hung on the ink-splashed walls, and a clock with a
+blank idiotic face (it is not every clock that possesses a decently
+intelligent expression) ticked over the gilt pier-glass. The boards were
+uncarpeted, and stained with patches of ink of all sizes and ages; while
+the atmosphere, in spite of the blazing fire, had a scholastic blending
+of soap and water, ink and slate-pencil in its composition, which
+produced a chill and depressing effect.
+
+On the forms opposite the fire some ten or twelve boys were sitting, a
+few comparing notes as to their holiday experiences with some approach
+to vivacity. The rest, with hands in pockets and feet stretched towards
+the blaze, seemed lost in melancholy abstraction.
+
+"There!" said Mrs. Grimstone cheerfully, "you'll have plenty to talk to
+one another about. I'll send Tom in to see you presently!" And she left
+them with a reassuring nod, though the prospect of Tom's company did not
+perhaps elate them as much as it was intended to do.
+
+Mr. Bultitude felt much as if he had suddenly been dropped down a
+bear-pit, and, avoiding welcome and observation as well as he could, got
+away into a corner, from which he observed his new companions with
+uneasy apprehension.
+
+"I say," said one boy, resuming the interrupted conversation, "did you
+go to Drury Lane? Wasn't it stunning! That goose, you know, and the lion
+in the forest, and all the wooden animals lumbering in out of the toy
+Noah's Ark!"
+
+"Why couldn't you come to our party on Twelfth-night?" asked another.
+"We had great larks. I wish you'd been there!"
+
+"I had to go to young Skidmore's instead," said a pale, spiteful-looking
+boy, with fair hair carefully parted in the middle. "It was like his
+cheek to ask me, but I thought I'd go, you know, just to see what it was
+like."
+
+"What was it like?" asked one or two near him languidly.
+
+"Oh, awfully slow! They've a poky little house in Brompton somewhere,
+and there was no dancing, only boshy games and a conjurer, without any
+presents. And, oh! I say, at supper there was a big cake on the table,
+and no one was allowed to cut it, because it was hired. They're so poor,
+you know. Skidmore's pater is only a clerk, and you should see his
+sisters!"
+
+"Why, are they pretty?"
+
+"Pretty! they're just like young Skidmore--only uglier; and just fancy,
+his mother asked me 'if I was Skidmore's favourite companion, and if he
+helped me in my studies?'"
+
+The unfortunate Skidmore, when he returned, soon found reason to regret
+his rash hospitality, for he never heard the last of the cake (which
+had, as it happened, been paid for in the usual manner) during the rest
+of the term.
+
+There was a slight laugh at the enormity of Mrs. Skidmore's presumption,
+and then a long pause, after which some one asked suddenly, "Does any
+one know whether Chawner really has left this time?"
+
+"I hope so," said a big, heavy boy, and his hope seemed echoed with a
+general fervour. "He's been going to leave every term for the last year,
+but I believe he really has done it this time. He wrote and told me he
+wasn't coming back."
+
+"Thank goodness!" said several, with an evident relief, and some one was
+just observing that they had had enough of the sneaking business, when a
+fly was heard to drive up, and the bell rang, whereupon everyone
+abandoned his easy attitude, and seemed to brace himself up for a trying
+encounter.
+
+"Look out--here's Grimstone!" they whispered under their breaths, as
+voices and footsteps were heard in the hall outside.
+
+Presently the door of the schoolroom opened, and another boy entered the
+room. Dr. Grimstone, it appeared, had not been the occupant of the fly,
+after all. The new-comer was a tall, narrow-shouldered, stooping fellow,
+with a sallow, unwholesome complexion, thin lips, and small sunken
+brown eyes. His cheeks were creased with a dimpling subsmile, half
+uneasy, half malicious, and his tread was mincing and catlike.
+
+"Well, you fellows?" he said.
+
+All rose at once, and shook hands effusively. "Why, Chawner!" they
+cried, "how are you, old fellow? We thought you weren't coming back!"
+
+There was a heartiness in their manner somewhat at variance with their
+recent expressions of opinion; but they had doubtless excellent reasons
+for any inconsistency.
+
+"Well," said Chawner, in a low, soft voice, which had a suggestion of
+feminine spitefulness, "I was going to leave, but I thought you'd be
+getting into mischief here without me to watch over you. Appleton, and
+Lench, and Coker want looking after badly, I know. So, you see, I've
+come back after all."
+
+He laughed with a little malevolent cackle as he spoke, and the three
+boys named laughed too, though with no great heartiness, and shifting
+the while uneasily on their seats.
+
+After this sally the conversation languished until Tom Grimstone's
+appearance. He strolled in with a semi-professional air, and shook hands
+with affability.
+
+Tom was a short, flabby, sandy-haired youth, not particularly beloved of
+his comrades, and his first remark was, "I say, you chaps, have you done
+your holiday task? Pa says he shall keep everyone in who hasn't. I've
+done mine;" which, as a contribution to the general liveliness, was a
+distinct failure.
+
+Needless to say, the work imposed as a holiday occupation had been first
+deferred, then forgotten, then remembered too late, and recklessly
+defied with the confidence begotten in a home atmosphere.
+
+Amidst a general silence Chawner happened to see Mr. Bultitude in his
+corner, and crossed over to him. "Why, there's Dicky Bultitude there all
+the time, and he never came to shake hands! Aren't you going to speak to
+me?"
+
+Paul growled something indistinctly, feeling strangely uncomfortable
+and confused.
+
+"What's the matter with him?" asked Chawner. "Does anyone know? Has he
+lost his tongue?"
+
+"He hadn't lost it coming down in the train," said Coker: "I wish he
+had. I tell you what, you fellows--He--here's Grim at last! I'll tell
+you all about it up in the bedroom."
+
+And Dr. Grimstone really did arrive at this point, much to Paul's
+relief, and looked in to give a grip of the hand and a few words to
+those of the boys he had not seen.
+
+Biddlecomb, Tipping, and the rest, came in with him, and the schoolroom
+soon filled with others arriving by later trains, amongst the later
+comers being the two house-masters, Mr. Blinkhorn and Mr. Tinkler; and
+there followed a season of bustle and conversation, which lasted until
+the Doctor touched a small hand-bell, and ordered them to sit down round
+the tables while supper was brought in.
+
+Mr. Bultitude was not sorry to hear the word "supper." He was faint and
+dispirited, and although he had dined not very long since, thought that
+perhaps a little cold beef and beer, or some warmed-up trifle, might
+give him courage to tell his misfortunes before bedtime.
+
+Of one thing he felt certain. Nothing should induce him to trust his
+person in a bedroom with any of those violent and vindictive boys;
+whether he succeeded in declaring himself that night or not, he would at
+least insist on a separate bedroom. Meantime he looked forward to supper
+as likely to restore geniality and confidence.
+
+But the supper announced so imposingly proved to consist of nothing more
+than two plates piled with small pieces of thinly-buttered bread, which
+a page handed round together with tumblers of water; and Paul, in his
+disappointment, refused this refreshment with more firmness than
+politeness, as Dr. Grimstone observed.
+
+"You got into trouble last term, Bultitude," he said sternly, "on
+account of this same fastidious daintiness. Your excellent father has
+informed me of your waste and gluttony at his own bountifully spread
+table. Don't let me have occasion to reprove you for this again."
+
+Mr. Bultitude, feeling the necessity of propitiating him, hastened to
+take the two largest squares of bread and butter on the plate. They were
+moist and thick, and he had considerable difficulty in disposing of
+them, besides the gratification of hearing himself described as a "pig"
+by his neighbours, who reproved him with a refreshing candour.
+
+"I must get away from here," he thought, ruefully. "Dick seems very
+unpopular. I wish I didn't feel so low-spirited and unwell. Why can't I
+carry it off easily as--as a kind of joke? How hard these forms are, and
+how those infernal boys did jog my back!"
+
+Bedtime came at length. The boys filed, one by one, out of the room, and
+the Doctor stood by the door to shake hands with them as they passed.
+
+Mr. Bultitude lingered until the others had gone, for he had made up his
+mind to seize this opportunity to open the Doctor's eyes to the mistake
+he was making. But he felt unaccountably nervous; the diplomatic and
+well-chosen introduction he had carefully prepared had left him at the
+critical moment; all power of thought was gone with it, and he went
+tremblingly up to the schoolmaster, feeling hopelessly at the mercy of
+anything that chose to come out of his mouth.
+
+"Dr. Grimstone," he began; "before retiring I--I must insist--I mean I
+must request---- What I wish to say is----"
+
+"I see," said the Doctor, catching him up sharply. "You wish to
+apologise for your extraordinary behaviour in the railway carriage?
+Well, though you made some amends afterwards, an apology is very right
+and proper. Say no more about it."
+
+"It's not that," said Paul hopelessly; "I wanted to explain----"
+
+"Your conduct with regard to the bread and butter? If it was simply
+want of appetite, of course there is no more to be said. But I have an
+abhorrence of----"
+
+"Quite right," said Paul, recovering himself; "I hate waste myself, but
+there is something I must tell you before----"
+
+"If it concerns that disgraceful conduct of Coker's," said the Doctor,
+"you may speak on. I shall have to consider his case to-morrow. Has any
+similar case of disobedience come to your knowledge? If so, I expect you
+to disclose it to me. You have found some other boy with sweetmeats in
+his possession?"
+
+"Good Heavens, sir!" said Mr. Bultitude, losing his temper; "I haven't
+been searching the whole school for sweetmeats! I have other things to
+occupy my mind, sir. And, once for all, I demand to be heard! Dr.
+Grimstone, there are, ahem, domestic secrets that can only be alluded to
+in the strictest privacy. I see that one of your assistants is writing
+at his table there. Cannot we go where there will be less risk of
+interruption? You have a study, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the Doctor with terrible grimness, "I have a study--and
+I have a cane. I can convince you of both facts, if you wish it. If you
+insult me again by this brazen buffoonery, I will! Be off to your
+dormitory, sir, before you provoke me to punish you. Not another word!
+Go!"
+
+And, incredible as it may appear to all who have never been in his
+position, Mr. Bultitude went. It was almost an abdication, it was
+treachery to his true self; he knew the vital importance of firmness at
+this crisis. But nevertheless his courage gave way all at once, and he
+crawled up the bare, uncarpeted stairs without any further protest!
+
+"Good night, Master Bultitude," said a housemaid, meeting him on the
+staircase: "you know your bedroom. No. 6, with Master Coker, and Master
+Biddlecomb, and the others."
+
+Paul dragged himself up to the highest landing-stage, and, with a sick
+foreboding, opened the door on which the figure 6 was painted.
+
+It was a large bare plainly papered room, with several curtainless
+windows, the blinds of which were drawn, a long deal stand of wash-hand
+basins, and eight little white beds against the walls.
+
+A fire was lighted in consideration of its being the first night, and
+several boys were talking excitedly round it. "Here he is! He's stayed
+behind to tell more tales!" they cried, as Paul entered nervously. "Now
+then, Bultitude, what have you got to say for yourself?"
+
+Mr. Bultitude felt powerless among all these young wolves. He had no
+knowledge of boys, nor any notion of acquiring an influence over them,
+having hitherto regarded them as necessary nuisances, to be rather
+repressed than studied. He could only stare hopelessly at them in
+fascinated silence.
+
+"You see he hasn't a word to say for himself!" said Tipping. "Look here,
+what shall we do to him? Shall we try tossing in a blanket? I've never
+tried tossing a fellow in one myself, but as long as you don't jerk him
+too high, or out on the floor, you can't hurt him dangerously."
+
+"No, I say, don't toss him in a blanket," pleaded Biddlecomb, and Paul
+felt gratefully towards him at the words; "anyone coming up would see
+what was going on. I vote we flick at him with towels."
+
+"Now just you understand this clearly," said Paul, thinking, not without
+reason, that this course of treatment was likely to prove painful; "I
+refuse to allow myself to be flicked at with towels. No one has ever
+offered me such an indignity in my life! Oh, do you think I've not
+enough on my mind as it is without the barbarities of a set of young
+brutes like you!"
+
+As this appeal was not of a very conciliatory nature they at once
+proceeded to form a circle round him and, judging their distance with
+great accuracy, jerked towels at his person with such diabolical
+dexterity that the wet corners cut him at all points like so many fine
+thongs, and he span round like a top, dancing, and, I regret to add,
+swearing violently, at the pain.
+
+When he was worked up almost to frenzy pitch Biddlecomb's sweet low
+voice cried, "_Cave_, you fellows! I hear Grim. Let him undress now, and
+we can lam it into him afterwards with slippers!"
+
+At this they all cast off such of their clothes as they still wore, and
+slipped modestly and peacefully into bed, just as Dr. Grimstone's large
+form appeared at the doorway. Mr. Bultitude made as much haste as he
+could, but did not escape a reprimand from the Doctor as he turned the
+gas out; and as soon as he had made the round of the bedrooms and his
+heavy tread had died away down the staircase, the light-hearted
+occupants of No. 6 "lammed" it into the unhappy Paul until they were
+tired of the exercise and left him to creep sore and trembling with rage
+and fright into his cold hard bed.
+
+Then, after a little desultory conversation, one by one sank from
+incoherence into silence, and rose from silence to snores, while Paul
+alone lay sleepless, listening to the creeping tinkle of the dying fire,
+drearily wondering at the marvellous change that had come over his life
+and fortunes in the last few hours, and feverishly composing impassioned
+appeals which were to touch the Doctor's heart and convince his reason.
+
+
+
+
+5. _Disgrace_
+
+     "Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace
+     The day's disasters in his morning's face."
+
+
+Sleep came at last, and brought too brief forgetfulness. It was not till
+the dull grey light of morning was glimmering through the blinds that
+Mr. Bultitude awoke to his troubles.
+
+The room was bitterly cold, and he remained shivering in bed for some
+time, trying to realise and prepare for his altered condition.
+
+He was the only one awake. Now and then from one of the beds around a
+boy would be heard talking in his sleep, or laughing with holiday
+glee--at the drolleries possibly of some pantomime performed for his
+amusement in the Theatre Royal, Dreamland--a theatre mercifully open to
+all boys free of charge, long after the holidays have come to an end,
+the only drawbacks being a certain want of definiteness in the plot and
+scenery, and a liability to premature termination of the vaguely
+splendid performance.
+
+Once Kiffin, the new boy, awoke with a start and a heavy sigh, but he
+cried himself to sleep again almost immediately.
+
+Mr. Bultitude could bear being inactive no longer. He thought, if he got
+up, he might perhaps see his misfortunes shrink to a more bearable, less
+hopeless scale, and besides, he judged it prudent, for many reasons, to
+finish his toilet before the sleepers began theirs.
+
+Very stealthily, dreading to rouse anyone and attract attention in the
+form of slippers, he broke the clinking crust of ice in one of the
+basins and, shuddering from the shock, bathed face and hands in the
+biting water. He parted his hair, which from natural causes he had been
+unable to accomplish for some years, and now found an awkwardness in
+accomplishing neatly, and then stole down the dark creaking staircase
+just as the butler in the hall began to swing the big railway bell which
+was to din stern reality into the sleepy ears above.
+
+In the schoolroom a yawning maid had just lighted the fire, from which
+turbid yellow clouds of sulphurous smoke were pouring into the room,
+making it necessary to open the windows and lower a temperature that was
+far from high originally.
+
+Paul stood shaking by the mantelpiece in a very bad temper for some
+minutes. If the Doctor had come in then, he might have been spurred by
+indignation to utter his woes, and even claim and obtain his freedom.
+But that was not to be.
+
+The door did open presently, however, and a little girl appeared; a very
+charming little maiden indeed, in a neat dark costume relieved by a
+fresh white pinafore. She had deep grey eyes and glossy brown hair
+falling over her forehead and down her back in soft straight masses, her
+face was oval rather than round, and slightly serious, though her smile
+was pretty and gay.
+
+She ran towards Mr. Bultitude with a glad little cry, stretching out her
+hands.
+
+"Dick! dear Dick!" she said, "I am so glad! I thought you'd be down
+early; as you used to be. I wanted to sit up last night so very much,
+but mamma wouldn't let me."
+
+Some might have been very glad to be welcomed in this way, even
+vicariously. As for boys, it must have been a very bad school indeed
+which Dulcie Grimstone could not have robbed of much of its terrors.
+
+Mr. Bultitude, however, as has been explained, did not appreciate
+children--being a family man himself. When one sees their petty
+squabbles and jealousies, hears their cruel din, and pays for their
+monkeyish mischief, perhaps the daintiest children seem but an earthly
+order of cherubim. He was only annoyed and embarrassed by the
+interruption, though he endured it.
+
+"Ah," he said with condescension, "and so you're Dr. Grimstone's little
+girl, are you? How d'ye do, my dear?"
+
+Dulcie stopped and looked at him, with drawn eyebrows and her soft mouth
+quivering. "What makes you talk like that?" she asked.
+
+"How ought I to talk?" said Paul.
+
+"You didn't talk like that before," said Dulcie plaintively. "I--I
+thought perhaps you'd be glad to see me. You were once. And--and--when
+you went away last you asked me to--to--kiss you, and I did, and I wish
+I hadn't. And you gave me a ginger lozenge with your name written on it
+in lead pencil, and I gave you a cough-lozenge with mine; and you said
+it was to show that you were my sweetheart and I was yours. But I
+suppose you've eaten the one I gave you?"
+
+"This is dreadful!" thought Mr. Bultitude. "What shall I do now? The
+child evidently takes me for that little scoundrel Dick." "Tut-tut," he
+said aloud, "little girls like you are too young for such nonsense. You
+ought to think about--about your dolls, and--ah, your needlework--not
+sweethearts!"
+
+"You say that now!" cried Dulcie indignantly. "You know I'm not a little
+girl, and I've left off playing with dolls--almost. Oh, Dick, don't be
+unkind! You haven't changed your mind, have you?"
+
+"No," said Paul dismally, "I've changed my body. But there--you wouldn't
+understand. Run away and play somewhere, like a good little girl!"
+
+"I know what it is!" said Dulcie. "You've been out to parties, or
+somewhere, and seen some horrid girl ... you like ... better than me!"
+
+"This is absurd, you know," said Mr. Bultitude. "You can't think how
+absurd it is! Now, you'll be a very foolish little girl if you cry.
+You're making a mistake. I'm not the Dick you used to know!"
+
+"I know you're not!" sobbed Dulcie. "But oh, Dick, you will be. Promise
+me you will be!" And, to Paul's horror and alarm, she put her arms round
+his neck, and cried piteously on his shoulder.
+
+"Good gracious!" he cried, "let me go. Don't do that, for Heaven's sake!
+I can hear some one coming. If it's your father, it will ruin me!"
+
+But it was too late. Over her head he saw Tipping enter the room, and
+stand glaring at them menacingly. Dulcie saw him too, and sprang away to
+the window, where she tried to dry her eyes unperceived, and then ran
+past him with a hurried good morning, and escaped, leaving Paul alone
+with the formidable Tipping.
+
+There was an awkward silence at first, which Tipping broke by saying,
+"What have you been saying to make her cry, eh?"
+
+"What's that to you, sir?" said Paul, trying to keep his voice firm.
+
+"Why, it's just this to me," said Tipping, "that I've been spoons on
+Dulcie myself ever since I came, and she never would have a word to say
+to me. I never could think why, and now it turns out to be you! What do
+you mean by cutting me out like this? I heard her call you 'dear Dick.'"
+
+"Don't be an ass, sir!" said Paul angrily.
+
+"Now, none of your cheek, you know!" said Tipping, edging up against him
+with a dangerous inclination first to jostle aggressively, and then maul
+his unconscious rival. "You just mind what I say. I'm not going to have
+Dulcie bothered by a young beggar in the second form; she deserves
+something better than that, anyway, and I tell you that if I once catch
+you talking to her in the way you did just now, or if I hear of her
+favouring you more than any other fellows, I'll give you the very
+juiciest licking you ever had in your life. So look out!"
+
+At this point the other boys began to straggle down and cluster round
+the fire, and Paul withdrew from the aggrieved Tipping, and looked
+drearily out of the window on the hard road and bare black trees
+outside.
+
+"I _must_ tell the Doctor how I'm situated!" he thought; "and yet
+directly I open my mouth, he threatens to flog me. If I stay here, that
+little girl will be always trying to speak to me, and I shall be
+thrashed by the red-haired boy. If I could only manage to speak out
+after breakfast!"
+
+It was not without satisfaction that he remembered that he paid extra
+for "meat for breakfast" in his son's school-bills, for he was beginning
+to look forward to meal-time with the natural desire of a young and
+healthy frame for nourishment.
+
+At eight o'clock the Doctor came in and announced breakfast, leading
+the way himself to what was known in the school as the "Dining Hall." It
+scarcely deserved so high-sounding a name perhaps, being a long low room
+on the basement floor, with a big fireplace, fitted with taps, and
+baking ovens, which provoked the suspicion that it had begun existence
+as a back kitchen.
+
+The Doctor took his seat alone at a cross table forming the top of one
+of the two rows of tables, set with white cups and saucers, and plates
+well heaped with the square pieces of bread and butter, while Mrs.
+Grimstone with Dulcie and Tom, sat at the foot of the same row, behind
+two ugly urns of dull block-tin.
+
+But when Mr. Bultitude, more hungry than he had felt for years, found
+his place at one of the tables, he was disgusted to find upon his
+plate--not, as he had confidently expected, a couple of plump poached
+eggs, with their appetising contrast of ruddy gold and silvery white,
+not a crisp and crackling sausage or a mottled omelette, not even the
+homely but luscious rasher, but a brace of chill forbidding sardines,
+lying grim and headless in bilious green oil!
+
+It was a fish he positively loathed, nor could it be reasonably expected
+that the confidence necessary for a declaration was to be forgotten by
+so sepulchral a form of nutriment.
+
+He roused himself, however, to swallow them, together with some of the
+thin and tin-flavoured coffee. But the meal as a whole was so different
+from the plentiful well-cooked breakfasts he had sat down before for
+years as a matter of course, that it made him feel extremely unwell.
+
+No talking was allowed during the meal. The Doctor now and then looked
+up from his dish of kidneys on toast (at which envious glances were
+occasionally cast) to address a casual remark to his wife across the
+long row of plates and cups, but, as a rule, the dull champing sound of
+boys solemnly and steadily munching was all that broke the silence.
+
+Towards the end, when the plates had been generally cleared, and the
+boys sat staring with the stolidity of repletion at one another across
+the tables, the junior house-master, Mr. Tinkler, made his appearance.
+He had lately left a small and little-known college at Cambridge, where
+he had contrived, contrary to expectation, to evade the uncoveted wooden
+spoon by just two places, which enabled the Doctor to announce himself
+as being "assisted by a graduate of the University of Cambridge who has
+taken honours in the Mathematical Tripos."
+
+For the rest, he was a small insignificant-looking person, who evidently
+disliked the notice his late appearance drew upon himself.
+
+"Mr. Tinkler," said the Doctor in his most awful voice, "if it were my
+custom to rebuke my assistants before the school (which it is not), I
+should feel forced to remind you that this tardiness in rising is a bad
+beginning of the day's work, and sets a bad example to those under your
+authority."
+
+Mr. Tinkler made no articulate reply, but sat down with a crushed
+expression, and set himself to devour bread and butter with an energy
+which he hoped would divert attention from his blushes; and almost
+immediately the Doctor looked at his watch and said, "Now, boys, you
+have half-an-hour for 'chevy'--make the most of it. When you come in I
+shall have something to say to you all. Don't rise, Mr. Tinkler, unless
+you have quite finished."
+
+Mr. Tinkler preferred leaving his breakfast to continuing it under the
+trying ordeal of his principal's inspection. So, hastily murmuring that
+he had "made an excellent breakfast"--which he had not--he followed the
+others, who clattered upstairs to put on their boots and go out into the
+playground.
+
+It was noticeable that they did so without much of the enthusiasm which
+might be looked for from boys dismissed to their sports. But the fact
+was that this particular sport, "chevy," commonly known as "prisoners'
+base," was by no means a popular amusement, being of a somewhat
+monotonous nature, and calling for no special skill on the part of the
+performers. Besides this, moreover, it had the additional disadvantage
+(which would have been fatal to a far more fascinating diversion) of
+being in a great measure compulsory.
+
+Football and cricket were of course reserved for half-holidays, and
+played in a neighbouring field rented by the Doctor, and in the
+playground he restricted them to "chevy," which he considered, rightly
+enough, both gave them abundant exercise and kept them out of mischief.
+Accordingly, if any adventurous spirit started a rival game, it was
+usually abandoned sooner or later in deference to suggestions from
+headquarters which were not intended to be disregarded.
+
+This, though undoubtedly well meant, did not serve to stimulate their
+affection for the game, an excellent one in moderation, but one which,
+if played "by special desire" two or three hours a day for weeks in
+succession is apt to lose its freshness and pall upon the youthful mind.
+
+It was a bright morning. There had been a hard frost during the night,
+and the ground was hard, sparkling with rime and ringing to the foot.
+The air was keen and invigorating, and the bare black branches of the
+trees were outlined clear and sharp against the pale pure blue of the
+morning sky.
+
+Just the weather for a long day's skating over the dark green glassy
+ice, or a bracing tramp on country roads into cheery red-roofed market
+towns. But now it had lost all power to charm. It was almost depressing
+by the contrast between the boundless liberty suggested, and the dull
+reality of a round of uninteresting work which was all it heralded.
+
+So they lounged listlessly about, gravitating finally towards the end of
+the playground, where a deep furrow marked the line of the base. There
+was no attempt to play. They stood gossiping in knots, grumbling and
+stamping their feet to keep warm. By-and-by the day-boarders began to
+drop in one by one, several of them, from a want of tact in adapting
+themselves to the general tone, earning decided unpopularity at once by
+a cheerful briskness and an undisguised satisfaction at having something
+definite to do once more.
+
+If Mr. Tinkler, who had joined one of the groups, had not particularly
+distinguished himself at breakfast, he made ample amends now, and by the
+grandeur and manliness of his conversation succeeded in producing a
+decided impression upon some of the smaller boys.
+
+"The bore of a place like this, you know," he was saying with
+magnificent disdain, "is that a fellow can't have his pipe of a morning.
+I've been used to it, and so, of course, I miss it. If I chose to insist
+on it Grimstone couldn't say anything; but with a lot of young fellows
+like you, you see, it wouldn't look well!"
+
+It could hardly have looked worse than little Mr. Tinkler himself would
+have done, if he had ventured upon more than the mildest of cigarettes,
+for he was a poor but pertinacious smoker, and his love for the weed was
+chastened by wholesome fear. There, however, he was in no danger of
+betraying this, and indeed it would have been injudicious to admit it.
+
+"Talking of smoking," he went on, with a soft chuckle, as at
+recollections of unspeakable devilry, "did I ever tell you chaps of a
+tremendous scrape I very nearly got into up at the 'Varsity? Well, you
+must know there's a foolish rule there against smoking in the streets.
+Not that that made any difference to some of us! Well, one night about
+nine, I was strolling down Petty Cury with two other men, smoking
+(Bosher of "Pothouse," and Peebles of "Cats," both pretty well known up
+there for general rowdiness, you know--great pals of mine!) and, just as
+we turned the corner, who should we see coming straight down on us but a
+Proctor with his bull-dogs (not dogs, you know, but the strongest 'gyps'
+in college). Bosher said, 'Let's cut it!' and he and Peebles bolted.
+(They were neither of them funks, of course, but they lost their heads.)
+I went calmly on, smoking my cigar as if nothing was the matter. That
+put the Proctor in a bait, I can tell you! He came fuming up to me.
+'What do you mean, sir,' says he, quite pale with anger (he was a great
+bull-headed fellow, one of the strongest dons of his year, that's why
+they made him a Proctor)--'what do you mean by breaking the University
+Statutes in this way?' 'It _is_ a fine evening,' said I (I was
+determined to keep cool). 'Do you mean to insult me?' said he. 'No, old
+boy,' said I, 'I don't; have a cigar?' He couldn't stand that, so he
+called up his bull-dogs. 'I give him in charge!' he screamed out. 'I'll
+have him sent down!' 'I'll send you down first,' said I, and I just gave
+him a push--I never meant to hurt the fellow--and over he went. I rolled
+over a bull-dog to keep him company, and, as the other fellow didn't
+want any more and stood aside to let me pass, I finished my stroll and
+my cigar."
+
+"Was the Proctor hurt, sir?" inquired a small boy with great respect.
+
+"More frightened than hurt, I always said," said Mr. Tinkler lightly,
+"but somehow he never would proctorise any more--it spoilt his nerve. He
+was a good deal chaffed about it, but of course no one ever knew I'd had
+anything to do with it!"
+
+With such tales of Homeric exploit did Mr. Tinkler inculcate a spirit of
+discipline and respect for authority. But although he had indeed once
+encountered a Proctor, and at night, he did himself great injustice by
+this version of the proceedings, which were, as a matter of fact, of a
+most peaceable and law-abiding character, and though followed by a
+pecuniary transaction the next day in which six-and-eightpence changed
+pockets, the Proctors continued their duties much as before, while Mr.
+Tinkler's feelings towards them, which had ever been reverential in the
+extreme, were, if anything, intensified by the experience.
+
+Upon this incident, however, he had gradually embroidered the above
+exciting episode, until he grew to believe at intervals that he really
+had been a devil of a fellow in his time, which, to do him justice, was
+far from the case.
+
+He might have gone on still further to calumniate himself, and excite
+general envy and admiration thereby, if at that moment Dr. Grimstone had
+not happened to appear at the head of the cast-iron staircase that led
+down into the playground; whereupon Mr. Tinkler affected to be intensely
+interested in the game, which, as a kind of involuntary compliment to
+the principal, about this time was galvanised into a sort of vigour.
+
+But the Doctor, after frowning gloomily down upon them for a minute or
+so, suddenly called "All in!"
+
+He had several ways of saying this. Sometimes he would do so in a
+half-regretful tone, as one himself obeying the call of duty; sometimes
+he would appear for some minutes, a benignant spectator, upon the
+balcony, and summon them to work at length with a lenient pity--for he
+was by no means a hard-hearted man; but at other times he would step
+sharply and suddenly out and shout the word of command with a grim and
+ominous expression. On these last occasions the school generally
+prepared itself for a rather formidable quarter of an hour.
+
+This was the case now and, as a further portent, Mr. Blinkhorn was
+observed to come down and, after a few words with Mr. Tinkler, withdrew
+with him through the school gate.
+
+"He's sent them out for a walk," said Siggers, who was skilled in omens.
+"It's a row!"
+
+Rows at Crichton House, although periodical, and therefore things to be
+forearmed against in some degree, were serious matters. Dr. Grimstone
+was a quick-tempered man, with a copious flow of words and a taste for
+indulging it. He was also strongly prejudiced against many breaches of
+discipline which others might have considered trifling, and whenever he
+had discovered any such breach he could not rest until by all the means
+in his power he had ascertained exactly how many were implicated in the
+offence, and to what extent.
+
+His usual method of doing this was to summon the school formally
+together and deliver an elaborate harangue, during which he worked
+himself by degrees into such a state of indignation that his hearers
+were most of them terrified out of their senses, and very often
+conscience-stricken offenders would give themselves up as hopelessly
+detected and reveal transgressions altogether unsuspected by him--much
+as a net brings up fish of all degrees of merit, or as heavy firing will
+raise drowned corpses to the surface.
+
+Paul naturally knew nothing of this peculiarity; he had kept himself as
+usual apart from the others, and was now trying to compel himself to
+brave the terrors of an avowal at the first opportunity. He followed the
+others up the steps with an uneasy wonder whether, after all, he would
+not find himself ignominiously set down to learn lessons.
+
+The boys filed into the schoolroom in solemn silence, and took their
+seats at the desks and along the brown tables. The Doctor was there
+before them, standing up with one elbow resting upon a reading-stand,
+and with a suggestion of coming thunder in his look and attitude that,
+combined with the oppressive silence, made some of the boys feel
+positively ill.
+
+Presently he began. He said that, since they had come together again, he
+had made a discovery concerning one among them which, astounding as it
+was to him, and painful as he felt it to be compelled to make it known,
+concerned them all to be aware of.
+
+Mr. Bultitude could scarcely believe his ears. His secret was
+discovered, then; the injury done him by Dick about to be repaired, and
+open restitution and apology offered him! It was not perhaps precisely
+delicate on the Doctor's part to make so public an affair of it, but so
+long as it ended well, he could afford to overlook that.
+
+So he settled himself comfortably on a form with his back against a
+desk and his legs crossed, his expression indicating plainly that he
+knew what was coming and, on the whole, approved of it.
+
+"Ever since I have devoted myself to the cause of tuition," continued
+the Doctor, "I have made it my object to provide boys under my roof with
+fare so abundant and so palatable that they should have no excuse for
+obtaining extraneous luxuries. I have presided myself at their meals, I
+have superintended their very sports with a fatherly eye----"
+
+Here he paused, and fixed one or two of those nearest him with the
+fatherly eye in such a manner that they writhed with confusion.
+
+"He's wandering from the point," thought Paul, a little puzzled.
+
+"I have done all this on one understanding--that the robustness of your
+constitutions, acquired by the plain, simple, but abundant regimen of my
+table, shall not be tampered with by the indulgence in any of the
+pampering products of confectionery. They are absolutely and
+unconditionally prohibited--as every boy who hears me now knows
+perfectly well!
+
+"And yet" (here he began gradually to relax his self-restraint and lash
+himself into a frenzy of indignation), "what do I find? There are some
+natures so essentially base, so incapable of being affected by kindness,
+so dead to honour and generosity, that they will not scruple to conspire
+or set themselves individually to escape and baffle the wise precautions
+undertaken for their benefit. I will not name the dastards at
+present--they themselves can look into their hearts and see their guilt
+reflected there----"
+
+At this every boy, beginning to see the tendency of his denunciations,
+tried hard to assume an air of conscious innocence and grieved interest,
+the majority achieving conspicuous failure.
+
+"I do not like to think," said Dr. Grimstone, "that the evil has a
+wider existence than I yet know of. It may be so; nothing will surprise
+me now. There may be some before me trembling with the consciousness of
+secret guilt. If so, let those boys make the only reparation in their
+power, and give themselves up in an honourable and straightforward
+manner!"
+
+To this invitation, which indeed resembled that of the duck-destroying
+Mrs. Bond, no one made any response. They had grown too wary, and now
+preferred to play a waiting game.
+
+"Then let the being--for I will not call him boy--who is known to me,
+step forth and confess his fault publicly, and sue for pardon!"
+thundered the Doctor, now warmed to his theme.
+
+But the being declined from a feeling of modesty, and a faint hope that
+somebody else might, after all, be the person aimed at.
+
+"Then I name him!" stormed Dr. Grimstone; "Cornelius Coggs--stand up!"
+
+Coggs half rose in a limp manner, whimpering feebly, "Me, sir? Oh,
+please sir--no, not me, sir!"
+
+"Yes, you, sir, and let your companions regard you with the contempt and
+abhorrence you so richly merit!" Here, needless to say, the whole school
+glared at poor Coggs with as much virtuous indignation as they could
+summon up at such short notice; for contempt is very infectious when
+communicated from high quarters.
+
+"So, Coggs," said the Doctor, with a slow and withering scorn, "so you
+thought to defy me; to smuggle compressed illness and concentrated
+unhealthiness into this school with impunity? You flattered yourself
+that after I had once confiscated your contraband poisons, you would
+hear no more of it! You deceived yourself, sir! I tell you, once for
+all, that I will not allow you to contaminate your innocent schoolmates
+with your gifts of surreptitious sweetmeats; they shall not be perverted
+with your pernicious peppermints, sir; you shall not deprave them by
+jujubes, or enervate them with Turkish Delight! I will not expose
+myself or them to the inroads of disease invited here by a hypocritical
+inmate of my walls. The traitor shall have his reward!"
+
+All of which simply meant that the Doctor, having once had a small boy
+taken seriously ill from the effects of overeating himself, was
+naturally anxious to avoid such an inconvenience for the future. "Thanks
+to the fearless honesty of a youth," continued the Doctor, "who, in an
+eccentric manner, certainly, but with, I do not doubt, the best of
+motives, opened my eyes to the fell evil, I am enabled to cope with it
+at its birth. Richard Bultitude, I take this occasion of publicly
+thanking and commending you; your conduct was noble!"
+
+Mr. Bultitude was too angry and disappointed to speak. He had thought
+his path was going to be made smooth, and now all this ridiculous fuss
+was being made about a few peppermint lozenges. He wished he had never
+mentioned them. It was not the last time he breathed that wish. "As for
+you, Coggs," said the Doctor, suddenly producing a lithe brown cane, "I
+shall make a public example of you."
+
+Coggs stared idiotically and protested, but after a short and painful
+scene, was sent off up to his bedroom, yelping like a kicked puppy.
+
+"One word more," said the Doctor, now almost calm again. "I know that
+you all think with me in your horror of the treachery I have just
+exposed. I know that you would scorn to participate in it." (A thrill
+and murmur, expressive of intense horror and scorn, went round the
+benches.) "You are anxious to prove that you do so beyond a doubt."
+(Again a murmur of assent.) "I give you all that opportunity. I have
+implicit trust and confidence in you--let every boarder go down into the
+box-room and fetch up his playbox, just as it is, and open it here
+before me."
+
+There was a general fall of jaws at this very unexpected conclusion; but
+contriving to overcome their dismay, they went outside and down through
+the playground into the box-room, Paul amongst the rest, and amidst
+universal confusion, everyone opened his box, and, with a consideration
+especially laudable in heedless boyhood, thoughtfully and carefully
+removed from it all such dainties as might be calculated to shock or
+pain their preceptor.
+
+Mr. Bultitude found a key which was labelled "playbox," and began to
+open a box which bore Dick's initials cut upon the lid; without any
+apprehensions, however, for he had given too strict orders to his
+daughter, to fear that any luxuries would be concealed there.
+
+But no sooner had he raised the lid than he staggered back with disgust.
+It was crammed with cakes, butterscotch, hardbake, pots of jam, and even
+a bottle of ginger wine--enough to compromise a chameleon!
+
+He set himself to pitch them all out as soon as possible with feverish
+haste, but Tipping was too quick for him. "Hallo!" he cried: "oh, I say,
+you fellows, come here! Just look at this! Here's this impudent young
+beggar, who sneaked of poor old Coggs for sucking jujubes, and very
+nearly got us all into a jolly good row, with his own box full all the
+time; butterscotch, if you please, and jam, and ginger wine! You'll just
+put 'em all back again, will you, you young humbug!"
+
+"Do you use those words to me, sir?" said Paul angrily, for he did not
+like to be called a humbug.
+
+"Yes, sir, please, sir," jeered Tipping; "I did venture to take such a
+liberty, sir."
+
+"Then it was like your infernal impudence," growled Paul. "You be kind
+enough to leave my affairs alone. Upon my word, what boys are coming to
+nowadays!"
+
+"Are you going to put that tuck back?" said Tipping impatiently.
+
+"No, sir, I'm not. Don't interfere with what you're not expected to
+understand!"
+
+"Well, if you won't," said Tipping easily, "I suppose we must.
+Biddlecomb, kindly knock him down, and sit on his head while I fill his
+playbox for him."
+
+This was neatly and quickly done. Biddlecomb tripped Mr. Bultitude up,
+and sat firmly on him, while Tipping carefully replaced the good things
+in Dick's box, after which he locked it, and courteously returned the
+key. "As the box is heavy," he said, with a wicked wink, "I'll carry it
+up for you myself," which he did, Paul following, more dead than alive,
+and too shaken even to expostulate.
+
+"Bultitude's box was rather too heavy for him, sir," he explained as he
+came in; and Dr. Grimstone, who had quite recovered his equanimity,
+smiled indulgently, and remarked that he "liked to see the strong
+assisting the weak."
+
+All the boxes had by this time been brought up, and were ranged upon the
+tables, while the Doctor went round, making an almost formal inspection,
+like a Custom House officer searching compatriots, and becoming milder
+and milder as box after box opened to reveal a fair and innocent
+interior.
+
+Paul's turn was coming very near, and his heart seemed to shrivel like a
+burst bladder. He fumbled with his key, and tried hard to lose it. It
+was terrible to have oneself to apply the match which is to blow one to
+the winds. If--if--the idea was almost too horrible--but if he, a
+blameless and respectable city merchant, were actually to find himself
+served like the miserable Coggs!
+
+At last the Doctor actually stood by him. "Well, my boy," he said, not
+unkindly, "I'm not afraid of anything wrong here, at any rate."
+
+Mr. Bultitude, who had the best reasons for not sharing his confidence,
+made some inarticulate sounds, and pretended to have a difficulty in
+turning the key.
+
+"Eh? Come, open the box," said the Doctor with an altered manner. "What
+are you fumbling at it for in this--this highly suspicious manner? I'll
+open it myself."
+
+He took the key and opened the lid, when the cakes and wine stood
+revealed in all their damning profusion. The Doctor stepped back
+dramatically. "Hardbake!" he gasped; "wine, pots of strawberry jam! Oh,
+Bultitude, this is a revelation indeed! So I have nourished one more
+viper in my bosom, have I? A crawling reptile which curries favour by
+denouncing the very crime it conceals in its playbox! Bultitude, I was
+not prepared for such duplicity as this!"
+
+"I--I swear I never put them in!" protested the unhappy Paul. "I--I
+never touch such things: they would bring on my gout in half-an-hour.
+It's ridiculous to punish me. I never knew they were there!"
+
+"Then why were you so anxious to avoid opening the box?" rejoined the
+Doctor. "No, sir, you're too ingenious; your guilt is clear. Go to your
+dormitory, and wait there till I come to you!"
+
+Paul went upstairs, feeling utterly abandoned and helpless. Though a
+word as to his real character might have saved him, he could not have
+said it, and, worse still, knew now that he could not.
+
+"I shall be caned," he told himself, and the thought nearly drove him
+mad. "I know I shall be caned! What on earth shall I do?"
+
+He opened the door of his bedroom. Coggs was rocking and moaning on his
+bed in one corner of the room, but looked up with red furious eyes as
+Paul came in.
+
+"What do you want up here?" he said savagely. "Go away, can't you!"
+
+"I wish I _could_ go away," said Paul dolefully; "but I'm--hum--I'm sent
+up here too," he explained, with some natural embarrassment.
+
+"What!" cried Coggs, slipping off his bed and staring wildly: "you don't
+mean to say you're going to catch it too?"
+
+"I've--ah--every reason to fear," said Mr. Bultitude stiffly, "that I am
+indeed going to 'catch it,' as you call it."
+
+"Hooray!" shouted Coggs hysterically: "I don't care now. And I'll have
+some revenge on my own account as well. I don't mind an extra licking,
+and you're in for one as it is. Will you stand up to me or not?"
+
+"I don't understand you," said Paul. "Don't come so near. Keep off, you
+young demon, will you!" he cried presently, as Coggs, exasperated by all
+his wrongs, was rushing at him with an evidently hostile intent. "There,
+don't be annoyed, my good boy," he pleaded, catching up a chair as a
+bulwark. "It was a misunderstanding. I wish you no harm. There, my dear
+young friend! Don't!"
+
+The "dear young friend" was grappling with him and attempting to wrest
+the chair away by brute force. "When I get at you," he said, his hot
+breath hissing through the chair rungs, "I'll jolly well teach you to
+sneak of me!"
+
+"Murder!" Paul gasped, feeling his hold on the chair relaxing. "Unless
+help comes this young fiend will have my blood!"
+
+They were revolving slowly round the chair, watching each other's eyes
+like gladiators, when Paul noticed a sudden blankness and fixity in his
+antagonist's expression, and, looking round, saw Dr. Grimstone's awful
+form framed in the doorway, and gave himself up for lost.
+
+
+
+
+6. _Learning and Accomplishments_
+
+     "I subscribe to Lucian: 'tis an elegant thing which cheareth up the
+     mind, exerciseth the body, delights the spectators, which teacheth
+     many comely gestures, equally affecting the ears, eyes and soul
+     itself."--BURTON, _on Dancing_.
+
+
+"What is this?" asked Dr. Grimstone in his most blood-curdling tone,
+after a most impressive pause at the dormitory door.
+
+Mr. Bultitude held his tongue, but kept fast hold of his chair, which he
+held before him as a defence against either party, while Coggs remained
+motionless in the centre of the room, with crooked knees and hands
+dangling impotently.
+
+"Will one of you be good enough to explain how you come to be found
+struggling in this unseemly manner? I sent you up here to meditate on
+your past behaviour."
+
+"I should be most happy to meditate, sir," protested Paul, lowering his
+chair on discovering that there was no immediate danger, "if that--that
+bloodthirsty young ruffian there would allow me to do so. I am going
+about in bodily fear of him, Dr. Grimstone. I want him bound over to
+keep the peace. I decline to be left alone with him--he's not safe!"
+
+"Is that so, Coggs? Are you mean and base enough to take this cowardly
+revenge on a boy who has had the moral courage to expose your
+deceit--for your ultimate good--a boy who is unable to defend himself
+against you?"
+
+"He can fight when he chooses, sir," said Coggs; "he blacked my eye last
+term, sir!"
+
+"I assure you," said Paul, with the convincing earnestness of truth,
+"that I never blacked anybody's eye in the whole course of my life. I am
+not--ah--a pugnacious man. My age, and--hum--my position, ought to
+protect me from these scandals----"
+
+"You've come back this year, sir," said Dr. Grimstone, "with a very odd
+way of talking of yourself--an exceedingly odd way. Unless I see you
+abandoning it, and behaving like a reasonable boy again, I shall be
+forced to conclude you intend some disrespect and open defiance by it."
+
+"If you would allow me an opportunity of explaining my position, sir,"
+said Paul, "I would undertake to clear your mind directly of such a
+monstrous idea. I am trying to assert my rights, Dr. Grimstone--my
+rights as a citizen, as a householder! This is no place for me, and I
+appeal to you to set me free. If you only knew one tenth----"
+
+"Let us understand one another, Bultitude," interrupted the Doctor.
+"You may think it an excellent joke to talk nonsense to me like this.
+But let me tell you there is a point where a jest becomes an insult.
+I've spared you hitherto out of consideration for the feelings of your
+excellent father, who is so anxious that you should become an object of
+pride and credit to him; but if you dare to treat me to any more of this
+bombast about 'explaining your rights,' you will force me to exercise
+one of mine--the right to inflict corporal punishment, sir--which you
+have just seen in operation upon another."
+
+"Oh!" said Mr. Bultitude faintly, feeling utterly crestfallen--and he
+could say nothing more.
+
+"As for those illicit luxuries in your playbox," continued the Doctor,
+"the fact that you brought the box up as it was is in your favour; and I
+am inclined on reflection to overlook the affair, if you can assure me
+that you were no party to their being put there?"
+
+"On the contrary," said Paul, "I gave the strictest orders that there
+was to be no such useless extravagance. I objected to have the kitchen
+and housekeeper's room ransacked to make a set of rascally boys ill for
+a fortnight at my expense!"
+
+The Doctor stared slightly at this creditable but unnatural view of the
+subject. However, as he could not quarrel with the sentiment, he let the
+manner of expressing it pass unrebuked for the present, and, after
+sentencing Coggs to two days' detention and the copying of innumerable
+French verbs, he sent the ill-matched pair down to the schoolroom to
+join their respective classes.
+
+Paul went resignedly downstairs and into the room, where he found Mr.
+Blinkhorn at the head of one of the long tables, taking a class of about
+a dozen boys.
+
+"Take your Livy and Latin Primer, Bultitude," said Mr. Blinkhorn mildly,
+"and sit down."
+
+Mr. Blinkhorn was a tall angular man, with a long neck and slightly
+drooping head. He had thin wiry brown hair, and a plain face, with
+shortsighted kind brown eyes. In character he was mild and reserved,
+too conscientious to allow himself the luxury of either favourites or
+aversions among the boys, all of whom in his secret soul he probably
+disliked about equally, though he neither said nor did anything to show
+it.
+
+Paul took a book--any book, for he did not know or care to know one from
+another--and sat down at the end furthest from the master, inwardly
+rebelling at having education thus forced upon him at his advanced
+years, but seeing no escape.
+
+"At dinner time," he resolved desperately, "I will insist on speaking
+out, but just now it is simply prudent to humour them."
+
+The rest of the class drew away from him with marked coldness and
+occasionally saluted him (when Mr. Blinkhorn's attention was called
+away) with terms and grimaces which Paul, although he failed thoroughly
+to understand them, felt instinctively were not intended as compliments.
+
+Mr. Blinkhorn's notions of discipline were qualified by a sportsmanlike
+instinct which forbade him to harass a boy already in trouble, as he
+understood young Bultitude had been, and so he forbore from pressing him
+to take any share in the class work.
+
+Mr. Bultitude therefore was saved from any necessity of betraying his
+total ignorance of his author, and sat gloomily on the hard form,
+impatiently watching the minute-hand skulk round the mean dull face of
+the clock above the chimney-piece, while around him one boy after
+another droned out a listless translation of the work before him,
+interrupted by mild corrections and comments from the master.
+
+What a preposterous change from all his ordinary habits! At this very
+time, only twenty-four hours since, he was stepping slowly and
+majestically towards his accustomed omnibus, which was waiting with
+deference for him to overtake it; he was taking his seat, saluted
+respectfully by the conductor and cheerily by his fellow-passengers, as
+a man of recognised mark and position.
+
+Now that omnibus would halt at the corner of Westbourne Terrace in vain,
+and go on its way Bankwards without him. He was many miles away--in the
+very last place where anyone would be likely to look for him, occupying
+the post of "whipping-boy" to his miserable son!
+
+Was ever an inoffensive and respectable gentleman placed in a more false
+and ridiculous position?
+
+If he had only kept his drawer locked, and hidden the abominable Garudâ
+Stone away from Dick's prying eyes; if he had let the moralising alone;
+if Boaler had not been so long fetching that cab, or if he had not
+happened to faint at the critical moment--what an immense difference any
+one of these apparent trifles would have made.
+
+And now what was he to do to get out of this incongruous and distasteful
+place? It was all very well to say that he had only to insist upon a
+hearing from the Doctor, but what if, as he had very grave reason to
+fear, the Doctor should absolutely refuse to listen, should even proceed
+to carry out his horrible threat? Must he remain there till the holidays
+came to release him? Suppose Dick--as he certainly would unless he was
+quite a fool--declined to receive him during the holidays? It was
+absolutely necessary to return home at once; every additional hour he
+passed in imprisonment made it harder to regain his lost self.
+
+Now and then he roused himself from all these gloomy thoughts to observe
+his companions. The boys at the upper end, near Mr. Blinkhorn, were
+fairly attentive, and he noticed one small smug-faced boy about half-way
+up, who, while a class-mate was faltering and blundering over some
+question, would cry "I know, sir. Let me tell him. Ask me, sir!" in a
+restless agony of superior information.
+
+Down by Paul, however, the discipline was relaxed enough, as perhaps
+could only be expected on the first day of term. One wild-eyed
+long-haired boy had brought out a small china figure with which, and the
+assistance of his right hand draped in a pocket handkerchief, and
+wielding a penholder, he was busy enacting a drama based on the lines of
+Punch and Judy, to the breathless amusement of his neighbours.
+
+Mr. Bultitude might have hoped to escape notice by a policy of judicious
+self-effacement, but unhappily his long, blank, uninterested face was
+held by his companions to bear an implied reproach; and being delicately
+sensitive on this point, they kicked his legs viciously, which made him
+extremely glad when dinnertime came, although he felt too faint and
+bilious to be tempted by anything but the lightest and daintiest
+luncheon.
+
+But at dinner he found, with a shudder, that he was expected to swallow
+a thick ragged section of boiled mutton which had been carved and helped
+so long before he sat down to it, that the stagnant gravy was chilled
+and congealed into patches of greasy white. He managed to swallow it
+with many pauses of invincible disgust--only to find it replaced by a
+solid slab of pale brown suet pudding, sparsely bedewed with unctuous
+black treacle.
+
+This, though a plentiful, and by no means unwholesome fare for growing
+boys, was not what he had been accustomed to, and feeling far too heavy
+and unwell after it to venture upon an encounter with the Doctor, he
+wandered slow and melancholy round the bare gravelled playground during
+the half-hour after dinner devoted to the inevitable "chevy," until the
+Doctor appeared at the head of the staircase.
+
+It is always sad for the historian to have to record a departure from
+principle, and I have to confess with shame on Mr. Bultitude's account
+that, feeling the Doctor's eye upon him, and striving to propitiate him,
+he humiliated himself so far as to run about with an elaborate affection
+of zest, and his exertions were rewarded by hearing himself cordially
+encouraged to further efforts.
+
+It cheered and emboldened him. "I've put him in a good temper," he told
+himself; "if I can only keep him in one till the evening, I really think
+I might be able to go up and tell him what a ridiculous mess I've got
+into. Why should I care, after all? At least I've done nothing to be
+ashamed of. It's an accident that might have happened to any man!"
+
+It is a curious and unpleasant thing that, however reassuring and
+convincing the arguments may be with which we succeed in bracing
+ourselves to meet or disregard unpleasantness, the force of those
+arguments seldom or never outlasts the frame of mind in which they are
+composed, and when the unpleasantness is at hand, there we are, just as
+unreasonably alarmed at it as ever.
+
+Mr. Bultitude's confidence faded away almost as soon as he found himself
+in the schoolroom again. He found himself assigned to a class at one end
+of the room, where Mr. Tinkler presently introduced a new rule in
+Algebra to them, in such a manner as to procure for it a lasting
+unpopularity with all those who were not too much engaged in drawing
+duels and railway trains upon their slates to attend.
+
+Although Paul did not draw upon his slate, his utter ignorance of
+Algebra prevented him from being much edified by the cabalistic signs on
+the blackboard, which Mr. Tinkler seemed to chalk up dubiously, and rub
+out again as soon as possible, with an air of being ashamed of them. So
+he tried to nerve himself for the coming ordeal by furtively watching
+and studying the Doctor, who was taking a Xenophon class at the upper
+end of the room, and, being in fairly good humour, was combining
+instruction with amusement in a manner peculiarly his own.
+
+He stopped the construing occasionally to illustrate some word or
+passage by an anecdote; he condescended to enliven the translation here
+and there by a familiar and colloquial paraphrase; he magnanimously
+refrained from pressing any obviously inconvenient questions; and his
+manner generally was marked by a geniality which was additionally
+piquant from its extreme uncertainty.
+
+Mr. Bultitude could not help thinking it a rather ghastly form of
+gaiety, but he hoped it might last.
+
+Presently, however, some one brought him a blue envelope on a tray. He
+read it, and a frown gathered on his face. The boy who was translating
+at the time went on again in his former slipshod manner (which had
+hitherto provoked only jovial criticism and correction) with complete
+self-complacency, but found himself sternly brought to book, and
+burdened by a heavy imposition, before he quite realised that his
+blunders had ceased to amuse.
+
+Then began a season of sore trial and tribulation for the class. The
+Doctor suddenly withdrew the light of his countenance from them, and
+sunshine was succeeded by blackest thunderclouds. The wind was no longer
+tempered to the more closely shorn of the flock; the weakest vessels
+were put on unexpectedly at crucial passages, and, coming hopelessly to
+grief, were denounced as impostors and idlers, till half the class was
+dissolved in tears.
+
+A few of the better grounded stood the fire, like a remnant of the Old
+Guard. With faces pale from alarm, and trembling voices, but perfect
+accuracy, they answered all the Doctor's searching inquiries after the
+paradigms of Greek verbs that seemed irregular to the verge of
+impropriety.
+
+Paul saw it all with renewed misgiving. "If I were there," he thought,
+"I should have been run out and flogged long ago! How angry those stupid
+young idiots are making him! How can I go up and speak to him when he's
+like that? And yet I must. I'm sitting on dynamite as it is. The very
+first time they want me to answer any questions from some of their
+books, I shall be ruined! Why wasn't I better educated when I was a
+boy, or why didn't I make a better use of my opportunities! It will be a
+bitter thing if they thrash me for not knowing as much as Dick.
+Grimstone's coming this way now; it's all over with me!"
+
+The Greek class had managed to repel the enemy, with some loss to
+themselves, and the Doctor now left his place for a moment, and came
+down towards the bench on which Paul sat trembling.
+
+The storm, however, had passed over for the present, and he only said
+with restored calmness, "Who were the boys who learnt dancing last
+term?"
+
+One or two of them said they had done so, and Dr. Grimstone continued:
+"Mr. Burdekin was unable to give you the last lesson of his course last
+term, and has arranged to take you to-day, as he will be in the
+neighbourhood. So be off at once to Mrs. Grimstone and change your
+shoes. Bultitude, you learnt last term, too. Go with the others."
+
+Mr. Bultitude was too overcome by this unexpected attack to contradict
+it, though of course he was quite able to do so; but then, if he had, he
+must have explained all, and he felt strongly that just then was neither
+the time nor the place for particulars.
+
+It would have been wiser perhaps, it would certainly have brought
+matters to a crisis, if he could have forced himself to tell
+everything--the whole truth in all its outrageous improbability--but he
+could not.
+
+Let those who feel inclined to blame him for lack of firmness consider
+how difficult and delicate a business it must almost of necessity be for
+anyone to declare openly, in the teeth of common sense and plain facts,
+that there has been a mistake, and, in point of fact, he is not his own
+son, but his own father.
+
+"I suppose I must go," he thought. "I needn't dance. Haven't danced
+since I was a young man. But I can't afford to offend him just now."
+
+And so he followed the rest into a sort of cloak-room, where the tall
+hats which the boys wore on Sundays were all kept on shelves in white
+bandboxes; and there his hair was brushed, his feet were thrust into
+very shiny patent leather shoes, and a pair of kid gloves was given out
+to him to put on.
+
+The dancing lesson was to be held in the "Dining Hall," from which the
+savour of mutton had not altogether departed. When Paul came in he found
+the floor cleared and the tables and forms piled up on one side of the
+room.
+
+Biddlecomb and Tipping and some of the smaller boys were there already,
+their gloves and shiny shoes giving them a feeling of ceremony and
+constraint which they tried to carry off by an uncouth parody of
+politeness.
+
+Siggers was telling stories of the dances he had been to in town, and
+the fine girls whose step had exactly suited his own, and Tipping was
+leaning gloomily against the wall listening to something Chawner was
+whispering in his ear.
+
+There was a rustle of dresses down the stairs outside, and two thin
+little girls, looking excessively proper and prim, came in with an
+elderly gentlewoman who was their governess and wore a _pince-nez_ to
+impart the necessary suggestion of a superior intellect. They were the
+Miss Mutlows, sisters of one of the day-boarders, and attended the
+course by special favour as friends of Dulcie's, who followed them in
+with a little gleam of shy anticipation in her eyes.
+
+The Miss Mutlows sat stiffly down on a form, one on each side of her
+governess, and all three stared solemnly at the boys, who began to blush
+vividly under the inspection, to unbutton and rebutton their gloves with
+great care, and to shift from leg to leg in an embarrassed manner.
+
+Dulcie soon singled out poor Mr. Bultitude, who, mindful of Tipping's
+warning, was doing his very best to avoid her.
+
+She ran straight to him, laid her hand on his arm and looked into his
+face pleadingly. "Dick," she said, "you're not sulky still, are you?"
+
+Mr. Bultitude had borne a good deal already, and, not being remarkably
+sweet-natured, he shook the little hand away, half petulant and half
+alarmed. "I do wish you wouldn't do this sort of thing in public. You'll
+compromise me, you know!" he said nervously.
+
+Dulcie opened her grey eyes wide, and then a flush came into her cheeks,
+and she made a little disdainful upward movement of her chin.
+
+"You didn't mind it once," she said. "I thought you might want to dance
+with me. You liked to last term. But I'm sure I don't care if you choose
+to be disagreeable. Go and dance with Mary Mutlow if you want to, though
+you did say she danced like a pair of compasses, and I shall tell her
+you said so, too. And you know you're not a good dancer yourself. _Are_
+you going to dance with Mary?"
+
+Paul stamped. "I tell you I never dance," he said. "I can't dance any
+more than a lamp-post. You don't seem an ill-natured little girl, but
+why on earth can't you let me alone?"
+
+Dulcie's eyes flashed. "You're a nasty sulky boy," she said in an angry
+undertone (all the conversation had, of course, been carried on in
+whispers). "I'll never speak to you or look at you again. You're the
+most horrid boy in the school--and the ugliest!"
+
+And she turned proudly away, though anyone who looked might have seen
+the fire in her eyes extinguished as she did so. Perhaps Tipping did see
+it, for he scowled at them from his corner.
+
+There was another sound outside, as of fiddlestrings being twanged by
+the finger, and, as the boys hastily formed up in two lines down the
+centre of the room and the Miss Mutlows and Dulcie prepared themselves
+for the curtsey of state, there came in a little fat man, with
+mutton-chop whiskers and a white face, upon which was written an
+unalterable conviction that his manner and deportment were perfection
+itself.
+
+The two rows of boys bent themselves stiffly from the back, and Mr.
+Burdekin returned the compliment by an inclusive and stately
+inclination.
+
+"Good afternoon, madam. Young ladies, I trust I find you well. (The
+curtsey just a leetle lower, Miss Mutlow--the right foot less drawn
+back. Beautiful! Feet closer at the recovery. Perfect!) Young gentlemen,
+good evening. Take your usual places, please, all of you, for our
+preliminary exercises. Now, the _chassée_ round the room. Will you lead
+off, please, Dummer; the hands just lightly touching the shoulders, the
+head thrown negligently back to balance the figure; the whole deportment
+easy, but not careless. Now, please!"
+
+And, talking all the time with a metrical fluency, he scraped a little
+jig on the violin, while Dummer led off a procession which solemnly
+capered round the room in sundry stages of conscious awkwardness. Mr.
+Bultitude shuffled along somehow after the rest, with rebellion at his
+heart and a deep sense of degradation. "If my clerks were to see me
+now!" he thought.
+
+After some minutes of this, Mr. Burdekin stopped them and directed sets
+to be formed for "The Lancers."
+
+"Bultitude," said Mr. Burdekin, "you will take Miss Mutlow, please."
+
+"Thank you," said Paul, "but--ah--I don't dance."
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense, sir, you are one of my most promising pupils. You
+mustn't tell me that. Not another word! Come, select your partners."
+
+Paul had no option. He was paired off with the tall and rather angular
+young lady mentioned, while Dulcie looked on pouting, and snubbed
+Tipping, who humbly asked for the pleasure of dancing with her, by
+declaring that she meant to dance with Tom.
+
+The dance began to a sort of rhythmical accompaniment by Mr. Burdekin,
+who intoned "Tops advance, retire and cross. Balance at corners. (Very
+nice, Miss Grimstone!) More '_abandon_,' Chawner! Lift the feet more
+from the floor. Not so high as that! Oh, dear me! that last figure over
+again. And slide the feet, oh, slide the feet! (Bultitude, you're
+leaving out all the steps!")
+
+Paul was dragged, unwilling but unresisting, through it all by his
+partner, who jerked and pushed him into his place without a word, being
+apparently under strict orders from the governess not on any account to
+speak to the boys.
+
+After the dance the couples promenaded in a stiff but stately manner
+round the room to a dirge-like march scraped upon the violin, the boys
+taking the parts of ladies jibbing away from their partners in a highly
+unlady-like fashion, and the boy burdened with the companionship of the
+younger Miss Mutlow walking along in a very agony of bashfulness.
+
+"I suppose," thought Paul, as he led the way with Miss Mary Mutlow, "if
+Dick were ever to hear of this, he'd think it _funny_. Oh, if I ever get
+the upper hand of him again----. How much longer, I wonder, shall I have
+to play the fool to this infernal fiddle!"
+
+But, if this was bad, worse was to come.
+
+There was another pause, in which Mr. Burdekin said blandly, "I wonder
+now if we have forgotten our sailor's hornpipe. Perhaps Bultitude will
+prove the contrary. If I remember right, he used to perform it with
+singular correctness. And, let me tell you, there are a great number of
+spurious hornpipe steps in circulation. Come, sir, oblige me by dancing
+it alone!"
+
+This was the final straw. It was not to be supposed for one moment that
+Mr. Bultitude would lower his dignity in such a preposterous manner.
+Besides, he did not know how to dance the hornpipe.
+
+So he said, "I shall do nothing of the sort. I've had quite enough of
+this--ah--tomfoolery!"
+
+"That is a very impolite manner of declining, Bultitude; highly
+discourteous and unpolished. I must insist now--really, as a personal
+matter--upon your going through the sailor's hornpipe. Come, you won't
+make a scene, I'm sure. You'll oblige me, as a gentleman?"
+
+"I tell you I can't!" said Mr. Bultitude sullenly. "I never did such a
+thing in my life; it would be enough to kill me at my age!"
+
+"This is untrue, sir. Do you mean to say you will not dance the
+hornpipe?"
+
+"No," said Paul, "I'll be damned if I do!"
+
+There was unfortunately no possible doubt about the nature of the word
+used--he said it so very distinctly. The governess screamed and called
+her charges to her. Dulcie hid her face, and some of the boys tittered.
+
+Mr. Burdekin turned pink. "After that disgraceful language, sir, in the
+presence of the fairer sex, I have no more to do with you. You will have
+the goodness to stand in the centre of that form. Gentlemen, select your
+partners for the Highland schottische!"
+
+Mr. Bultitude, by no means sorry to be freed from the irksome necessity
+of dancing with a heart ill-attuned for enjoyment, got up on the form
+and stood looking, sullenly enough, upon the proceedings. The governess
+glowered at him now and then as a monster of youthful depravity; the
+Miss Mutlows glanced up at him as they tripped past, with curiosity not
+unmixed with admiration, but Dulcie steadily avoided looking in his
+direction.
+
+Paul was just congratulating himself upon his escape when the door
+opened wide, and the Doctor marched slowly and imposingly into the room.
+
+He did this occasionally, partly to superintend matters, and partly as
+an encouraging mark of approbation. He looked round the class at first
+with benignant toleration, until his glance took in the bench upon which
+Mr. Bultitude was set up. Then his eye slowly travelled up to the level
+of Paul's head, his expression changing meanwhile to a petrifying glare.
+
+It was not, as Paul instinctively felt, exactly the position in which a
+gentleman who wished to stand well with those in authority over him
+would prefer to be found. He felt his heart turn to water within him,
+and stared limp and helpless at the Doctor.
+
+There was an awful silence (Dr. Grimstone was addicted to awful
+silences; and, indeed, if seldom strictly "golden," silence may often be
+called "iron"), but at last he inquired, "And pray what may you be doing
+up there, sir?"
+
+"Upon my soul I can't say," said Mr. Bultitude feebly. "Ask that
+gentleman there with the fiddle--he knows."
+
+Mr. Burdekin was a good-natured, easy-tempered little man, and had
+already forgotten the affront to his dignity. He was anxious not to get
+the boy into more trouble.
+
+"Bultitude was a little inattentive and, I may say, wanting in respect,
+Dr. Grimstone," he said, putting it as mildly as he could with any
+accuracy; "so I ventured to place him there as a punishment."
+
+"Quite right, Mr. Burdekin," said the Doctor: "quite right. I am sorry
+that any boy of mine should have caused you to do so. You are again
+beginning your career of disorder and rebellion, are you, sir? Go up
+into the schoolroom at once, and write a dozen copies before tea-time! A
+very little more eccentricity and insubordination from you, Bultitude,
+and you will reap a full reward--a full reward, sir!"
+
+So Mr. Bultitude was driven out of the dancing class in dire
+disgrace--which would not have distressed him particularly, being only
+one more drop in his bitter cup--but that he recognised that now his
+hopes of approaching the Doctor with his burden of woe were fallen like
+a card castle. They were fiddled and danced away for at least
+twenty-four hours--perhaps for ever!
+
+Bitterly did he brood over this as he slowly and laboriously copied out
+sundry vain repetitions of such axioms as, "Cultivate Habits of Courtesy
+and Self-control," and "True Happiness is to be sought in Contentment."
+He saw the prospect of a tolerably severe flogging growing more and more
+distinct, and felt that he could not present himself to his family with
+the consciousness of having suffered such an indelible disgrace. His
+family! What would become of them in his absence? Would he ever see his
+comfortable home in Bayswater again?
+
+Tea-time came, and after it evening preparation, when Mr. Tinkler
+presided in a feeble and ineffective manner, perpetually suspecting that
+the faint sniggers he heard were indulged in at his own expense, and
+calling perfectly innocent victims to account for them.
+
+Paul sat next to Jolland and, in his desperate anxiety to avoid further
+unpleasantness, found himself, as he could not for his life have written
+a Latin or a German composition, reduced to copy down his neighbour's
+exercises. This Jolland (who had looked forward to an arrangement of a
+very opposite kind) nevertheless cheerfully allowed him to do, though he
+expressed doubts as to the wisdom of a servile imitation--more, perhaps,
+from prudence than conscientiousness.
+
+Jolland, in the intervals of study, was deeply engaged in the production
+of a small illustrated work of fiction, which he was pleased to call
+_The Adventures of Ben Buterkin at Scool_. It was in a great measure an
+autobiography, and the cuts depicting the hero's flagellations--which
+were frequent in the course of the narrative--were executed with much
+vigour and feeling.
+
+He turned out a great number of these works in the course of the term,
+as well as faces in pen and ink with moving tongues and rolling eyes,
+and these he would present to a few favoured friends with a secretive
+and self-depreciatory giggle.
+
+Amidst scenes and companions like these, Paul sat out the evening hours
+on his hard seat, which was just at the junction of two forms--an
+exquisitely uncomfortable position, as all who have tried it will
+acknowledge--until the time for going to bed came round again. He
+dreaded the hours of darkness, but there was no help for it--to protest
+would have been madness just then, and, once more, he was forced to pass
+a night under the roof of Crichton House.
+
+It was even worse than the first, though this was greatly owing to his
+own obstinacy.
+
+The boys, if less subdued, were in better temper than the evening
+before, and found it troublesome to keep up a feud when the first flush
+of resentment had died out. There was a general disposition to forget
+his departure from the code of schoolboy honour, and give him an
+opportunity of retrieving the past.
+
+But he would not meet them half-way; his repeated repulses by the Doctor
+and all the difficulties that beset his return to freedom had made him
+very sulky and snappish. He had not patience or adaptability enough to
+respond to their advances, and only shrank from their rough good
+nature--which naturally checked the current of good feeling.
+
+Then, when the lights were put out, some one demanded a story. Most of
+the bedrooms possessed a professional story-teller, and in one there was
+a young romancist who began a stirring history the very first night of
+the term, which always ran on until the night before the holidays, and,
+if his hearers were apt to yawn at the sixth week of it, he himself
+enjoyed and believed in it keenly from beginning to end.
+
+Dick Bultitude had been a valued _raconteur_, it appeared, and his
+father found accordingly, to his disgust, that he was expected to amuse
+them with a story. When he clearly understood the idea, he rejected it
+with so savage a snarl, that he soon found it necessary to retire under
+the bedclothes to escape the general indignation that followed.
+
+Finding that he did not actively resent it (the real Dick would have had
+the occupant of the nearest bed out by the ears in a minute!), they
+profited by his prudence to come to his bedside, where they pillowed his
+weary head (with their own pillows) till the slight offered them was
+more than avenged.
+
+After that, Mr. Bultitude, with the breath half beaten out of his body,
+lay writhing and spluttering on his hard, rough bed till long after
+silence had fallen over the adjoining beds, and the sleepy hum of talk
+in the other bedrooms had died away.
+
+Then he, too, drifted off into wild and troubled dreams, which, at their
+maddest, were scattered into blankness by a sudden and violent shock,
+which jerked him, clutching and grasping at nothing, on to the cold,
+bare boards, where he rolled, shivering.
+
+"An earthquake!" he thought, "an explosion ... gas--or dynamite! He must
+go and call the children ... Boaler ... the plate!"
+
+But the reality to which he woke was worse still. Tipping and Coker had
+been patiently pinching themselves to keep awake until their enemy
+should be soundly asleep, in order to enjoy the exquisite pleasure of
+letting down the mattress; and, too dazed and frightened even to swear,
+Paul gathered up his bedclothes and tried to draw them about him as well
+as he might, and seek sleep, which had lost its security.
+
+The Garudâ Stone had done one grim and cruel piece of work at least in
+its time.
+
+
+
+
+7. _Cutting the Knot_
+
+"A Crowd is not Company; And Faces are but a Gallery of Pictures;
+And Talke but a _Tinckling Cymball_, where there is no _Love_."
+                                                       --BACON.
+
+
+Once more Mr. Bultitude rose betimes, dressed noiselessly, and stole
+down to the cold schoolroom, where one gas-jet was burning palely--for
+the morning was raw and foggy.
+
+This time, however, he was not alone. Mr. Blinkhorn was sitting at his
+little table in the corner, correcting exercises, with his chilly hands
+cased in worsted mittens. He looked up as Paul came in, and nodded
+kindly.
+
+Paul went straight to the fire, and stood staring into it with
+lack-lustre eye, too apathetic even to be hopeless, for the work of
+enlightening the Doctor seemed more terrible and impossible than ever,
+and he began to see that, if the only way of escape lay there, he had
+better make up his mind with what philosophy he could to adapt himself
+to his altered circumstances, and stay on for the rest of the term.
+
+But the prospect was so doleful and so blank, that he drew a heavy sigh
+as he thought of it. Mr. Blinkhorn heard it, and rose awkwardly from the
+rickety little writing-table, knocking over a pile of marble-covered
+copy-books as he did so.
+
+Then he crossed over to Paul and laid a hand gently on his shoulder.
+"Look here," he said: "why don't you confide in me? Do you think I'm
+blind to what has happened to you? I can see the change in you--if
+others cannot. Why not trust me?"
+
+Mr. Bultitude looked up into his face, which had an honest interest and
+kindliness in it, and his heart warmed with a faint hope. If this young
+man had been shrewd enough to guess at his unhappy secret, might he not
+be willing to intercede with the Doctor for him? He looked
+good-natured--he would trust him.
+
+"Do you mean to say really," he asked, with more cordiality than he had
+spoken for a long time, "that you--see--the--a--the difference?"
+
+"I saw it almost directly," said Mr. Blinkhorn, with mild triumph.
+
+"That's the most extraordinary thing," said Paul, "and yet it ought to
+be evident enough, to be sure. But no, you can't have guessed the real
+state of things!"
+
+"Listen, and stop me if I'm wrong. Within the last few days a great
+change has been at work within you. You are not the idle, thoughtless,
+mischievous boy who left here for his holidays----"
+
+"No," said Paul, "I'll swear I'm not!"
+
+"There is no occasion for such strong expressions. But, at all events,
+you come back here an altogether different being. Am I right in saying
+so?"
+
+"Perfectly," said Paul, overjoyed at being so thoroughly understood,
+"perfectly. You're a very intelligent young man, sir. Shake hands. Why,
+I shouldn't be surprised, after that, if you knew how it all happened?"
+
+"That too," said Mr. Blinkhorn smiling, "I can guess. It arose, I doubt
+not, in a wish?"
+
+"Yes," cried Paul, "you've hit it again. You're a conjurer, sir, by Gad
+you are!"
+
+"Don't say 'by Gad,' Bultitude; it's inconsistent. It began, I was
+saying, in a wish, half unconscious perhaps, to be something other than
+what you had been----"
+
+"I was a fool," groaned Mr. Bultitude, "yes, that was the way it began!"
+
+"Then insensibly the wish worked a gradual transformation in your nature
+(you are old enough to follow me?)."
+
+"Old enough for him to follow _me_!" thought Paul; but he was too
+pleased to be annoyed. "Hardly gradual I should say," he said aloud.
+"But go on, sir, pray go on. I see you know all about it."
+
+"At first the other part of you struggled against the new feelings. You
+strove to forget them--you even tried to resume your old habits, your
+former way of life--but to no purpose; and when you came here, you found
+no fellowship amongst your companions----"
+
+"Quite out of the question!" said Paul.
+
+"Their pleasures give you no delight----"
+
+"Not a bit!"
+
+"They, on their side, perhaps misunderstand your lack of interest in
+their pursuits. They cannot see--how should they?--that you have altered
+your mode of life, and when they catch the difference between you and
+the Richard Bultitude they knew, why, they are apt to resent it."
+
+"They are," agreed Mr. Bultitude: "they resent it in a confounded
+disagreeable way, you know. Why, I assure you, that only last night I
+was----"
+
+"Hush," said Mr. Blinkhorn, holding up one hand, "complaints are
+unmanly. But I see you wonder at my knowing all this?"
+
+"Well," said Paul, "I am rather surprised."
+
+"What would you say if I told you I had undergone it myself in my time?"
+
+"You don't mean to tell me there are _two_ Garudâ Stones in this
+miserable world!" cried Paul, thoroughly astonished.
+
+"I don't know what you mean now, but I can say with truth that I too
+have had my experiences--my trials. Months ago, from certain signs, I
+noticed, I foresaw that this was coming upon you."
+
+"Then," said Mr. Bultitude, "I think, in common decency, you might have
+warned me. A post-card would have done it. I should have been better
+prepared to meet this, then!"
+
+"It would have been worse than fruitless to attempt to hurry on the
+crisis. It might have even prevented what I fondly hoped would come to
+pass."
+
+"Fondly hoped!" said Paul, "upon my word you speak plainly, sir."
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Blinkhorn. "You see I knew the Dick Bultitude that was,
+so well; he was frolicksome, impulsive, mischievous even, but under it
+all there lay a nature of sterling worth."
+
+"Sterling worth!" cried Paul. "A scoundrel, I tell you, a heartless,
+selfish young scoundrel. Call things by their right names, if you
+please."
+
+"No, no," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "this extreme self-depreciation is morbid,
+very morbid. There was no actual vice."
+
+"No actual vice! Why, God bless my soul, do you call ingratitude--the
+basest, most unfilial, most treacherous ingratitude--no vice, sir? You
+may be a very excellent young man, but if you gloss over things in that
+fashion, your moral sense must be perverted, sir--strangely perverted."
+
+"There were faults on both sides, I fear," said Mr. Blinkhorn, growing
+a little scandalised by the boy's odd warmth of expression. "I have
+heard something of what you had to bear with. On the one hand, a father,
+undemonstrative, stern, easily provoked; on the other, a son,
+thoughtless, forgetful, and at times it may be even wilful. But you are
+too sensitive; you think too much of what seems to me a not unnatural
+(although of course improper) protest against coldness and injustice. I
+should be the last to encourage a child against a parent, but, to
+comfort your self-reproach, I think it right to assure you that, in my
+judgment, the outburst you refer to was very excusable."
+
+"Oh," said Paul, "you do? You call that comfort? Excusable! Why, what
+the dooce do you mean, sir? You're taking the other side now!"
+
+"This is not the language of penitence, Bultitude," said poor Mr.
+Blinkhorn, disheartened and bewildered. "Remember, you have put off the
+Old Man now!"
+
+"I'm not likely to forget _that_," said Paul; "I only wish I could see
+my way to putting him on again!"
+
+"You want to be your old self again?" gasped Mr. Blinkhorn.
+
+"Why, of course I do," said Paul angrily; "I'm not an idiot!"
+
+"You are weary of the struggle so soon?" said the other with reproach.
+
+"Weary? I tell you I'm sick of it! If I had only known what was in store
+for me before I had made such a fool of myself!"
+
+"This is horrible!" said Mr. Blinkhorn--"I ought not to listen to you."
+
+"But you must," urged Paul; "I tell you I can't stand it any longer. I'm
+not fit for it at my age. You must see that yourself, and you must make
+Grimstone see it too!"
+
+"Never!" said Mr. Blinkhorn firmly. "Nor do I see how that would help
+you. I will not let you go back in this deplorable way. You must nerve
+yourself to go on now in the path you have chosen; you must force your
+schoolfellows to love and respect you in your new character. Come, take
+courage! After all, in spite of your altered life, there is no reason
+why you should not be a frank and happy-hearted boy, you know."
+
+"A frank and happy-hearted fiddlestick!" cried Paul rudely (he was so
+disgusted at the suggestion); "don't talk rubbish, sir! I thought you
+were going to show me some way out of all this, and instead of that,
+knowing the shameful way I've been treated, you can stand there and
+calmly recommend me to stay on here and be happy-hearted and frank!"
+
+"You must be calm, Bultitude, or I shall leave you. Listen to reason.
+You are here for your good. Youth, it has been beautifully said, is the
+springtime of life. Though you may not believe it, you will never be
+happier than you are now. Our schooldays are----"
+
+But Mr. Bultitude could not tamely be mocked with the very platitudes
+that had brought him all his misery--he cut the master short in a
+violent passion. "This is too much!" he cried--"you shall not palm off
+that miserable rubbish on me. I see through it. It's a plot to keep me
+here, and you're in it. It's false imprisonment, and I'll write to the
+_Times_. I'll expose the whole thing!"
+
+"This violence is only ridiculous," said Mr. Blinkhorn. "If I were not
+too pained by it, I should feel it my duty to report your language to
+the Doctor. As it is, you have bitterly disappointed me; I can't
+understand it at all. You seemed so subdued, so softened lately. But
+until you come to me and say you regret this, I must decline to have
+anything more to say to you. Take your book and sit down in your place!"
+
+And he went back to his exercises, looking puzzled and pained. The fact
+was, he was an ardent believer in the Good Boy of a certain order of
+school tales--the boy who is seized with a sudden conviction of the
+intrinsic baseness of boyhood, and does all in his power to get rid of
+the harmful taint; the boy who renounces his old comrades and his
+natural tastes (which after all seldom have any serious harm in them),
+to don a panoply of priggishness which is too often kick-proof.
+
+This kind of boy is rare enough at most English schools, but Mr.
+Blinkhorn had been educated at a large Nonconformist College, where
+"Revivals" and "Awakenings" were periodical, and undoubtedly did produce
+changes of character violent enough, but sadly short in duration.
+
+He was always waiting for some such boy to come to him with his
+confession of moral worthlessness and vows of unnatural perfection, and
+was too simple and earnest and good himself to realise that such states
+of the youthful mind are not unfrequently merely morbid and hysterical,
+and too often degenerate into Pharisaism, or worse still, hypocrisy.
+
+So when he noticed Mr. Bultitude's silence and depression, his studied
+withdrawal from the others and his evident want of sympathy with them,
+he believed he saw the symptoms of a conscience at work, and that he had
+found his reformed boy at last.
+
+It was a very unfortunate misunderstanding, for it separated Paul from,
+perhaps, the only person who would have had the guilelessness to believe
+his incredible story, and the good nature to help him to find escape
+from his misfortunes.
+
+Mr. Bultitude on his part was more angry and disgusted than ever. He
+began to see that there was a muddle somewhere, and that his identity
+was unsuspected still. This young man, for all his fair speaking and
+pretended shrewdness, was no conjurer after all. He was left to rely on
+his own resources, and he had begun to lose all confidence in their
+power to extricate him.
+
+As he brooded over this, the boys straggled down as before, and looked
+over their lessons for the day in a dull, lifeless manner. The cold,
+unsatisfying breakfast, and the half-hour assigned to "chevy," followed
+in due course, and after that Paul found himself set down with a class
+to await the German master, Herr Stohwasser.
+
+He had again tried to pull himself together and approach the Doctor with
+his protest, but no sooner did he find himself near his presence than
+his heart began to leap wildly and then retired down towards his boots,
+leaving him hoarse, palpitating, and utterly blank of ideas.
+
+It was no use--and he resigned himself for yet another day of unwelcome
+instruction.
+
+The class was in a little room on the basement floor, with a linen-press
+taking up one side, some bare white deal tables and forms, and, on the
+walls, a few coloured German prints. They sat there talking and
+laughing, taking no notice of Mr. Bultitude, until the German master
+made his appearance.
+
+He was by no means a formidable person, though stout and tall. He wore
+big round owlish spectacles, and his pale broad face and long nose,
+combined with a wild crop of light hair and a fierce beard, gave him the
+incongruous appearance of a sheep looking out of a gun-port.
+
+He took his place with an air of tremendous determination to enforce a
+hard morning's work on the book they were reading--a play of Schiller's,
+of the plot of which, it is needless to say, no one of his pupils had or
+cared to have the vaguest notion, having long since condemned the whole
+subject, with insular prejudice, as "rot."
+
+"Now, please," said Herr Stohwasser, "where we left off last term. Third
+act, first scene--Court before Tell's house. Tell is vid the carpenter
+axe, Hedwig vid a domestig labour occupied. Walter and Wilhelm in the
+depth sport with a liddle gross-bow. Biddlegom, you begin. Walter
+(sings)."
+
+But Biddlecomb was in a conversational mood, and willing to postpone the
+task of translation, so he merely inquired, with an air of extreme
+interest, how Herr Stohwasser's German Grammar was getting on.
+
+This was a subject on which (as he perhaps knew) the German never could
+resist enlarging, for in common with most German masters, he was giving
+birth to a new Grammar, which, from the daring originality of its plan,
+and its extreme simplicity, was destined to supersede all other similar
+works.
+
+"Ach," he said, "it is brogressing. I haf just gompleted a gomprehensive
+table of ze irregular virps, vith ze eggserzizes upon zem. And zere is
+further an appendeeks which in itself gontains a goncise view of all ze
+vort-blays possible in the Charman tong. But, come, let us gontinue vith
+our Tell!"
+
+"What are vort-blays?" persisted Biddlecomb insidiously, having no idea
+of continuing with his Tell just yet.
+
+"A vort-blay," exclaimed Herr Stohwasser; "it is English, nicht so? A
+sporting vid vorts--a 'galembour'--a--Gott pless me, vat you call a
+'pon.'"
+
+"Like the one you made when you were a young man?" Jolland called out
+from the lower end of the table.
+
+"Yes; tell us the one you made when you were a young man," the class
+entreated, with flattering eagerness.
+
+Herr Stohwasser began to laugh with slow, deep satisfaction; the
+satisfaction of a successful achievement. "Hah, you remember dat!" he
+said, "ah, yes, I make him when a yong man; but, mind you, he was not a
+pon--he was a '_choke_.' I haf told you all about him before."
+
+"We've forgotten it," said Biddlecomb: "tell it us again."
+
+As a matter of fact this joke, in all its lights, was tolerably familiar
+to most of them by this time, but, either on its individual merits, or
+perhaps because it compared favourably with the sterner alternative of
+translating, it was periodically in request, and always met with
+evergreen appreciation.
+
+Herr Stohwasser beamed with the pride of authorship. Like the celebrated
+Scotchman, he "jocked wi' deeficulty," and the outcome of so much
+labour was dear to him.
+
+"I zent him into ze Charman _Kladderadatch_ (it is a paper like your
+_Ponch_). It--mein choke--was upon ze Schleswig-Holstein gomplication;
+ze beginning was in this way----"
+
+And he proceeded to set out in great length all the circumstances which
+had given materials for his "choke," with the successive processes by
+which he had shaped and perfected it, passing on to a recital of the
+masterpiece itself, and ending up by a philosophical analysis of the
+same, which must have placed his pupils in full possession of the point,
+for they laughed consumedly.
+
+"I dell you zis," he said, "not to aggustom your minds vid frivolity and
+lightness, but as a lesson in ze gonstruction of ze langwitch. If you
+can choke in Charman, you will be able also to gonverse in Charman."
+
+"Did the German what's-its-name print your joke?" inquired Coggs.
+
+"It has not appeared yet," Herr Stohwasser confessed; "it takes a long
+time to get an imbortant choke like that out in brint. But I vait--I
+write to ze editor every week--and I vait."
+
+"Why don't you put it in your Grammar?" suggested Tipping.
+
+"I haf--ze greater part of it--(it vas a long choke, but I gompressed
+him). If I haf time, some day I will make anozer liddle choke to
+aggompany, begause I vant my Crammar to be a goot Crammar, you
+understandt. And now to our Tell. Really you beople do noding but
+chadder!"
+
+All this, of course, had no interest for Mr. Bultitude, but it left him
+free to pursue his own thoughts in peace, and indeed this lesson would
+never have been recorded here, but for two circumstances which will
+presently appear, both of which had no small effect on his fortunes.
+
+He sat nearest the window, and looked out on the pinched and drooping
+laurels in the enclosure, which were damp with frost melting in the
+sunshine. Over the wall he could see the tops of passing vehicles, the
+country carrier's cart, the railway parcels van, the fly from the
+station. He envied even the drivers; their lot was happier than his!
+
+His thoughts were busy with Dick. Oddly enough, it had scarcely occurred
+to him before to speculate on what he might be doing in his absence; he
+had thought chiefly about himself. But now he gave his attention to the
+subject, what new horrors it opened up! What might not become of his
+well-conducted household under the rash rule of a foolish schoolboy! The
+office, too--who could say what mischief Dick might not be doing there,
+under the cover of his own respectable form?
+
+Then it might seem good to him any day to smash the Garudâ Stone, and
+after that there would be no hope of matters being ever set right again!
+
+And yet, miserable coward and fool that he was, with everything
+depending upon his losing no time to escape, he could not screw up his
+courage, and say the words that were to set him free.
+
+All at once--and this is one of the circumstances that make the German
+lesson an important stage in this story--an idea suggested itself to him
+quite dazzling by its daring and brilliancy.
+
+Some may wonder, when they hear what it was, why he never thought of it
+before, and it is somewhat surprising, but by no means without
+precedent. Artemus Ward has told us somewhere of a ferocious bandit who
+was confined for sixteen years in solitary captivity, before the notion
+of escape ever occurred to him. When it did, he opened the window and
+got out.
+
+Perhaps a similar passiveness on Mr. Bultitude's part was due to a very
+natural and proper desire to do everything without scandal, and in a
+legitimate manner; to march out, as it were, with the honours of war.
+Perhaps it was simple dullness. The fact remains that it was not till
+then that he saw a way of recovering his lost position, without the
+disagreeable necessity of disclosing his position to anyone at Crichton
+House.
+
+He had still--thank Heaven--the five shillings he had given Dick. He had
+not thrown them away with the other articles in his mad passion. Five
+shillings was not much, but it was more than enough to pay for a
+third-class fare to town. He had only to watch his opportunity, slip
+away to the station, and be at home again, defying the usurper, before
+anyone at Crichton House had discovered his absence.
+
+He might go that very day, and the delight of this thought--the complete
+reaction from blank despair to hope--was so intense that he could not
+help rubbing his hands stealthily under the table, and chuckling with
+glee at his own readiness of resource.
+
+When we are most elated, however, there is always a counteracting agent
+at hand to bring us down again to our proper level, or below it. The
+Roman general in the triumph never really needed the slave in the
+chariot to dash his spirits--he had his friends there already; the
+guests at an Egyptian dinner must have brought their own skeletons.
+
+There was a small flaxen-haired little boy sitting next to Mr.
+Bultitude, seemingly a quite inoffensive being, who at this stage served
+to sober him by furnishing another complication.
+
+"Oh, I say, Bultitude," he piped shrilly in Paul's ear, "I forgot all
+about it. Where's my rabbit?"
+
+The unreasonable absurdity of such a question annoyed him excessively.
+"Is this a time," he said reprovingly, "to talk of rabbits? Mind your
+book, sir."
+
+"Oh, I daresay," grumbled little Porter, the boy in question: "it's all
+very well, but I want my rabbit."
+
+"Hang it, sir," said Paul angrily, "do you suppose I'm sitting on it?"
+
+"You promised to bring me back a rabbit," persisted Porter doggedly;
+"you know you did, and it's a beastly shame. I mean to have that
+rabbit, or know the reason why."
+
+At the other end of the table Biddlecomb had again dexterously allured
+Herr Stohwasser into the meshes of conversation; this time upon the
+question (_à propos de bottes_) of street performances. "I vill tell you
+a gurious thing," he was saying, "vat happened to me de oder day ven I
+vas valking down de Strandt. I saw a leedle gommon dirty boy with a tall
+round hat on him, and he stand in a side street right out in de road,
+and he take off his tall round hat, and he put it on de ground, and he
+stand still and look zo at it. So I shtop too, to see vat he vould do
+next. And bresently he take out a large sheet of baper and tear it in
+four pieces very garefully, and stick zem round de tall round hat, and
+put it on his head again, and zen he set it down on de grount and look
+at it vonce more, and all de time he never speak von vort. And I look
+and look and vonder vat he would do next. And a great growd of beoples
+com, and zey look and vonder too. And zen all at once de leedle dirty
+boy he take out all de paper and put on de hat, and he valk avay,
+laughing altogetter foolishly at zomzing I did not understand at all. I
+haf been thinking efer since vat in the vorldt he do all zat nonsence
+for. And zere is von ozer gurious thing I see in your London streets zat
+very same day. Zere vas a poor house cat dat had been by a cab overrun
+as I passed by, and von man vith a kind varm heart valk up and stamp it
+on de head for to end its pain. And anozer man vith anozer kind heart,
+he gom up directly and had not seen de cat overrun, but he see de first
+man stamping and he knock him down for ill-treating animals; it was
+quite gurious to see; till de policeman arrest dem both for fighting.
+Goggs, degline 'Katze,' and gif me ze berfect and bast barticiple of
+'kampfen,' to fight." This last relapse into duty was caused by the
+sudden entrance of the Doctor, who stood at the door looking on for some
+time with a general air of being intimately acquainted with Schiller as
+an author, before suggesting graciously that it was time to dismiss the
+class.
+
+Wednesday was a half-holiday at Crichton House, and so, soon after
+dinner, Paul found himself marshalled with the rest in a procession
+bound for the football field. They marched two and two, Chawner and
+three of the other elder boys leading with the ball and four goal-posts
+ornamented with coloured calico flags, and Mr. Blinkhorn and Mr. Tinkler
+bringing up the rear.
+
+Mr. Bultitude was paired with Tom Grimstone, who, after eyeing him
+askance for some time, could control his curiosity no longer.
+
+"I say, Dick," he began, "what's the matter with you this term?"
+
+"My name is not Dick," said Paul stiffly.
+
+"Oh, if you're so particular then," said Tom: "but, without humbug, what
+is the matter?"
+
+"You see a change then," said Paul, "you do see a difference, eh?"
+
+"Rather!" said Tom expressively. "You've come back what I call a beastly
+sneak, you know, this term. The other fellows don't like it; they'll
+send you to Coventry unless you take care."
+
+"I wish they would," said Paul.
+
+"You don't talk like the same fellow either," continued Tom; "you use
+such fine language, and you're always in a bait, and yet you don't stick
+up for yourself as you used to. Look here, tell me (we were always
+chums), is it one of your larks?"
+
+"Larks!" said Paul. "I'm in a fine mood for larks. No, it's not one of
+my larks."
+
+"Perhaps your old governor has been making a cad of himself then, and
+you're out of sorts about it."
+
+"I'll thank you not to speak about him in that way," said Paul, "in my
+presence."
+
+"Why," grumbled Tom, "I'm sure you said enough about him yourself last
+term. It's my belief you're imitating him now."
+
+"Ah," said Paul, "and what makes you think that?"
+
+"Why, you go about strutting and swelling just like he did when he came
+about sending you here. I say, do you know what Mums said about him
+after he went away?"
+
+"No," said Paul, "your mother struck me as a very sensible and
+agreeable woman--if I may say so to her son."
+
+"Well, Mums said your governor seemed to leave you here just like they
+leave umbrellas at picture galleries, and she believed he had a
+large-sized money-bag inside him instead of a heart."
+
+"Oh!" said Paul, with great disgust, for he had thought Mrs. Grimstone a
+woman of better taste; "your mother said that, did she? Vastly
+entertaining to be sure--ha, ha! He would be pleased to know she thought
+that, I'm sure."
+
+"Tell him, and see what he says," suggested Tom; "he is an awful brute
+to you though, isn't he?"
+
+"If," growled Mr. Bultitude, "slaving from morning till night to provide
+education and luxury for a thankless brood of unprofitable young vipers
+is 'being a brute,' I suppose he is."
+
+"Why, you're sticking up for him now!" said Tom. "I thought he was so
+strict with you. Wouldn't let you have any fun at home, and never took
+you to pantomimes?"
+
+"And why should he, sir, why should he? Tell me that. Tell me why a man
+is to be hunted out of his comfortable chair after a well-earned dinner,
+to go and sit in a hot theatre and a thorough draught, yawning at the
+miserable drivel managers choose to call a pantomime? Now in my young
+days there _were_ pantomimes. I tell you, sir, I've seen----"
+
+"Oh, if you're satisfied, I don't care!" said Tom, astonished at this
+apparent change of front. "If you choose to come back and play the
+corker like this, it's your look-out. Only, if you knew what Sproule
+major said about you just now----"
+
+"I don't want to know," said Paul; "it doesn't concern me."
+
+"Perhaps it doesn't concern you what pa thinks either? Dad told Mums
+last night that he was altogether at a loss to know how to deal with
+you, you had come back so queer and unruly. And he said, let me see, oh,
+he said that 'if he didn't see an alteration very soon he should resort
+to more drastic measures'--drastic measures is Latin for a whopping."
+
+"Good gracious!" thought Paul, "I haven't a moment to lose! he might
+'resort to drastic measures' this very evening. I can't change my nature
+at my time of life. I must run for it, and soon."
+
+Then he said aloud to Tom, "Can you tell me, my--my young friend, if,
+supposing a boy were to ask to leave the field--saying for instance that
+he was not well and thought he should be better at home--whether he
+would be allowed to go?"
+
+"Of course he would," said Tom, "you ought to know that by this time.
+You've only to ask Blinkhorn or Tinkler; they'll let you go right
+enough."
+
+Paul saw his course quite clearly now, and was overcome with relief and
+gratitude. He wrung the astonished Tom's hand warmly; "Thank you," he
+said, briskly and cheerfully, "thank you. I'm really uncommonly obliged
+to you. You're a very intelligent boy. I should like to give you
+sixpence."
+
+But although Tom used no arguments to dissuade him, Mr. Bultitude
+remembered his position in time, and prudently refrained from such
+ill-judged generosity. Sixpences were of vital importance now, when he
+expected to be starting so soon on his perilous journey.
+
+And so they reached the field where the game was to be played, and where
+Paul was resolved to have one desperate throw for liberty and home. He
+was more excited than anxious as he thought of it, and it certainly did
+seem as if all the chances were in his favour, and that fortune must
+have forsaken him indeed, if anything were allowed to prevent his
+escape.
+
+
+
+
+8. _Unbending the Bow_
+
+     "I pray you, give me leave to go from hence,
+     I am not well;"
+                                       _Merchant of Venice._
+
+     "He will not blush, that has a father's heart,
+     To take in childish plays a childish part;
+     But bends his sturdy back to any toy
+     That youth takes pleasure in,--to please his boy."
+
+
+The football field was a large one, bounded on two sides by tall wooden
+palings, and on the other two by a hedge and a new shingled road,
+separated from the field by a post and rails.
+
+Two of the younger boys, proud of their office, raced down to the
+further end to set up the goal-posts. The rest lounged idly about
+without attempting to begin operations, except the new boy Kiffin, who
+was seen walking apart from the rest, diligently studying the "rules of
+the game of football," as laid down in a small _Boy's Own Pocket Book
+and Manual of Outdoor Sports_, with which he had been careful to provide
+himself.
+
+At last Tipping suggested that they had better begin, and proposed that
+Mr. Blinkhorn and himself should toss up for the choice of sides, and
+this being done, Mr. Bultitude presently, to his great dismay, heard his
+name mentioned. "I'll have young Bultitude," said Tipping; "he used to
+play up decently. Look here, you young beggar, you're on my side, and if
+you don't play up it will be the worse for you!"
+
+It was not worth while, however, to protest, since he would so soon be
+rid of the whole crew for ever, and so Paul followed Tipping and his
+train with dutiful submission, and the game began.
+
+It was not a spirited performance. Mr. Tinkler, who was not an athlete,
+retired at once to the post and rails, on which he settled himself to
+enjoy a railway novel with a highly stimulating cover. Mr. Blinkhorn,
+who had more conscientious views of his office, charged about
+vigorously, performing all kinds of wonders with the ball, though
+evidently more from a sense of duty than with any idea of enjoyment.
+
+Tipping occasionally took the trouble to oppose him, but as a concession
+merely, and with a parade of being under no necessity to do so; and
+these two, with a very small following of enthusiasts on either side,
+waged a private and confidential kind of warfare in different parts of
+the field, while the others made no pretence of playing for the present,
+but strolled about in knots, exchanging and bartering the treasures
+valuable in the sight of schoolboys, and gossiping generally.
+
+As for Paul, he did not clearly understand what "playing up" might mean.
+He had not indulged in football since he was a genuine boy, and then
+only in a rudimentary and primitive form, and without any particular
+fondness for the exercise. But being now, in spirit at all events, a
+precise elderly person, with a decided notion of taking care of himself,
+he was resolved that not even Tipping should compel him to trust his
+person within range of that dirty brown globe, which whistled past his
+ear or seemed spinning towards his stomach with such a hideous
+suggestion of a cannon-ball about it.
+
+All the ghastly instances, too, of accidents to life and limb in the
+football field came unpleasantly into his memory, and he saw the
+inadvisability of mingling with the crowd and allowing himself to be
+kicked violently on the shins.
+
+So he trotted industriously about at a safe distance in order to allay
+suspicion, while waiting for a good opportunity to put his scheme of
+escape into execution.
+
+At last he could wait no longer, for the fearful thought occurred to
+him, that if he remained there much longer, the Doctor--who, as he knew
+from Dick, always came to superintend, if not to share the sports of his
+pupils--might make his appearance, and then his chance would be lost for
+the present, for he knew too well that he should never find courage to
+ask permission from _him_.
+
+With a beating heart he went up to Mr. Tinkler, who was still on the
+fence with his novel, and asked as humbly as he could bring himself to
+do:
+
+"If you please, sir, will you allow me to go home? I'm--I'm not feeling
+at all well."
+
+"Not well! What's the matter with you?" said Mr. Tinkler, without
+looking up.
+
+Paul had not prepared himself for details, and the sudden question
+rather threw him off his guard.
+
+"A slight touch of liver," he said at length. "It takes me after meals
+sometimes."
+
+"Liver!" said Mr. Tinkler, "you've no right to such a thing at your age;
+it's all nonsense, you know. Run in and play, that'll set you up again."
+
+"It's fatal, sir," said Paul. "My doctor expressly warned me against
+taking any violent exercise soon after luncheon. If you knew what liver
+is, you wouldn't say so!"
+
+Mr. Tinkler stared, as well he might, but making nothing of it, and
+being chiefly anxious not to be interrupted any longer, only said, "Oh,
+well, don't bother me; I daresay it's all right. Cut along!"
+
+So Mr. Bultitude was free; the path lay open to him now. He knew he
+would have little difficulty in finding his way to the station, and,
+once there, he would have the whole afternoon in which to wait for a
+train to town.
+
+"I've managed that excellently," he thought, as he ran blithely off,
+almost like the boy he seemed. "Not the slightest hitch. I defy the
+fates themselves to stop me now!"
+
+But the fates are ladies, and--not of course that it
+follows--occasionally spiteful. It is very rash indeed to be ungallant
+enough to defy them--they have such an unpleasant habit of accepting the
+challenge.
+
+Mr. Bultitude had hardly got clear of the groups scattered about the
+field, when he met a small flaxen-haired boy, who was just coming down
+to join the game. It was Porter, his neighbour of the German lesson.
+
+"There you are, Bultitude, then," he said in his squeaky voice: "I want
+you."
+
+"I can't stop," said Paul, "I'm in a hurry--another time."
+
+"Another time won't do," said little Porter, laying hold of him by his
+jacket. "I want that rabbit."
+
+This outrageous demand took Mr. Bultitude's breath away. He had no idea
+what rabbit was referred to, or why he should be required to produce
+such an animal at a moment's notice. This was the second time an
+inconvenient small boy had interfered between him and liberty. He would
+not be baffled twice. He tried to shake off his persecutor.
+
+"I tell you, my good boy, I haven't such a thing about me. I haven't
+indeed. I don't even know what you're talking about."
+
+This denial enraged Porter.
+
+"I say, you fellows," he called out, "come here! Do make Bultitude give
+me my rabbit. He says he doesn't know anything about it now!"
+
+At this several of the loungers came up, glad of a distraction.
+
+"What's the matter?" some of them asked.
+
+"Why," whined Porter, "he promised to bring me back a rabbit this term,
+and now he pretends he does not know anything about it. Make him say
+what he's done with it!"
+
+Mr. Bultitude was not usually ready of resource, but now he had what
+seemed a happy thought.
+
+"Gad!" he cried, pretending to recollect it, "so I did--to be sure, a
+rabbit, of course, how could I forget it? It's--it's a splendid rabbit.
+I'll go and fetch it!"
+
+"Will you?" cried Porter, half relieved. "Where is it, then?"
+
+"Where?" said Paul sharply (he was growing positively brilliant). "Why,
+in my playbox to be sure; where should it be?"
+
+"It isn't in your playbox, I know," put in Siggers: "because I saw it
+turned out yesterday and there was no rabbit then. Besides, how could a
+rabbit live in a playbox? He's telling lies. I can see it by his face.
+He hasn't any rabbit!"
+
+"Of course I haven't!" said Mr. Bultitude. "How should I? I'm not a
+conjurer. It's not a habit of mine to go about with rabbits concealed on
+my person. What's the use of coming to me like this? It's absurd, you
+know; perfectly absurd!"
+
+The crowd increased until there was quite a ring formed round Mr.
+Bultitude and the indignant claimant, and presently Tipping came
+bustling up.
+
+"What's the row here, you fellows?" he said. "Bultitude again, of
+course. What's he been doing now?"
+
+"He had a rabbit he said he was keeping for me," explained little
+Porter: "and now he won't give it up or tell me what he's done with it."
+
+"He has some mice he ought to give us, too," said one or two new-comers,
+edging their way to the front.
+
+Mr. Bultitude was of course exceedingly annoyed by this unlooked-for
+interruption, and still more by such utterly preposterous claims on him
+for animals; however, it was easy to explain that he had no such things
+in his possession, and after that of course no more could be said. He
+was beginning to disclaim all liability, when Siggers stopped him.
+
+"Keep that for the present," he said. "I say, we ought to have a regular
+trial over this, and get at the truth of it properly. Let's fetch him
+along to the goal-posts and judge him!"
+
+He fixed upon the goal-posts as being somehow more formal, and, as his
+proposal was well received, two of them grasped Mr. Bultitude by the
+collar and dragged him along in procession to the appointed spot between
+the two flags, while Siggers followed in what he conceived to be a
+highly judicial manner, and evidently enjoying himself prodigiously.
+
+Paul, though highly indignant, allowed himself to be led along without
+resistance. It was safest to humour them, for after all it would not
+last long, and when they were tired of baiting him he could watch his
+time and slip quietly away.
+
+When they reached the goal-posts Siggers arranged them in a circle,
+placing himself, the hapless Paul, and his accusers in the centre. "You
+chaps had better all be jurymen," he said. "I'll be judge, and unless he
+makes a clean breast of it," he added with judicial impartiality, "the
+court will jolly well punch his ugly young head off."
+
+Siggers' father was an Old Bailey barrister in good and rather sharp
+practice, so that it was clearly the son's mission to preside on this
+occasion. But unfortunately his hour of office was doomed to be a brief
+one, for Mr. Blinkhorn, becoming aware that the game was being still
+more scantily supported, and noticing the crowd at the goal, came up to
+know the reason of it at a long camel-like trot, his hat on the back of
+his head, his mild face flushed with exertion, and his pebble glasses
+gleaming in the winter sunshine.
+
+"What are you all doing here? Why don't you join the game? I've come
+here to play football with you, and how can I do it if you all slink off
+and leave me to play by myself?" he asked with pathos.
+
+"Please, sir," said Siggers, alarmed at the threatened loss of his
+dignity, "it's a trial, and I'm judge."
+
+"Yes, sir," the whole ring shouted together. "We're trying Bultitude,
+sir."
+
+On the whole, perhaps, Mr. Bultitude was glad of this interference. At
+least justice would be done now, although this usher had blundered so
+unpardonably that morning.
+
+"This is childish, you know," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "and it's not
+football. The Doctor will be seriously angry if he comes and sees you
+trifling here. Let the boy go."
+
+"But he's cheated some of the fellows, sir," grumbled Tipping and
+Siggers together.
+
+"Well, _you_'ve no right to punish him if he has. Leave him to me."
+
+"Will you see fair play between them, sir? He oughtn't to be let off
+without being made to keep his word."
+
+"If there is any dispute between you and Bultitude," said Mr. Blinkhorn,
+"I have no objection to settle it--provided it is within my province."
+
+"Settle it without me," said Paul hurriedly. "I've leave to go home. I'm
+ill."
+
+"Who gave you leave to go home?" asked the master.
+
+"That young man over there on the rails," said Paul.
+
+"I am the proper person to apply to for leave; you know that well
+enough," said Mr. Blinkhorn, with a certain coldness in his tone. "Now
+then, Porter, what is all this business about?"
+
+"Please, sir," said Porter, "he told me last term he had a lot of
+rabbits at home, and if I liked he would bring me back a lop-eared one
+and let me have it cheap, and I gave him two shillings, sir, and
+sixpence for a hutch to keep it in; and now he pretends he doesn't know
+anything about it!"
+
+To Paul's horror two or three other boys came forward with much the same
+tale. He remembered now that during the holidays he had discovered that
+Dick was maintaining a sort of amateur menagerie in his bedroom, and
+that he had ordered the whole of the livestock to be got rid of or
+summarily destroyed.
+
+Now it seemed that the wretched Dick had already disposed of it to these
+clamorous boys, and, what was worse, had stipulated with considerable
+forethought for payment in advance. For the first time he repented his
+paternal harshness. Like the netted lion, a paltry white mouse or two
+would have set him free; but, less happy than the beast in the fable, he
+had not one!
+
+He tried to stammer out excuses. "It's extremely unfortunate," he said,
+"but the fact is I'm not in a position to meet this--this sudden call
+upon me. Some other day, perhaps----"
+
+"None of your long words, now," growled Tipping. (Boys hate long words
+as much as even a Saturday Reviewer.) "Why haven't you brought the
+rabbits?"
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Blinkhorn. "Why, having promised to bring the rabbits
+with you, haven't you kept your word? You must be able to give some
+explanation."
+
+"Because," said Mr. Bultitude, wriggling with embarrassment, "I--that is
+my father--found out that my young rascal of a son--I mean his young
+rascal of a son (_me_, you know) was, contrary to my express orders,
+keeping a couple of abominable rabbits in his bedroom, and a quantity of
+filthy little white mice which he tried to train to climb up the
+banisters. And I kept finding the brutes running about my bath-room,
+and--well, of course, I put a stop to it; and--no, what am I saying?--my
+father, of course, he put a stop to it; and, in point of fact, had them
+all drowned in a pail of water."
+
+It might be thought that he had an excellent opportunity here of avowing
+himself, but there was the risk that Mr. Blinkhorn would disbelieve him,
+and, with the boys, he felt that the truth would do anything but
+increase his popularity. But dissembling fails sometimes outside the
+copy-books, and Mr. Bultitude's rather blundering attempt at it only
+landed him in worse difficulties.
+
+There was a yell of rage and disappointment from the defrauded ones, who
+had cherished a lingering hope that young Bultitude had those rabbits
+somewhere, but (like Mr. Barkis and his wooden lemon) found himself
+unable to part with them when the time came to fulfil his contract. And
+as contempt is a frame of mind highly stimulating to one's self-esteem,
+even those who had no personal interest in the matter joined in the
+execrations with hearty goodwill and sympathy.
+
+"Why did you let him do it? They were ours, not his. What right had your
+governor to go and drown our rabbits, eh?" they cried wrathfully.
+
+"What right?" said Paul. "Mustn't a man do as he pleases in his own
+house, then? I--he was not obliged to see the house overrun with vermin,
+I suppose?"
+
+But this only made them angrier, and they resented his defence with
+hoots, and groans, and hisses.
+
+Mr. Blinkhorn meanwhile was pondering the affair conscientiously. At
+last he said, "But you know the Doctor would never allow animals to be
+kept in the school, if Bultitude had brought them. The whole thing is
+against the rules, and I shall not interfere."
+
+"Ah, but," said Chawner, "he promised them all to day-boarders. The
+Doctor couldn't object to that, could he, sir?"
+
+"True," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "true. I was not aware of that. Well then,
+Bultitude, since you are prevented from performing what you promised to
+do, I'm sure you won't object to do what is fair and right in the
+matter?"
+
+"I don't think I quite follow you," said Mr. Bultitude. But he dreaded
+what was coming next.
+
+"It's very simple. You have taken money from these boys, and if you
+can't give them value for it, you ought to return all you took from
+them. I'm sure you see that yourself."
+
+"I don't admit that I owe them anything," said Paul; "and at all events
+it is highly inconvenient to pay them now."
+
+"If your own sense of honour isn't enough," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "I must
+take the matter into my own hands. Let every boy who has any claim upon
+him tell me exactly what it is."
+
+One boy after another brought forward his claim. One had entrusted Dick,
+it appeared, with a shilling, for which he was to receive a mouse with a
+"plum saddle," and two others had invested ninepence each in white mice.
+With Porter's half-crown, the total came to precisely five
+shillings--all Paul had in the world, the one rope by which he could
+ever hope to haul himself up to his lost pinnacle!
+
+Mr. Blinkhorn, naturally enough, saw no reason why the money, being
+clearly due, should not be paid at once. "Give me any money you have
+about you, Bultitude," he said, "and I'll satisfy your debts with it, as
+far as it goes."
+
+Paul clasped his arm convulsively. "No!" he cried hoarsely, "not that!
+Don't make me do that! I--I can't pay them--not now. They don't
+understand. If they only give me time they shall have double their money
+back--waggon-loads of rabbits, the best rabbits money can buy--if
+they'll wait. Tell them to wait. My dear sir, don't see me wronged! I
+won't pay now!"
+
+"They have waited long enough," said Mr. Blinkhorn; "you must pay them."
+
+"I tell you I won't!" cried Paul; "do you hear? Not one sixpence. Oh, if
+you knew! That infernal Garudâ Stone! What fools people are!"
+
+Then in his despair he did the most fatal thing possible. He tried to
+save himself by flight, and with a violent plunge broke through the
+circle and made for the road which led towards the station.
+
+Instantly the whole school, only too glad of the excitement, was at his
+heels. The unhappy Colonial Produce merchant ran as he had not run for a
+quarter of a century, faster even than he had on his first experience of
+Coggs' and Coker's society on that memorable Monday night. But in spite
+of his efforts the chase was a short one. Chawner and Tipping very soon
+had him by the collar, and brought him back, struggling and kicking out
+viciously, to Mr. Blinkhorn, whose good opinion he had now lost for
+ever.
+
+"Please, sir," said Chawner, "I can feel something like a purse in his
+pocket. Shall I take it out, sir?"
+
+"As he refuses to act with common honesty--yes," said Mr. Blinkhorn.
+
+It was Dick's purse, of course; and in spite of Paul's frantic efforts
+to retain it, it was taken from him, its contents equitably divided
+amongst the claimants, and the purse itself returned to him--empty.
+
+"Now, Bultitude," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "if you really wish to leave the
+field, you may."
+
+Mr. Bultitude lost what little temper he had yet to lose; he flung the
+useless purse from him and broke away from them all in a condition
+little removed from insanity.
+
+Leave the field! What a mockery the permission was now. How was he to
+get home, a distance of more than fifty miles, without a penny in his
+pocket? Ten minutes before, and freedom was within his grasp, and now it
+had eluded him and was as hopelessly out of reach as ever!
+
+No one pitied him; no one understood the real extent of his loss. Mr.
+Blinkhorn and the few enthusiasts went back to their unobtrusive game,
+while the rest of the school discussed the affair in groups, the popular
+indignation against young Bultitude's hitherto unsuspected meanness
+growing more marked every instant.
+
+It might have even taken some decided and objectionable form before
+long, but when it was at its height there was a sudden cry of alarm.
+"_Cave_, you fellows, here's Grim!" and indeed in the far distance the
+Doctor's portly and imposing figure could be seen just turning the
+corner into the field.
+
+Mr. Bultitude felt almost cheered. This coming to join his pupils'
+sports showed a good heart; the Doctor would almost certainly be in a
+good humour, and he cheated himself into believing that, at some
+interval in the game, he might perhaps find courage to draw near and
+seek to interest him in his incredible woes.
+
+It was quite extraordinary to see how the game, which had hitherto
+decidedly languished and hung fire, now quickened into briskness and
+became positively spirited. Everyone developed a hearty interest in it,
+and it would almost seem as if the boys, with more delicacy than they
+are generally credited with, were unwilling to let their master guess
+how little his indulgence was really appreciated. Even Mr. Tinkler,
+whose novel had kept him spell-bound on his rail all through the recent
+excitement, now slipped it hurriedly into his pocket and rushed
+energetically into the fray, shouting encouragement rather
+indiscriminately to either side, till he had an opportunity of finding
+out privately to which leader he had been assigned.
+
+Dr. Grimstone came down the field at a majestic slow trot, calling out
+to the players as he came on--"Well done, Mutlow! Finely played, sir!
+Dribble it along now. Ah, you're afraid of it! Run into it, sir, run
+into it! No running with the ball now, Siggers; play without those petty
+meannesses, or leave the game! There, leave the ball to me, will
+you--leave it to me!"
+
+And, as the ball had rolled in his direction, he punted it up in an
+exceedingly dignified manner, the whole school keeping respectfully
+apart, until he had brought it to a reasonable distance from the goal,
+when he kicked it through with great solemnity, amidst faint, and it is
+to be feared somewhat sycophantic applause, and turned away with the air
+of a man surfeited of success.
+
+"For which side did I win that?" he asked presently, whereupon Tipping
+explained that his side had been the favoured one. "Well then," he said,
+"you fellows must all back me up, or I shall not play for you any more;"
+and he kicked off the ball for the next game.
+
+It was noticeable that the party thus distinguished did not seem
+precisely overwhelmed with pleasure at the compliment, which, as they
+knew from experience, implied considerable exertion on their part, and
+even disgrace if they were unsuccessful.
+
+The other side too looked unhappy, feeling themselves in a position of
+extreme delicacy and embarrassment. For if they played their best, they
+ran some risk of offending the Doctor, or, what was worse, drawing him
+over into their ranks; while if, on the other hand, they allowed
+themselves to be too easily worsted, they might be suspected of
+sulkiness and temper--offences which he was very ready to discover and
+resent.
+
+Dr. Grimstone for his part enjoyed the exercise, and had no idea that he
+was not a thoroughly welcome and valued playmate. But though it was
+pleasant to outsiders to see a schoolmaster permitting himself to share
+in the recreation of his pupils, it must be owned that to the latter the
+advantages of the arrangement seemed something more than dubious.
+
+Mr. Bultitude, being on the side adopted by the Doctor, found too soon
+that he was expected to bestir himself. More than ever anxious now to
+conciliate, he did his very best to conquer his natural repugnance and
+appear more interested than alarmed as the ball came in his way; but
+although (in boating slang) he "sugared" with some adroitness, he was
+promptly found out, for his son had been a dashing and plucky player.
+
+It was bitter for him to run meekly about while scathing sarcasms and
+comments on his want of courage were being hurled at his head. It
+shattered the scanty remnants of his self-respect, but he dared not
+protest or say a single word to open the Doctor's eyes to the injustice
+he was doing him.
+
+He was unpleasantly reminded, too, of the disfavour he had acquired
+amongst his companions, by some one or other of them running up to him
+every moment when the Doctor's attention was called elsewhere, and
+startling his nerves by a sly jog or pinch, or an abusive epithet hissed
+viciously into his ears--Chawner being especially industrious in this
+respect.
+
+And in this unsatisfactory way the afternoon dragged along until the
+dusk gathered and the lamps were lighted, and it became too dark to see
+goal-posts or ball.
+
+By the time play was stopped and the school reformed for the march home,
+Mr. Bultitude felt that he was glad even to get back to labour as a
+relief from such a form of enjoyment. It was perhaps the most miserable
+afternoon he had ever spent in his whole easy-going life. In the course
+of it he had passed from brightest hope to utter despair; and now
+nothing remained to him but to convince the Doctor, which he felt quite
+unequal to do, or to make his escape without money--which would
+inevitably end in a recapture.
+
+May no one who reads this ever be placed upon the horns of such a
+dilemma!
+
+
+
+
+9. _A Letter from Home_
+
+     "Here are a few of the unpleasantest words
+     That ever blotted paper....
+                                A letter,
+     And every word in it a gaping wound."
+                                    _Merchant of Venice._
+
+
+If it were not that it was so absolutely essential to the interest of
+this story, I think I should almost prefer to draw a veil over the
+sufferings of Mr. Bultitude during the rest of that unhappy week at
+Crichton House; but it would only be false delicacy to do so.
+
+Things went worse and worse with him. The real Dick in his most
+objectionable moods could never have contrived to render himself one
+quarter so disliked and suspected as his substitute was by the whole
+school--masters and boys.
+
+It was in a great measure his own fault, too; for to an ordinary boy the
+life there would not have had any intolerable hardships, if it held out
+no exceptional attractions. But he would not accommodate himself to
+circumstances, and try, during his enforced stay, to get as much
+instruction and enjoyment as possible out of his new life.
+
+Perhaps, in his position, it would be too much to expect such a thing
+and, at all events, it never even occurred to him to attempt it. He
+consumed himself instead with inward raging and chafing at his hard lot,
+and his utter powerlessness to break the spell which bound him.
+
+Sometimes, indeed, he would resolve to bear it no longer, and would
+start up impulsively to impart his misfortunes to some one in minor
+authority--not the Doctor, he had given that up in resigned despair long
+since. But as surely as ever he found himself coming to the point, the
+words would stick fast in his throat, and he was only too thankful to
+get away, with his tale untold, on any frivolous pretext that first
+suggested itself.
+
+This, of course, brought him into suspicion, for such conduct had the
+appearance of a systematic course of practical joking, and even the most
+impartial teachers will sometimes form an unfavourable opinion of a
+particular boy on rather slender grounds, and then find fresh
+confirmation of it in his most insignificant actions.
+
+As for the school generally, his scowls and his sullenness, his
+deficiency in the daring and impudence that had warmed their hearts
+towards Dick, and, above all, his strange knack of getting them into
+trouble--for he seldom received what he considered an indignity without
+making a formal complaint--all this brought him as much hearty dislike
+and contempt as, perhaps, the most unsympathetic boy ever earned since
+boarding-schools were first invented.
+
+The only boy who still seemed to retain a secret tenderness for him, as
+the Dick he had once looked up to and admired, was Jolland, who
+persisted in believing, and in stating his belief, that this apparent
+change of demeanour was a perverted kind of joke on Bultitude's part,
+which he would condescend to explain some day when it had gone far
+enough, and he wearied and annoyed Paul beyond endurance by perpetually
+urging him to abandon his ill-judged experiment and discover the point
+of the jest.
+
+But for Jolland's help, which he persevered in giving in spite of the
+opposition and unpopularity it brought upon himself, Mr. Bultitude would
+have found it impossible to make any pretence of performing the tasks
+required of him.
+
+He found himself expected, as a matter of course, to have a certain
+familiarity with Greek paradigms and German conversation scraps,
+propositions in Euclid and Latin gerunds, of all of which, having had a
+strict commercial education in his young days, he had not so much as
+heard before his metamorphosis. But by carefully copying Jolland's
+exercises, and introducing enough mistakes of his own to supply the
+necessary local colour, he was able to escape to a great degree the
+discovery of his blank ignorance on all these subjects--an ignorance
+which would certainly have been put down as mere idleness and obstinacy.
+
+But it will be readily believed that he lived in constant fear of such
+discovery, and as it was, his dependence on a little scamp like his
+son's friend was a sore humiliation to one who had naturally supposed
+hitherto that any knowledge he had not happened to acquire could only be
+meretricious and useless.
+
+He led a nightmare sort of existence for some days, until something
+happened which roused him from his state of passive misery into one more
+attempt at protest.
+
+It was Saturday morning, and he had come down to breakfast, after being
+knocked about as usual in the dormitory over night, with a dull wonder
+how long this horrible state of things could possibly be going to last,
+when he saw on his plate a letter with the Paddington post-mark,
+addressed in a familiar hand--his daughter Barbara's.
+
+For an instant his hopes rose high. Surely the impostor had been found
+out at last, and the envelope would contain an urgent invitation to him
+to come back and resume his rights--an invitation which he might show to
+the Doctor as his best apology.
+
+But when he looked at the address, which was "Master Richard Bultitude,"
+he felt a misgiving. It was unlikely that Barbara would address him thus
+if she knew the truth; he hesitated before tearing it open.
+
+Then he tried to persuade himself that of course she would have the
+sense to keep up appearances for his own sake on the outside of the
+letter, and he compelled himself to open the envelope with fingers that
+trembled nervously.
+
+The very first sentences scattered his faint expectations to the winds.
+He read on with staring eyes, till the room seemed to rock with him like
+a packet-boat and the sprawling school-girl handwriting, crossed and
+recrossed on the thin paper, changed to letters of scorching flame. But
+perhaps it will be better to give the letter in full, so that the reader
+may judge for himself whether it was calculated or not to soothe and
+encourage the exiled one.
+
+Here it is:
+
+
+     "MY DEAREST DARLING DICK,--I hope you have not been expecting a
+     letter from me before this, but I had such lots to tell you that I
+     waited till I had time to tell it all at once. For I have such news
+     for you! You can't think how pleased you will be when you hear it.
+     Where shall I begin? I hardly know, for it still seems so funny and
+     strange--almost like a dream--only I hope we shall never wake up.
+
+     "I think I must tell you anyhow, just as it comes. Well, ever since
+     you went away, dear Father has been completely changed; you would
+     hardly believe it unless you saw him. He is quite jolly and
+     boyish--only fancy! and we are always telling him he is the biggest
+     baby of us all, but it only makes him laugh. Once, you know, he
+     would have been awfully angry if we had even hinted at it.
+
+     "Do you know, I really think that the real reason he was so cross
+     and sharp with us that last week was because you were going away;
+     for now the wrench of parting is over, he is quite light-hearted
+     again. You know how he always hates showing his feelings.
+
+     "He is so altered now, you can't think. He has actually only once
+     been up to the city since you left, and then he came home at four
+     o'clock, and he seems to quite like to have us all about him.
+     Generally he stays at home all the morning and plays at soldiers
+     with baby in the dining-room. You would laugh to see him loading
+     the cannons with real powder and shot, and he didn't care a bit
+     when some of it made holes in the sideboard and smashed the
+     looking-glass.
+
+     "We had such fun the other afternoon; we played at brigands--papa
+     and all of us. Papa had the upper conservatory for a robber-cave,
+     and stood there keeping guard with your pop-gun; and he wouldn't
+     let the servants go by without a kiss, unless they showed a written
+     pass from us! Miss McFadden called in the middle of it, but she
+     said she wouldn't come in, as papa seemed to be enjoying himself
+     so. Boaler has given warning, but we can't think why. We have been
+     out nearly every evening--once to Hengler's and once to the Christy
+     Minstrels, and last night to the Pantomime, where papa was so
+     pleased with the clown that he sent round afterwards and asked him
+     to dine here on Sunday, when Sir Benjamin and Lady Bangle and
+     Alderman Fishwick are coming. Won't it be jolly to see a clown
+     close to? Should you think he'd come in _his_ evening dress? Miss
+     Mangnall has been given a month's holiday, because papa didn't like
+     to see us always at lessons. Think of that!
+
+     "We are going to have the whole house done up and refurnished at
+     last. Papa chose the furniture for the drawing-room yesterday. It
+     is all in yellow satin, which is rather bright, I think. I haven't
+     seen the carpet yet, but it is to match the furniture; and there is
+     a lovely hearthrug, with a lion-hunt worked on it.
+
+     "But that isn't the best of it; we are going to have the big
+     children's party after all! No one but children invited, and
+     everyone to do exactly what they like. I wanted so much to have you
+     home for it, but papa says it would only unsettle you and take you
+     away from your work.
+
+     "Had Dulcie forgotten you? I should like to see her so much. Now I
+     really must leave off, as I am going to the Aquarium with papa.
+     Mind you write me as good a letter as this is, if that old Doctor
+     lets you. Minnie and Roly send love and kisses, and papa sends his
+     kind regards, and I am to say he hopes you are settling down
+     steadily to work.
+
+                              "With best love, your affectionate sister,
+                                              "BARBARA BULTITUDE."
+
+     "P.S.--I nearly forgot to say that Uncle Duke came the other day
+     and has stayed here ever since. He is going to make papa's fortune!
+     I believe by a gold mine he knows about somewhere, and a steam
+     tramway in Lapland. But I don't like him very much--he is so
+     polite."
+
+
+It would be nothing short of an insult to the reader's comprehension, if
+I were to enter into an elaborate explanation of the effect this letter
+had upon Mr. Bultitude. He took it in by degrees, trying to steady his
+nerves at each additional item of poor Barbara's well-meant intelligence
+by a sip at his tin-flavoured coffee. But when he came to the
+postscript, in spite of its purport being mercifully broken to him
+gradually by the extreme difficulty of making it out from two
+undercurrents of manuscript, he choked convulsively and spilt his
+coffee.
+
+Dr. Grimstone visited this breach of etiquette with stern promptness.
+"This conduct at table is disgraceful, sir--perfectly
+disgraceful--unworthy of a civilised being. I have been a teacher of
+youth for many years, and never till now did I have the pain of seeing a
+pupil of mine choke in his breakfast-cup with such deplorable
+ill-breeding. It's pure greediness, sir, and you will have the goodness
+to curb your indecent haste in consuming your food for the future. Your
+excellent father has frequently complained to me, with tears in his
+eyes, of the impossibility of teaching you to behave at meals with
+common propriety!"
+
+There was a faint chuckle along the tables, and several drank coffee
+with studied elegance and self-repression either as a valuable example
+to Dick, or as a personal advertisement. But Paul was in no mood for
+reproof and instruction. He stood up in his excitement, flourishing his
+letter wildly.
+
+"Dr. Grimstone!" he said; "never mind my behaviour now. I've something
+to tell you. I can't bear it any longer. I must go home at once--at
+once, sir!"
+
+There was a general sensation at this, for his manner was peremptory and
+almost dictatorial. Some thought he would get a licking on the strength
+of it, and most hoped so. But the Doctor dismissed them to the
+playground, keeping Paul back to be dealt with in privacy.
+
+Mrs. Grimstone played nervously with her dry toast at the end of the
+table, for she could not endure to see the boys in trouble and dreaded a
+scene, while Dulcie looked on with wide bright eyes.
+
+"Now, sir," said the Doctor, looking up from his marmalade, "why must
+you go home at once?"
+
+"I've just had a letter," stammered Paul.
+
+"No one ill at home, I hope?"
+
+"No, no," said Paul. "It's not that; it's worse! She doesn't know what
+horrible things she tells me!"
+
+"Who is 'she'?" said the Doctor--and Dulcie's eyes were larger still and
+her face paled.
+
+"I decline to say," said Mr. Bultitude. It would have been absurd to say
+'my daughter,' and he had not presence of mind just then to transpose
+the relationships with neatness and success. "But indeed I am wanted
+most badly!"
+
+"What are you wanted for, pray?"
+
+"Everything!" declared Paul; "it's all going to rack and ruin without
+me!"
+
+"That's absurd," said the Doctor; "you're not such an important
+individual as all that, Bultitude. But let me see the letter."
+
+Show him the letter--lay bare all those follies of Dick's, the burden
+of which he might have to bear himself very shortly--never! Besides,
+what would be the use of it? It would be no argument in favour of
+sending him home--rather the reverse--so Paul was obliged to say,
+"Excuse me, Dr. Grimstone, it is--ah--of a private nature. I don't feel
+at liberty to show it to anyone."
+
+"Then, sir," said the Doctor, with some reason, "if you can't tell me
+who or what it is that requires your presence at home, and decline to
+show me the letter which would presumably give me some idea on the
+subject, how do you expect that I am to listen to such a preposterous
+demand--eh? Just tell me that!"
+
+Once more would Paul have given worlds for the firmness and presence of
+mind to state his case clearly and effectively; and he could hardly have
+had a better opportunity, for schoolmasters cannot always be playing the
+tyrant, and the Doctor was, in spite of his attempts to be stern,
+secretly more amused than angry at what seemed a peculiarly precocious
+piece of effrontery.
+
+But Paul felt the dismal absurdity of his position. Nothing he had said,
+nothing he could say, short of the truth, would avail him, and the truth
+was precisely what he felt most unable to tell. He hung his head
+resignedly, and held his tongue in confusion.
+
+"Pooh!" said the Doctor at last; "let me have no more of this
+tomfoolery, Bultitude. It's getting to be a positive nuisance. Don't
+come to me with any more of these ridiculous stories, or some day I
+shall be annoyed. There, go away, and be contented where you are, and
+try to behave like other people."
+
+"'Contented!'" muttered Paul, when out of hearing, as he went upstairs
+and through the empty schoolroom into the playground. "'Behave like
+other people!' Ah, yes, I suppose I shall have to come to that in time.
+But that letter---- Everything upside down---- Bangle asked to meet a
+common clown! That fellow Duke letting me in for gold-mines and
+tramways! It's all worse than I ever dreamed of; and I must stay here
+and be 'contented!' It's--it's perfectly damnable!"
+
+All through that morning his thoughts ran in the same doleful groove,
+until the time for work came to an end, and he found himself in the
+playground, and free to indulge his melancholy for a few minutes in
+solitude; for the others were still loitering about in the schoolroom,
+and a glass outhouse originally intended for a conservatory, but now
+devoted to boots and slates, and the books liberally besmeared with
+gilt, and telling of the exploits of boy-heroes so beloved of boys.
+
+Mr. Bultitude, only too delighted to get away from them for a little
+while, was leaning against the parallel bars in dull despondency, when
+he heard a rustling in the laurel hedge which cut off the house garden
+from the gravelled playground, and looking up, saw Dulcie slip through
+the shrubs and come towards him with an air of determination in her
+proud little face.
+
+She looked prettier and daintier than ever in her grey hat and warm fur
+tippet; but of course Paul was not of the age or in the mood to be much
+affected by such things--he turned his head pettishly away.
+
+"It's no use doing that, Dick," she said: "I'm tired of sulking. I
+shan't sulk any more till I have an explanation."
+
+Paul made the sound generally written "Pshaw!"
+
+"You ought to tell me everything. I will know it. Oh, Dick, you might
+tell me! I always told you anything you wanted to know; and I let mamma
+think it was I broke the clock-shade last term, and you know you did it.
+And I want to know something so very badly!"
+
+"It's no use coming to _me_, you know," said Paul. "I can't do anything
+for you."
+
+"Yes, you can; you know you can!" said Dulcie impulsively. "You can tell
+me what was in that letter you had at breakfast--and you shall too!"
+
+"What an inquisitive little girl you are," said Paul sententiously.
+"It's not nice for little girls to be so inquisitive--it doesn't look
+well."
+
+"I knew it!" cried Dulcie; "you don't want to tell me--because--because
+it's from that other horrid girl you like better than me. And you
+promised to belong to me for ever and ever, and now it's all over! Say
+it isn't! Oh, Dick, promise to give the other girl up. I'm sure she's
+not a nice girl. She's written you an unkind letter; now hasn't she?"
+
+"Upon my word," said Paul, "this is very forward; at your age too. Why,
+my Barbara----"
+
+"Your Barbara! you dare to call her that? Oh, I knew I was right; I
+_will_ see that letter now. Give it me this instant!" said Dulcie
+imperiously; and Paul really felt almost afraid of her.
+
+"No, no," he said, retreating a step or two, "it's all a mistake;
+there's nothing to get into such a passion about--there isn't indeed!
+And--don't cry--you're really a pretty little girl. I only wish I could
+tell you everything; but you'd never believe me!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I would, Dick!" protested Dulcie, only too willing to be
+convinced of her boy-lover's constancy; "I'll believe anything, if
+you'll only tell me. And I'm sorry I was so angry. Sit down by me and
+tell me from the very beginning. I promise not to interrupt."
+
+Paul thought for a moment. After all, why shouldn't he? It was much
+pleasanter to tell his sorrows to her little ear and hear her childish
+wonder and pity than face her terrible father--he had tried that. And
+then she might tell her mother; and so his story might reach the
+Doctor's ears after all, without further effort on his part.
+
+"Well," he said at last, "I think you're a good-natured little girl; you
+won't laugh. Perhaps I will tell you!"
+
+So he sat down on the bench by the wall, and Dulcie, quite happy again
+now at this proof of good faith, nestled up against him confidingly,
+waiting for his first words with parted lips and eager sparkling eyes.
+
+"Not many days ago," began Paul, "I was somebody very different
+from----"
+
+"Oh, indeed," said a jarring, sneering voice close by; "was you?" And he
+looked up and saw Tipping standing over him with a plainly hostile
+intent.
+
+"Go away, Tipping," said Dulcie; "we don't want you. Dick is telling me
+a secret."
+
+"He's very fond of telling, I know," retorted Tipping. "If you knew what
+a sneak he was you'd have nothing to do with him, Dulcie. I could tell
+you things about him that----"
+
+"He's not a sneak," said Dulcie. "Are you, Dick? Why don't you go,
+Tipping. Never mind what he says, Dick; go on as if he wasn't there. I
+don't care what he says!"
+
+It was a most unpleasant situation for Mr. Bultitude, but he did not
+like to offend Tipping. "I--I think--some other time, perhaps," he said
+nervously. "Not now."
+
+"Ah, you're afraid to say what you were going to say now I'm here," said
+the amiable Tipping, nettled by Dulcie's little air of haughty disdain.
+"You're a coward; you know you are. You pretend to think such a lot of
+Dulcie here, but you daren't fight!"
+
+"Fight!" said Mr. Bultitude. "Eh, what for?"
+
+"Why, for her, of course. You can't care much about her if you daren't
+fight for her. I want to show her who's the best man of the two!"
+
+"I don't want to be shown," wailed poor Dulcie piteously, clinging to
+the reluctant Paul; "I know. Don't fight with him, Dick. I say you're
+not to."
+
+"Certainly not!" said Mr. Bultitude with great decision. "I shouldn't
+think of such a thing!" and he rose from the bench and was about to walk
+away, when Tipping suddenly pulled off his coat and began to make sundry
+demonstrations of a martial nature, such as dancing aggressively towards
+his rival and clenching his fists.
+
+By this time most of the other boys had come down into the playground,
+and were looking on with great interest. There was an element of romance
+in this promised combat which gave it additional attractions. It was
+like one of the struggles between knightly champions in the Waverley
+novels. Several of them would have fought till they couldn't see out of
+their eyes if it would have given them the least chance of obtaining
+favour in Dulcie's sight, and they all envied Dick, who was the only boy
+that was not unmercifully snubbed by their capricious little princess.
+
+Paul alone was blind to the splendour of his privileges. He examined
+Tipping carefully, as the latter was still assuming a hostile attitude
+and chanting a sort of war-cry supposed to be an infallible incentive to
+strife.
+
+"Yah, you're afraid!" he sang very offensively. "I wouldn't be a funk!"
+
+"Pooh!" said Paul at last; "go away, sir, go away!"
+
+"Go away, eh?" jeered Tipping. "Who are you to tell me to go away? Go
+away yourself!"
+
+"Certainly," said Paul, only too happy to oblige. But he found himself
+prevented by a ring of excited backers.
+
+"Don't funk it, Dick!" cried some, forgetting recent ill-feeling in the
+necessity for partisanship. "Go in and settle him as you did that last
+time. I'll second you. You can do it!"
+
+"Don't hit each other in the face," pleaded Dulcie, who had got upon a
+bench and was looking down into the ring--not, if the truth must be
+told, without a certain pleasurable excitement in the feeling that it
+was all about her.
+
+And now Mr. Bultitude discovered that he was seriously expected to fight
+this great hulking boy, and that the sole reason for any disagreement
+was an utterly unfounded jealousy respecting this little girl Dulcie. He
+had not a grain of chivalry in his disposition--chivalry being an
+eminently unpractical virtue--and naturally he saw no advantage in
+letting himself be mauled for the sake of a child younger than his own
+daughter.
+
+Dulcie's appeal enraged Tipping, who took it as addressed solely to
+himself. "You ought to be glad to stick up for her," he said between his
+teeth. "I'll mash you for this--see if I don't!"
+
+Paul thought he saw his way clear to disabuse Tipping of his mistaken
+idea. "Are you proposing," he asked politely, "to--to 'mash' me on
+account of that little girl there on the seat?"
+
+"You'll soon see," growled Tipping. "Shut your head, and come on!"
+
+"No, but I want to know," persisted Mr. Bultitude. "Because," he said
+with a sickly attempt at jocularity which delighted none, "you see, I
+don't want to be mashed. I'm not a potato. If I understand you aright,
+you want to fight me because you think me likely to interfere with your
+claim to that little girl's--ah--affections?"
+
+"That's it," said Tipping gruffly; "so you'd better waste no more words
+about it, and come on."
+
+"But I don't care about coming on," protested Paul earnestly. "It's all
+a mistake. I've no doubt she's a very nice little girl, but I assure
+you, my good boy, I've no desire to stand in your way for one instant.
+She's nothing to me--nothing at all! I give her up to you. Take her,
+young fellow, with my blessing! There, now, that's all settled
+comfortably--eh?"
+
+He was just looking round with a self-satisfied and relieved air, when
+he began to be aware that his act of frank unselfishness was not as much
+appreciated as it deserved. Tipping, indeed, looked baffled and
+irresolute for one moment, but a low murmur of disgust arose from the
+bystanders, and even Jolland declared that it was "too beastly mean."
+
+As for Dulcie, she had been looking on incredulously at her champion's
+unaccountable tardiness in coming to the point. But this public
+repudiation was too much for her. She gave a little low wail as she
+heard the shameless words of recantation, and then, without a word,
+jumped lightly down from her bench and ran away to hide herself
+somewhere and cry.
+
+Even Paul, though he knew that he had done nothing but what was strictly
+right, and had acted purely in self-protection, felt unaccountably
+ashamed of himself as he saw this effect of his speech. But it was too
+late now.
+
+
+
+
+10. _The Complete Letter-Writer_
+
+     "Accelerated by ignominious shovings--nay, as it is written, by
+     smitings, twitchings, spurnings _à posteriori_ not to be
+     named."                                     --_French Revolution._
+
+     "This letter being so excellently ignorant will breed no terror in
+     the youth."--_Twelfth Night._
+
+
+Mr. Bultitude had meant to achieve a double stroke of diplomacy--to
+undeceive Dulcie and conciliate the lovesick Tipping. But whatever his
+success may have been in the former respect, the latter object failed
+conspicuously.
+
+"You shan't get off by a shabby trick like that," said Tipping,
+exasperated by the sight of Dulcie's emotion; "you've made her cry now,
+and you shall smart for it. So, now, are you going to stand up to me
+like a man, or will you take a licking?"
+
+"I'm not going to help you to commit a breach of the peace," said Paul
+with great dignity. "Go away, you quarrelsome young ruffian! Get one of
+your schoolfellows to fight you, if you must fight. I don't want to be
+mixed up with you in any way."
+
+But at this Tipping, whose blood was evidently at boiling point, came
+prancing down on him in a Zulu-like fashion, swinging his long arms like
+a windmill, and finding that his enemy made no attempt at receiving him,
+but only moved away apprehensively, he seized him by the collar as a
+prelude to dealing him a series of kicks behind.
+
+Although Mr. Bultitude, as we have seen, was opposed to fighting as a
+system he could not submit to this sort of thing without at least some
+attempt to defend himself; and judging it of the highest importance to
+disable his adversary in the most effectual manner before the latter had
+time to carry out his offensive designs, he turned sharply round and hit
+him a very severe blow in the lower part of his waistcoat.
+
+The result fulfilled his highest expectations. Tipping collapsed like a
+pocket-rule, and staggered away speechless, and purple with pain, while
+Paul stood calm and triumphant. He had shown these fellows that he
+wasn't going to stand any nonsense. They would leave him alone after
+this, perhaps.
+
+But once more there were cries and murmurs of "Shame!" "No hitting below
+the belt!" "Cad--coward!"
+
+It appeared that, somehow, he had managed to offend their prejudices
+even in this. "It's very odd," he thought; "when I didn't fight they
+called me a coward, and now, when I do, I don't seem to have pleased
+them much. I don't care, though. I've settled _him_."
+
+But after a season of protracted writhing by the parallel bars, Tipping
+came out, still gasping and deadly pale, leaning on Biddlecomb's
+shoulder, and was met with universal sympathy and condolence.
+
+"Thanks!" he said with considerable effort. "Of course--I'm not
+going--to fight him after a low trick like that; but perhaps you fellows
+will see that he doesn't escape quite as easily as he fancies?"
+
+There was a general shout. "No; he shall pay for it! We'll teach him to
+fight fair! We'll see if he tries that on again!"
+
+Paul heard it with much uneasiness. What new devilry were they about to
+practise upon him? He was not left long in doubt.
+
+"I vote," suggested Biddlecomb, as if he were proposing a testimonial,
+"we make him run the gauntlet. Grim won't come out and catch us. I saw
+him go out for a drive an hour ago." And the idea was very favourably
+entertained.
+
+Paul had heard of "running the gauntlet," and dimly suspected that it
+was not an experience he was likely to enjoy, particularly when he saw
+everyone busying himself with tying the end of his pocket-handkerchief
+into a hard knot. He tried in vain to excuse himself, declaring again
+and again that he had never meant to injure the boy. He had only
+defended himself, and was under the impression that he was at perfect
+liberty to hit him wherever he could, and so on. But they were in no
+mood for excuses.
+
+With a stern magisterial formality worthy of a Vehm-Gericht, they formed
+in two long lines down the centre of the playground; and while Paul was
+still staring in wonder at what this strange manoeuvre might mean,
+somebody pounced upon him and carried him up to one end of the ranks,
+where Tipping had by this time sufficiently recovered to be able to "set
+him going," as he chose to call it, with a fairly effective kick.
+
+After that he had a confused sense of flying madly along the double line
+of avengers under a hail of blows which caught him on every part of his
+head, shoulders, and back till he reached the end, where he was
+dexterously turned and sent spinning up to Tipping again, who in his
+turn headed him back on his arrival, and forced him to brave the
+terrible lane once more.
+
+Never before had Mr. Bultitude felt so sore and insulted. But they kept
+it up long after the thing had lost its first freshness--until at last
+exhaustion made them lean to mercy, and they cuffed him ignominiously
+into a corner, and left him to lament his ill-treatment there till the
+bell rang for dinner, for which, contrary to precedent, his recent
+violent exercise had excited little appetite.
+
+"I shall be killed soon if I stay here," he moaned; "I know I shall.
+These young brigands would murder me cheerfully, if they were not
+afraid of being caned for it. I'm a miserable man, and I wish I was
+dead!"
+
+Although that afternoon, being Saturday, was a half-holiday, Mr.
+Bultitude was spared the ordeal of another game at football; for a smart
+storm of rain and sleet coming on about three o'clock kept the
+school--not altogether unwilling prisoners--within doors for the day.
+
+The boys sat in their places in their schoolroom, amusing themselves
+after their several fashions--some reading, some making libellous copies
+of drawings that took their fancy in the illustrated papers, some
+playing games; others, too listless to play and too dull to find
+pleasure in the simplest books, filled up the time as well as they could
+by quarrelling and getting into various depths of hot water. Paul sat in
+a corner pretending to read a story relating the experiences of certain
+infants of phenomenal courage and coolness in the Arctic regions. They
+killed bears and tamed walruses all through the book; but for the first
+time, perhaps, since their appearance in print their exploits fell flat.
+Not, however, that this reflected any discredit upon the author's
+powers, which are justly admired by all healthy-minded boys; but it was
+beyond the power of literature just then to charm Mr. Bultitude's
+thoughts from the recollection of his misfortunes.
+
+As he took in all the details of his surroundings--the warm close room;
+the raw-toned desks and tables at which a rabble of unsympathetic boys
+were noisily whispering and chattering, with occasional glances in his
+direction, from which, taught by experience, he augured no good; the
+high uncurtained windows, blurred with little stars of half-frozen rain,
+and the bare, bleak branches of the trees outside tossing drearily
+against a low leaden sky--he tried in vain to cheat himself into a
+dreamy persuasion that all this misery could not be real, but would fade
+away as suddenly and mysteriously as it had stolen upon him.
+
+Towards the close of the afternoon the Doctor came in and took his
+place at the writing-table, where he was apparently very busy with the
+composition of some sort of document, which he finished at last with
+evident satisfaction at the result of his labour. Then he observed that,
+according to their custom of a Saturday afternoon, the hour before
+tea-time should be devoted to "writing home."
+
+So the books, chess-boards, and dominoes were all put away, and a new
+steel pen and a sheet of notepaper, neatly embossed with the heading
+"Crichton House School" in old English letters, having been served out
+to everyone, each boy prepared himself to write down such things as
+filial affection, strict truthfulness, and the desire of imparting
+information might inspire between them.
+
+Paul felt, as he clutched his writing materials, much as a shipwrecked
+mariner might be expected to do at finding on his desolate island a
+good-sized flag and a case of rockets. His hopes revived once more; he
+forgot the smarts left by the knots in the handkerchiefs, he had a whole
+hour before him--it was possible to set several wires in motion for his
+release in an hour.
+
+Yes, he must write several letters. First, one to his solicitor
+detailing, as calmly and concisely as his feelings would allow, the
+shameful way in which he had been treated, and imploring him to take
+measures of some sort for getting him out of his false and awkward
+position; one to his head clerk, to press upon him the necessity of
+prudence and caution in dealing with the impostor; notes to Bangle and
+Fishwick putting them off--they should not be outraged by an
+introduction to a vulgar pantomime clown under his roof; and lastly
+(this was an outburst he could not deny himself), a solemn impressive
+appeal to the common humanity, if not to the ordinary filial instincts,
+of his undutiful son.
+
+His fingers tingled to begin. Sentences of burning, indignant eloquence
+crowded confusedly into his head--he would write such letters as would
+carry instant conviction to the most practical and matter-of-fact
+minds. The pathos and dignity of his remonstrances should melt even
+Dick's selfish, callous heart.
+
+Perhaps he overrated the power of his pen--perhaps it would have
+required more than mere ink to persuade his friends to disbelieve their
+own senses, and see a portly citizen of over fifty packed into the frame
+of a chubby urchin of fourteen. But, at all events, no one's faith was
+put to so hard a test--those letters were never written.
+
+"Don't begin to write yet, any of you," said the Doctor; "I have a few
+words to say to you first. In most cases, and as a general rule, I think
+it wisest to let every boy commit to paper whatever his feelings may
+dictate to him. I wish to claim no censorship over the style and diction
+of your letters. But there have been so many complaints lately from the
+parents of some of the less advanced of you, that I find myself obliged
+to make a change. Your father particularly, Richard Bultitude," he
+added, turning suddenly upon the unlucky Paul, "has complained bitterly
+of the slovenly tone and phrasing of your correspondence; he said very
+justly that they would disgrace a stable-boy, and unless I could induce
+you to improve them, he begged he might not be annoyed by them in
+future."
+
+It was by no means the least galling part of Mr. Bultitude's trials,
+that former forgotten words and deeds of his in his original condition
+were constantly turning up at critical seasons, and plunging him deeper
+into the morass just when he saw some prospect of gaining firm ground.
+
+So, on this occasion, he did remember that, being in a more than usually
+bad temper one day last year, he had, on receiving a sprawling,
+ill-spelt application from Dick for more pocket-money, to buy fireworks
+for the 5th of November, written to make some such complaint to the
+schoolmaster. He waited anxiously for the Doctor's next words; he might
+want to read the letters before they were sent off, in which case Paul
+would not be displeased, for it would be an easier and less dangerous
+way of putting the Doctor in possession of the facts.
+
+But his complaints were to be honoured by a much more effectual remedy,
+for it naturally piqued the Doctor to be told that boys instructed under
+his auspices wrote like stable-boys. "However," he went on, "I wish your
+people at home to be assured from time to time of your welfare, and to
+prevent them from being shocked and distressed in future by the crudity
+of your communications, I have drawn up a short form of letter for the
+use of the lower boys in the second form--which I shall now proceed to
+dictate. Of course all boys in the first form, and all in the second
+above Bultitude and Jolland, will write as they please, as usual.
+Richard, I expect you to take particular pains to write this out neatly.
+Are you all ready? Very well then, ... now;" and he read out the
+following letter, slowly--
+
+"My dear Parents (or parent according to circumstances) comma" (all of
+which several took down most industriously)--"You will be rejoiced to
+hear that, having arrived with safety at our destination, we have by
+this time fully resumed our customary regular round of earnest work
+relieved and sweetened by hearty play. ('Have you all got "hearty play"
+down?'" inquired the Doctor rather suspiciously, while Jolland observed
+in an undertone that it would take some time to get _that_ down.) "I
+hope, I trust I may say without undue conceit, to have made considerable
+progress in my school-tasks before I rejoin the family circle for the
+Easter vacation, as I think you will admit when I inform you of the
+programme we intend" ('D.V. in brackets and capital letters'--as before,
+this was taken down verbatim by Jolland, who probably knew very much
+better), "intend to work out during the term.
+
+"In Latin, the class of which I am a member propose to thoroughly master
+the first book of Virgil's magnificent Epic, need I say I refer to the
+soul-moving story of the Pious Æneas?" (Jolland was understood by his
+near neighbours to remark that he thought the explanation distinctly
+advisable), "whilst, in Greek, we have already commenced the thrilling
+account of the 'Anabasis' of Xenophon, that master of strategy! nor
+shall we, of course, neglect in either branch of study the syntax and
+construction of those two noble languages"--("noble languages," echoed
+the writers mechanically, contriving to insinuate a touch of irony into
+the words).
+
+"In German under the able tutelage of Herr Stohwasser, who, as I may
+possibly have mentioned to you in casual conversation, is a graduate of
+the University of Heidelberg" ("and a silly old hass," added Jolland
+parenthetically), "we have resigned ourselves to the spell of the
+Teutonian Shakespeare" (there was much difference of opinion as to the
+manner of spelling the "Teutonian Shakespeare"), "as, in my opinion,
+Schiller may be not inaptly termed, and our French studies comprise such
+exercises, and short poems and tales, as are best calculated to afford
+an insight into the intricacies of the Gallic tongue.
+
+"But I would not have you imagine, my dear parents (or parent, as
+before), that, because the claims of the intellect have been thus amply
+provided for, the requirements of the body are necessarily overlooked!
+
+"I have no intention of becoming a mere bookworm, and, on the contrary,
+we have had one excessively brisk and pleasant game at football already
+this season, and should, but for the unfortunate inclemency of the
+weather, have engaged again this afternoon in the mimic warfare.
+
+"In the playground our favourite diversion is the game of 'chevy,' so
+called from the engagement famed in ballad and history (I allude to the
+battle of Chevy Chase), and indeed, my dear parents, in the rapid
+alternations of its fortunes and the diversity of its incident, the game
+(to my mind) bears a striking resemblance to the accounts of that
+ever-memorable contest.
+
+"I fear I must now relinquish my pen, as the time allotted for
+correspondence is fast waning to its close, and tea-time is approaching.
+Pray give my kindest remembrance to all my numerous friends and
+relatives, and accept my fondest love and affection for yourselves, and
+the various other members of the family circle.
+
+"I am, I am rejoiced to say, in the enjoyment of excellent health, and
+surrounded as I am by congenial companions, and employed in interesting
+and agreeable pursuits, it is superfluous to add that I am happy.
+
+"And now, my dear parents, believe me, your dutiful and affectionate
+son, so and so."
+
+The Doctor finished his dictation with a roll in his voice, as much as
+to say, "I think that will strike your respective parents as a chaste
+and classical composition; I think so!"
+
+But unexceptionable as its tone and sentiments undoubtedly were, it was
+far from expressing the feelings of Mr. Bultitude. The rest accepted it
+not unwillingly as an escape from the fatigue of original composition,
+but to him the neat, well-balanced sentences seemed a hollow mockery. As
+he wrote down each successive phrase, he wondered what Dick would think
+of it, and when at last it was finished, the precious hour had gone for
+another week!
+
+In speechless disgust but without protest, for his spirit was too broken
+by this last cruel disappointment, he had to fold, put into an envelope
+and direct this most misleading letter under the Doctor's superintending
+eye, which of course allowed him no chance of introducing a line or even
+a word to counteract the tone of self-satisfaction and contentment which
+breathed in every sentence of it.
+
+He saw it stamped, and put into the postbag, and then his last gleam of
+hope flickered out; he must give up struggling against the Inevitable;
+he must resign himself to be educated, and perhaps flogged here, while
+Dick was filling his house with clowns and pantaloons, destroying his
+reputation and damaging his credit at home. Perhaps, in course of time,
+he would grow accustomed to it, and, meanwhile, he would be as careful
+as possible to do and say nothing to make himself remarkable in any way,
+by which means he trusted, at least, to avoid any fresh calamity.
+
+And with this resolution he went to bed on Saturday night, feeling that
+this was a dreary finish to a most unpleasant week.
+
+
+
+
+11. _A Day of Rest_
+
+     "There was a letter indeed to be intercepted by a man's father to
+     do him good with him!"--_Every Man in his Humour._
+
+
+     "I cannot lose the thought yet of this letter,
+     Sent to my son; nor leave t' admire the change
+     Of manners, and the breeding of our youth
+     Within the kingdom, since myself was one."--_Ibid._
+
+
+Sunday came--a day which was to begin a new week for Mr. Bultitude, and,
+of course, for the rest of the Christian world as well. Whether that
+week would be better or worse than the one which had just passed away he
+naturally could not tell--it could hardly be much worse.
+
+But the Sunday itself, he anticipated, without, however, any very firm
+grounds for such an assumption, would be a day of brief but grateful
+respite; a day on which he might venture to claim much the same immunity
+as was enjoyed in former days by the insolvent; a day, in short, which
+would glide slowly by with the rather drowsy solemnity peculiar to the
+British sabbath as observed by all truly respectable persons.
+
+And yet that very Sunday, could he have foreseen it, was destined to be
+the most eventful day he had yet spent at Crichton House, where none had
+proved wanting in incident. During the next twelve hours he was to pass
+through every variety of unpleasant sensation. Embarrassment, suspense,
+fear, anxiety, dismay, and terror were to follow each other in rapid
+succession, and to wind up, strangely enough, with a delicious ecstasy
+of pure relief and happiness--a fatiguing programme for any middle-aged
+gentleman who had never cultivated his emotional faculties.
+
+Let me try to tell how this came about. The getting-up bell rang an hour
+later than on week-days, but the boys were expected to prepare certain
+tasks suitable for the day before they rose. Mr. Bultitude found that he
+was required to learn by heart a hymn in which the rhymes "join" and
+"divine," "throne" and "crown," were so happily wedded that either might
+conform to the other--a graceful concession to individual taste which is
+not infrequent in this class of poetry. Trivial as such a task may seem
+in these days of School Boards, it gave him infinite trouble and mental
+exertion, for he had not been called upon to commit anything of the kind
+to memory for many years, and after mastering that, there still remained
+a long chronological list (the dates approximately computed) of the
+leading events before and immediately after the Deluge, which was to be
+repeated "without looking at the book."
+
+While he was wrestling desperately with these, for he was determined, as
+I have said before, to do all in his power to keep himself out of
+trouble, Mrs. Grimstone, in her morning wrapper, paid a visit to the
+dormitories and, in spite of all Paul's attempts to excuse himself,
+insisted upon pomatuming his hair--an indignity which he felt acutely.
+
+"When she knows who I really am," he thought, "she'll be sorry she made
+such a point of it. If there's one thing upon earth I loathe more than
+another, it's marrow-oil pomade!"
+
+Then there was breakfast, at which Dr. Grimstone appeared, resplendent
+in glossy broadcloth, and dazzling shirt-front and semi-clerical white
+tie, and after breakfast, an hour in the schoolroom, during which the
+boys (by the aid of repeated references to the text) wrote out "from
+memory" the hymn they had learnt, while Paul managed somehow to stumble
+through his dates and events to the satisfaction of Mr. Tinkler, who, to
+increase his popularity, made a point of being as easily satisfied with
+such repetitions as he decently could.
+
+After that came the order to prepare for church. There was a general
+rush to the little room with the shelves and bandboxes, where church
+books were procured, and great-coats and tight kid gloves put on.
+
+When they were almost ready the Doctor came in, wearing his blandest and
+most paternal expression.
+
+"A--it's a collection Sunday to-day, boys," he said. "Have you all got
+your threepenny-bits ready? I like to see my boys give cheerfully and
+liberally of their abundance. If any boy does not happen to have any
+small change, I can accommodate him if he comes to me."
+
+And this he proceeded to do from a store he had with him of that most
+convenient coin--the chosen expression of a congregation's
+gratitude--the common silver threepence, for the school occupied a
+prominent position in the church, and had acquired a great reputation
+amongst the churchwardens for the admirable uniformity with which one
+young gentleman after another "put into the plate"; and this reputation
+the Doctor was naturally anxious that they should maintain.
+
+I am sorry to say that Mr. Bultitude, fearing lest he should be asked if
+he had the required sum about him, and thus his penniless condition
+might be discovered and bring him trouble, got behind the door at the
+beginning of the money-changing transactions and remained there till it
+was over--it seemed to him that it would be too paltry to be disgraced
+for want of threepence.
+
+Now, being thus completely furnished for their devotions, the school
+formed in couples in the hall and filed solemnly out for the march to
+church.
+
+Mr. Bultitude walked nearly last with Jolland, whose facile nature had
+almost forgotten his friend's shortcomings on the previous day. He kept
+up a perpetual flow of chatter which, as he never stopped for an answer,
+permitted Paul to indulge his own thoughts unrestrained.
+
+"Are you going to put your threepenny-bit in?" said Jolland; "I won't if
+you don't. Sometimes, you know, when the plate comes round, old Grim
+squints down the pews to see we don't shirk. Then I put in sixpence.
+Have you done your hymn? I do hate a hymn. What's the use of learning
+hymns? They won't mark you for them, you know, in any exam. I ever heard
+of, and it can't save you the expense of a hymnbook unless you learnt
+all the hymns in it, and that would take you years. Oh, I say, look!
+there's young Mutlow and his governor and mater. I wonder what Mutlow's
+governor does? Mutlow says he's a 'gentleman' if you ask him, but I
+believe he lies. See that fly driving past? Mother Grim" (the irreverent
+youth always spoke of Mrs. Grimstone in this way) "and Dulcie are in it.
+I saw Dulcie look at you, Dick. It's a shame to treat her as you did
+yesterday. There's young Tom on the box; don't his ears stick out
+rummily? I wonder if the 'ugly family' will be at church to-day? You
+know the ugly family; all with their mouths open and their eyes
+goggling, like a jolly old row of pantomime heads. And oh, Dick, suppose
+Connie Davenant's people have changed their pew--that'll be a sell for
+you rather, won't it?"
+
+"I don't understand you," said Mr. Bultitude stiffly; "and, if you don't
+object, I prefer not to be called upon to talk just now."
+
+"Oh, all right!" said Jolland, "there aren't so many fellows who will
+talk to you; but just as you please--I don't want to talk."
+
+And so the pair walked on in silence; Jolland with his nose in the air,
+determined that after this he really must cut his former friend as the
+other fellows had done, since his devotion was appreciated so little,
+and Paul watching the ascending double line of tall chimney-pot hats as
+they surged before him in regular movement, and feeling a dull wonder at
+finding himself setting out to church in such ill-assorted company.
+
+They entered the church, and Paul was sent down to the extreme end of a
+pew next to the one reserved for the Doctor and his family. Dulcie was
+sitting there already on the other side of the partition; but she gave
+no sign of having noticed his arrival, being apparently absorbed in
+studying the rose-window over the altar.
+
+He sat down in his corner with a sense of rest and almost comfort,
+though the seat was not a cushioned one. He had the inoffensive Kiffin
+for a neighbour, his chief tormentors were far away from him in one of
+the back pews, and here at least he thought no harm could come to him.
+He could allow himself safely to do what I am afraid he generally did do
+under the circumstances--snatch a few intermittent but sweet periods of
+dreamless slumber.
+
+But, while the service was proceeding, Mr. Bultitude was suddenly
+horrified to observe that a young lady, who occupied a pew at right
+angles to and touching that in which he sat, was deliberately making
+furtive signals to him in a most unmistakable manner.
+
+She was a decidedly pretty girl of about fifteen, with merry and daring
+blue eyes and curling golden hair, and was accompanied by two small
+brothers (who shared the same book and dealt each other stealthy and
+vicious kicks throughout the service), and by her father, a stout,
+short-sighted old gentleman in gold spectacles, who was perpetually
+making the wrong responses in a loud and confident tone.
+
+To be signalled to in a marked manner by a strange young lady of great
+personal attractions might be a coveted distinction to other schoolboys,
+but it simply gave Mr. Bultitude cold thrills.
+
+"I suppose _that's_ 'Connie Davenant,'" he thought, shocked beyond
+measure as she caught his eye and coughed demurely for about the fourth
+time. "A very forward young person! I think somebody ought to speak
+seriously to her father."
+
+"Good gracious! she's writing something on the flyleaf of her
+prayer-book," he said to himself presently. "I hope she's not going to
+send it to _me_. I won't take it. She ought to be ashamed of herself!"
+
+Miss Davenant was indeed busily engaged in pencilling something on a
+blank sheet of paper; and, having finished, she folded it deftly into a
+cocked-hat, wrote a few words on the outside, and placed it between the
+leaves of her book.
+
+Then, as the congregation rose for the Psalms, she gave a meaning glance
+at the blushing and scandalised Mr. Bultitude and by dexterous
+management of her prayer-book shot the little cocked-hat, as if
+unconsciously, into the next pew.
+
+By a very unfortunate miscalculation, however, the note missed its
+proper object, and, clearing the partition, fluttered deliberately down
+on the floor by Dulcie's feet.
+
+Paul saw this with alarm; he knew that at all hazards he must get that
+miserable note into his own possession and destroy it. It might have his
+name somewhere about it; it might seriously compromise him.
+
+So he took advantage of the noise the congregation made in repeating a
+verse aloud (it was not a high church) to whisper to Dulcie: "Little
+Miss Grimstone, excuse me, but there's a--a note in the pew down by your
+feet. I believe it's intended for me."
+
+Dulcie had seen the whole affair and had been not a little puzzled by
+it, a clandestine correspondence being a new thing in her short
+experience; but she understood that in this golden-haired girl, her
+elder by several years, she saw her rival, for whom Dick had so basely
+abandoned her yesterday, and she was old enough to feel the slight and
+the sweetness of revenge.
+
+So she held her head rather higher than usual, with her firm little chin
+projecting wilfully, and waited for the next verse but one before
+retorting, "Little Master Bultitude, I know it is."
+
+"Could you--can you manage to reach it?" whispered Paul entreatingly.
+
+"Yes," said Dulcie, "I could."
+
+"Then will you--when they sit down?"
+
+"No," said Dulcie firmly, "I shan't."
+
+The other girl, she noticed with satisfaction, had become aware of the
+situation and was evidently uneasy. She looked as imploringly as she
+dared at remorseless little Dulcie, as if appealing to her not to get
+her into trouble; but Dulcie bent her eyes obstinately on her book and
+would not see her.
+
+If the letter had been addressed to any other boy in the school, she
+would have done her best to shield the culprits; but this she could not
+bring herself to do here. She found a malicious pleasure in remaining
+absolutely neutral, which of course was very wrong and ill-natured of
+her.
+
+Mr. Bultitude began now to be seriously alarmed. The fatal paper must be
+seen by some one in the Doctor's pew as soon as the congregation sat
+down again; and, if it reached the Doctor's hands, it was impossible to
+say what misconstruction he might put upon it or what terrible
+consequences might not follow.
+
+He was innocent, perfectly innocent; but though the consciousness of
+innocence is frequently a great consolation, he felt that unless he
+could imbue the Doctor with it as well, it would not save him from a
+flogging.
+
+So he made one more desperate attempt to soften Dulcie's resolution:
+"Don't be a naughty little girl," he said, very injudiciously for his
+purpose, "I tell you I must have it. You'll get me into a terrible mess
+if you're not careful!"
+
+But although Dulcie had been extremely well brought up, I regret to say
+that the only answer she chose to make to this appeal was that slight
+contortion of the features, which with a pretty girl is euphemised as a
+"_moue_," and with a plain one is called "making a face." When he saw it
+he knew that all hope of changing her purpose must be abandoned.
+
+Then they all sat down, and, as Paul had foreseen, there the white
+cocked-hat lay on the dark pew-carpet, hideously distinct, with _billet
+doux_ in every fold of it!
+
+It could only be a question of time now. The curate was reading the
+first lesson for the day, but Mr. Bultitude heard not a verse of it. He
+was waiting with bated breath for the blow to fall.
+
+It fell at last. Dulcie, either with the malevolent idea of hastening
+the crisis, or (which I prefer to believe for my own part) finding that
+her ex-lover's visible torments were too much for her desire of
+vengeance, was softly moving a heavy hassock towards the guilty note.
+The movement caught her mother's eye, and in an instant the compromising
+paper was in her watchful hands.
+
+She read it with incredulous horror, and handed it at once to the
+Doctor.
+
+The golden-haired one saw it all without betraying herself by any
+outward confusion. She had probably had some experience in such matters,
+and felt tolerably certain of being able, at the worst, to manage the
+old gentleman in the gold spectacles. But she took an early opportunity
+of secretly conveying her contempt for the traitress Dulcie, who
+continued to meet her angry glances with the blandest unconsciousness.
+
+Dr. Grimstone examined the cocked-hat through his double eyeglasses,
+with a heavy thunder-cloud gathering on his brows. When he had mastered
+it thoroughly, he bent forward and glared indignantly past his wife and
+daughter for at least half a minute into the pew where Mr. Bultitude was
+cowering, until he felt that he was coming all to pieces under the
+piercing gaze.
+
+The service passed all too quickly after that. Paul sat down and stood
+up almost unconsciously with the rest; but for the first time in his
+life he could have wished the sermon many times longer.
+
+The horror of his position quite petrified him. After all his prudent
+resolutions to keep out of mischief and to win the regard and confidence
+of his gaoler by his good conduct, like the innocent convict in a
+melodrama, this came as nothing less than a catastrophe. He walked home
+in a truly dismal state of limp terror.
+
+Fortunately for him none of the others seemed to have noticed his
+misfortune, and Jolland made no further advances. But even the weather
+tended to increase his depression, for it was a bleak, cheerless day,
+with a bitter and searching wind sweeping the gritty roads where
+yesterday's rain was turned to black ice in the ruts, and the sun shone
+with a dull coppery glitter that had no warmth or geniality about it.
+
+The nearer they came to Crichton House the more abjectly miserable
+became Mr. Bultitude's state of mind. It was as much as he could do to
+crawl up the steps to the front door, and his knees positively clapped
+together when the Doctor, who had driven home, met them in the hall and
+said in a still grave voice, "Bultitude, when you have taken off your
+coat, I want you in the study."
+
+He was as long about taking off his coat as he dared, but at last he
+went trembling into the study, which he found empty. He remembered the
+room well, with its ebony-framed etchings on the walls, bookcases and
+blue china over the draped mantelpiece, even to a large case of
+elaborately carved Indian chessmen in bullock-carts and palanquins, on
+horses and elephants, which stood in the window-recess. It was the very
+room to which he had been shown when he first called about sending his
+son to the school. He had little thought then that the time would come
+when he would attend there for the purpose of being flogged; few things
+would have seemed less probable. Yet here he was.
+
+But his train of thought was abruptly broken by the entrance of the
+Doctor. He marched solemnly in, holding out the offending missive. "Look
+at this, sir!" he said, shaking it angrily before Paul's eyes. "Look at
+this! what do you mean by receiving a flippant communication like this
+in a sacred edifice? What do you mean by it?"
+
+"I--I didn't receive it," said Paul, at his wits' end.
+
+"Don't prevaricate with me, sir; you know well enough it was intended
+for you. Have the goodness to read it now, and tell me what you have to
+say for yourself!"
+
+Paul read it. It was a silly little school-girl note, half slang and
+half sentiment, signed only with the initials C.D. "Well, sir?" said the
+Doctor.
+
+"It's very forward and improper--very," said Paul; "but it's not my
+fault--I can't help it. I gave the girl no encouragement. I never saw
+her before in all my life!"
+
+"To my own knowledge, Bultitude, she has sat in that pew regularly for a
+year."
+
+"Very probably," said Paul, "but I don't notice these matters. I'm past
+that sort of thing, my dear sir."
+
+"What is her name? Come, sir, you know that."
+
+"Connie Davenant," said Paul, taken unawares by the suddenness of the
+question. "At least, I--I heard so to-day." He felt the imprudence of
+such an admission as soon as he had made it.
+
+"Very odd that you know her name if you never noticed her before," said
+the Doctor.
+
+"That young fellow--what's-his-name--Jolland told me," said Paul.
+
+"Ah, but it's odder still that she knows yours, for I perceive it is
+directed to you by name."
+
+"It's easily explained, my dear sir," said Paul; "easily explained. I've
+no doubt she's heard it somewhere. At least, I never told her; it is not
+likely. I do assure you I'm as much distressed and shocked by this
+affair as you can be yourself. I am indeed. I don't know what girls are
+coming to nowadays."
+
+"Do you expect me to believe that you are perfectly innocent?" said the
+Doctor.
+
+"Yes, I do," said Mr. Bultitude. "I can't prevent fast young ladies from
+sending me notes. Why, she might have sent _you_ one!"
+
+"We won't go into hypothetical cases," said the Doctor, not relishing
+the war being carried into his own country; "she happened to prefer you.
+But, although your virtuous indignation seems to me a trifle overdone,
+sir, I don't see my way clear to punishing you on the facts, especially
+as you tell me you never encouraged these--these overtures, and my
+Dulcie, I am bound to say, confirms your statement that it was all the
+other young lady's doing. But if I had had any proof that you had begun
+or responded to her--hem--advances, nothing could have saved you from a
+severe flogging at the very least--so be careful for the future."
+
+"Ah!" said Paul rather feebly, quite overwhelmed by the narrowness of
+his escape. Then with a desperate effort he found courage to add, "May
+I--ah--take advantage of this--this restored cordiality to--to--in fact
+to make a brief personal explanation? It--it's what I've been trying to
+tell you for a long time, ever since I first came, only you never will
+hear me out. It's highly important. You've no notion how serious it is!"
+
+"There's something about you this term, Richard Bultitude," said the
+Doctor slowly, "that I confess I don't understand. This obstinacy is
+unusual in a boy of your age, and if you really have a mystery it may be
+as well to have it out and have done with it. But I can't be annoyed
+with it now. Come to me after supper to-night, and I shall be willing to
+hear anything you may have to say."
+
+Paul was too overcome at this unexpected favour to speak his thanks. He
+got away as soon as he could. His path was smoothed at last!
+
+That afternoon the boys, or all of them who had disposed of the work set
+them for the day, were sitting in the schoolroom, after a somewhat
+chilly dinner of cold beef, cold tarts, and cold water, passing the time
+with that description of literature known as "Sunday reading."
+
+And here, at the risk of being guilty of a digression, I must pause to
+record my admiration for this exceedingly happy form of compromise,
+which is, I think, peculiar to the British and, to a certain extent, the
+American nations.
+
+It has many developments; ranging from the mild Transatlantic compound
+of cookery and camp-meetings, to the semi-novel, redeemed and chastened
+by an arrangement which sandwiches a sermon or a biblical lecture
+between each chapter of the story--a great convenience for the race of
+skippers.
+
+Then there are one or two illustrated magazines which it is always
+allowable to read on the Sabbath without fear of rebuke from the
+strictest--though it is not quite easy to see why.
+
+Open any one of the monthly numbers, and the chances are that you may
+possibly find at one part a neat little doctrinal essay by a literary
+bishop; the rest of the contents will consist of nothing more serious
+than a paper upon "cockroaches and their habits" by an eminent savant; a
+description of foreign travel, done in a brilliant and wholly secular
+vein; and, further on again, an article on æsthetic furniture--while the
+balance of the number will be devoted to instalments of two thrilling
+novels by popular authors, whose theology is seldom their strongest
+point.
+
+Oddly enough, too, when these very novels come out later in three-volume
+form, with the "mark of the beast" in the shape of a circulating library
+ticket upon them, they will be fortunate if they are not interdicted
+altogether by some of the serious families who take in the magazines as
+being "so suitable for Sundays."
+
+Mr. Bultitude, at all events, had reason to be grateful for this
+toleration, for in one of the bound volumes supplied to him he found a
+most interesting and delightfully unsectarian novel, which appealed to
+his tastes as a business man, for it was all about commerce and making
+fortunes by blockade-running; and though he was no novel reader as a
+rule, his mind was so relieved and set at rest by the prospect of seeing
+the end of his trouble at last, that he was able to occupy his mind with
+the fortunes of the hero.
+
+He naturally detected technical errors here and there. But that pleased
+him, and he was becoming so deeply absorbed in the tale that he felt
+seriously annoyed when Chawner came softly up to the desk at which he
+was sitting, and sat down close to him, crossing his arms before him,
+and leaning forward upon them with his sallow face towards Paul.
+
+"Dickie," he began, in a cautious, oily tone, "did I hear the Doctor say
+before dinner that he would hear anything you have to tell him after
+supper? Did I?"
+
+"I really can't say, sir," said Paul; "if you were near the keyhole at
+the time, very likely you did."
+
+"The door was open," said Chawner, "and I was in the cloak-room, so I
+heard, and I want to know. What is it you're going to tell the Doctor?"
+
+"Mind your own business, sir," said Paul sharply.
+
+"It is my own business," said Chawner; "but I don't want to be told what
+you're going to tell him. I know."
+
+"Good heavens!" said Mr. Bultitude, annoyed to find his secret in
+possession of this boy of all others.
+
+"Yes," repeated Chawner. "I know, and I tell you what--I won't have it!"
+
+"Won't have it! and why?"
+
+"Never mind why. Perhaps I don't choose that the Doctor shall be told
+just yet; perhaps I mean to go up and tell him myself some other day. I
+want to have a little more fun out of it before I've done."
+
+"But--but," said Paul, "you young ghoul, do you mean to say that all you
+care for is to see other people's sufferings?"
+
+Chawner grinned maliciously. "Yes," he said suavely; "it amuses me."
+
+"And so," said Paul, "you want to hold me back a little longer--because
+it's so funny; and then, when you're quite tired of your sport, you'll
+go up and tell the Doctor my--my unhappy story yourself, eh? No, my
+friend; I'd rather not tell him myself--but I'll be shot if I let _you_
+have a finger in it. I know my own interests better than that!"
+
+"Don't get in a passion, Dickie," said Chawner; "it's Sunday. You'll
+have to let me go up instead of you--when I've frightened them a little
+more."
+
+"Who do you mean by them, sir?" said Paul, growing puzzled.
+
+"As if you didn't know! Oh, you're too clever for me, Dickie, I can
+see," sniggered Chawner.
+
+"I tell you I don't know!" said Mr. Bultitude. "Look here, Chawner--your
+confounded name is Chawner, isn't it?--there's a mistake somewhere, I'm
+sure of it. Listen to me. I'm not going to tell the Doctor what you
+think I am!"
+
+"What do I think you are going to tell him?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea; but, whatever it is, you're wrong."
+
+"Ah, you're too clever, Dickie; you won't betray yourself; but other
+people want to pay Coker and Tipping out as well as you, and I say you
+must wait."
+
+"I shan't say anything to affect anyone but myself," said Paul; "if you
+know all about it, you must know that--it won't interfere with your
+amusement that I can see."
+
+"Yes, it will," said Chawner irritably, "it will--you mayn't mean to
+tell of anyone but yourself; but directly Grimstone asks you questions,
+it all comes out. I know all about it. And, anyway, I forbid you to go
+up till I give you leave."
+
+"And who the dooce are you?" said Mr. Bultitude, nettled at this
+assumption of authority. "How are you going to prevent me, may I ask?"
+
+"S'sh! here's the Doctor," whispered Chawner hurriedly. "I'll tell you
+after tea. What am I doing out of my place, sir? Oh, I was only asking
+Bultitude what was the collect for to-day, sir. Fourth Sunday after the
+Epiphany? thank you, Bultitude."
+
+And he glided back to his seat, leaving Paul in a state of vague
+uneasiness. Why did this fellow, with the infernal sly face and glib
+tongue, want to prevent him from righting himself with the world, and
+how could he possibly prevent him? It was absurd; he would take no
+notice of the young scoundrel--he would defy him.
+
+But he could not banish the uneasy feeling; the cup had slipped so many
+times before at the critical moment that he could not be sure whose hand
+would be the next to jog his elbow. And so he went down to tea with
+renewed misgivings.
+
+
+
+
+12. _Against Time_
+
+     "There is a kind of Followers likewise, which are dangerous, being
+     indeed Espials; which enquire the Secrets of the House and beare
+     Tales of them."--BACON.
+
+
+     "Then give me leave that I may turn the key,
+     That no man enter till my tale be done."
+
+
+Very possibly Chawner's interference in Mr. Bultitude's private affairs
+has surprised others besides the victim of it; but the fact is that
+there was a most unfortunate misunderstanding between them from the very
+first, which prevented the one from seeing, the other from explaining,
+the real state of the case.
+
+Chawner, of course, no more guessed Paul's true name and nature than
+anyone else who had come in contact with him in his impenetrable
+disguise, and his motive for attempting to prevent an interview with the
+Doctor can only, I fear, be explained by another slight digression.
+
+The Doctor, from a deep sense of his responsibility for the morals of
+those under his care, was perhaps a trifle over-anxious to clear his
+moral garden of every noxious weed, and too constant in his vigilant
+efforts to detect the growing shoot of evil from the moment it showed
+above the surface.
+
+As he could not be everywhere, however, it is evident that many
+offences, trivial or otherwise, must have remained unsuspected and
+unpunished, but for a theory which he had originated and took great
+pains to propagate amongst his pupils.
+
+The theory was that every right-minded boy ought to feel himself in such
+a fiduciary position towards his master, that it became a positive duty
+to acquaint him with any delinquencies he might happen to observe among
+his fellows; and if, at the same time, he was oppressed by a secret
+burden on his own conscience, it was understood that he might hope that
+the joint revelation would go far to mitigate his own punishment.
+
+It is doubtful whether this system, though I believe it is found
+successful in Continental colleges, can be usefully applied to English
+boys; whether it may not produce a habit of mutual distrust and
+suspicion, and a tone the reverse of healthy.
+
+For myself, I am inclined to think that a schoolmaster will find it
+better in the long run, for both the character and morals of his school,
+if he is not too anxious to play the detective, and refrains from
+encouraging the more weak-minded or cowardly boys to save themselves by
+turning "schoolmaster's evidence."
+
+Dr. Grimstone thought otherwise; but it must be allowed that the system,
+as in vogue at Crichton House, did not work well.
+
+There were boys, of course, who took a sturdier view of their own rights
+and duties, and despised the talebearers as they deserved; there were
+others, also, too timid and too dependent on the good opinion of others
+to risk the loss of it by becoming informers; but there were always one
+or two whose consciences were unequal to the burden of their neighbour's
+sin, and could only be relieved by frank and full confession.
+
+Unhappily they had, as a general rule, contributed largely to the sum
+of guilt themselves, and did not resort to disclosure until detection
+seemed reasonably imminent.
+
+Chawner was the leader of this conscientious band; he revelled in the
+system. It gave him the means at once of gratifying the almost universal
+love of power and of indulging a catlike passion for playing with the
+feelings of others, which, it is to be hoped, is more uncommon.
+
+He knew he was not popular, but he could procure most of the incidents
+of popularity; he could have his little court of cringing toadies; he
+could levy his tribute of conciliatory presents, and vent many private
+spites and hatreds into the bargain--and he generally did.
+
+Having himself a tendency to acts of sly disobedience, he found it a
+congenial pastime to set the fashion from time to time in some one of
+the peccadilloes to which boyhood is prone, and to which the Doctor's
+somewhat restrictive code added a large number, and as soon as he saw a
+sufficient number of his companions satisfactorily implicated, his
+opportunity came.
+
+He would take the chief culprits aside, and profess, in strict
+confidence, certain qualms of conscience which he feared could only be
+appeased by unburdening his guilt-laden soul.
+
+To this none would have had any right to object--had it not necessarily,
+or at least from Chawner's point of view, involved a full, true, and
+particular account of the misdoings of each and every one; and
+consequently, for some time after these professions of misgivings,
+Chawner would be surrounded by a little crowd of anxiously obsequious
+friends, all trying hard to overcome his scruples or persuade him at
+least to omit their names from his revelations.
+
+Sometimes he would affect to be convinced by their arguments and send
+them away reassured; at others his scruples would return in an
+aggravated form; and so he would keep them on tenterhooks of suspense
+for days and weeks, until he was tired of the amusement--for this
+practising on the fears of weaker natures is a horribly keen delight to
+some--or until some desperate little dog, unable to bear his torture any
+longer, would threaten to give himself up and make an end of it.
+
+Then Chawner, to do him justice, always relieved him from so
+disagreeable a necessity, and would go softly into the Doctor's study,
+and, in a subdued and repentant tone, pour out his general confession
+for the public good.
+
+Probably the Doctor did not altogether respect the instruments he saw
+fit to use in this way; some would have declined to hear the informer
+out, flogged him well, and forgotten it; but Dr. Grimstone--though he
+was hardly likely to be impressed by these exhibitions of noble candour,
+and did not fail to see that the prospect of obtaining better terms for
+the penitent himself had something to do with them--yet encouraged the
+system as a matter of policy, went thoroughly into the whole affair, and
+made it the cause of an explosion which he considered would clear the
+moral atmosphere for some time to come.
+
+I hope that, after this explanation, Chawner's opposition to Mr.
+Bultitude's plans will be better understood.
+
+After tea, he made Paul a little sign to follow him, and the two went
+out together into the little glass-house beyond the schoolroom; it was
+dark, but there was light enough from the room inside for them to see
+each other's face.
+
+"Now, sir," began Paul, with dignity, when he had closed the glass door
+behind him, "perhaps you'll be good enough to tell me how you mean to
+prevent me from seeing Dr. Grimstone, and telling him--telling him what
+I have to tell him?"
+
+"I'll tell you, Dickie," said Chawner, with an evil smirk. "You shall
+know soon enough."
+
+"Don't stand grinning at me like that, sir," said the angry Mr.
+Bultitude; "say it out at once; it will make no difference to me, I give
+you warning!"
+
+"Oh, yes it will, though. I think it will. Wait. I heard all you said to
+Grimstone in the study to-day about that girl--Connie Davenant, you
+know."
+
+"I don't care; I am innocent. I have nothing to reproach myself with."
+
+"What a liar you are!" said Chawner, more in admiration than rebuke.
+"You told him you never gave her any encouragement, didn't you? And he
+said if he ever found you had, nothing could save you from a licking,
+didn't he?"
+
+"He did," said Paul, "he was quite right from his point of view--what
+then?"
+
+"Why, this," said Chawner: "Do you remember giving Jolland, the last
+Sunday of last term, a note for that very girl?"
+
+"I never did!" said poor Mr. Bultitude, "I never saw the wretched girl
+before."
+
+"Ah!" said Chawner, "but I've got the note in my pocket! Jolland was
+seedy and asked me to take it for you, and I read it, and it was so
+nicely written that I thought I should like to keep it myself, and so I
+did--and here it is!"
+
+And he drew out with great caution a piece of crumpled paper and showed
+it to the horrified old gentleman. "Don't snatch ... it's rude; there it
+is, you see: 'My dear Connie' ... 'yours ever, Dick Bultitude.' No, you
+don't come any nearer ... there, now it's safe.... Now what do you mean
+to do?"
+
+"I--I don't know," said Paul, feeling absolutely checkmated. "Give me
+time."
+
+"I tell you what I mean to do; I shall keep my eye on you, and directly
+I see you making ready to go to Grimstone, I shall get up first and take
+him this ... then you'll be done for. You'd better give in, really,
+Dickie!"
+
+The note was too evidently genuine; Dick must have written it (as a
+matter of fact he had; in a moment of pique, no doubt, at some caprice
+of his real enslaver Dulcie's--but his fickleness brought fatal results
+on his poor father's undeserving head)--if this diabolical Chawner
+carried out his threats he would indeed be "done for"; he did not yet
+fully understand the other's motive, but he thought that he feared lest
+Paul, in declaring his own sorrows, might also accuse Tipping and Coker
+of acts of cruelty and oppression, which Chawner proposed to denounce
+himself at some more convenient opportunity; he hesitated painfully.
+
+"Well?" said Chawner, "make up your mind; are you going to tell him, or
+not?"
+
+"I must!" said Paul hoarsely. "I promise you I shall not bring any other
+names in ... I don't want to ... I only want to save myself--and I can't
+stand it any longer. Why should you stand between me and my rights in
+this currish way? I didn't know there were boys like you in the world,
+sir; you're a young monster!"
+
+"I don't mean you to tell the Doctor anything at all," said Chawner. "I
+shall do what I said."
+
+"Then do your worst!" said Paul, stung to defiance.
+
+"Very well, then," returned Chawner meekly, "I will--and we'll see who
+wins!"
+
+And they went back to the schoolroom again, where Mr. Bultitude, boiling
+with rage and seriously alarmed as well, tried to sit down and appear as
+if nothing had happened.
+
+Chawner sat down too, in a place from which he could see all Paul's
+movements, and they both watched one another anxiously from the corners
+of their eyes till the Doctor came in.
+
+"It's a foggy evening," he said as he entered: "the younger boys had
+better stay in. Chawner, you and the rest of the first form can go to
+church; get ready at once."
+
+Paul's heart leaped with triumph; with his enemy out of the way, he
+could carry out his purpose unhindered. The same thing apparently
+occurred to Chawner, for he said mildly, "Please, sir, may Richard
+Bultitude come too?"
+
+"Can't Bultitude ask leave for himself?" said the Doctor.
+
+"I, sir!" said the horrified Paul, "it's a mistake--I don't want to go.
+I--I don't feel very well this evening!"
+
+"Then you see, Chawner, you misunderstood him. By the way, Bultitude,
+there was something you were to tell me, I think?"
+
+Chawner's small glittering eyes were fixed on Paul menacingly as he
+managed to stammer that he did want to say something in private.
+
+"Very well, I am going out to see a friend for an hour or so--when I
+come back I will hear you," and he left the room abruptly.
+
+Chawner would very probably have petitioned to stay in that evening as
+well, had he had time and presence of mind to do so; as it was, he was
+obliged to go away and get ready for church, but when his preparations
+were made he came back to Paul, and leaning over him said with an
+unpleasant scowl, "If I get back in time, Bultitude, we'll see whether
+you baulk me quite so easily. If I come back and find you've done it--I
+shall take in that letter!"
+
+"You may do what you please then," said Paul, in a high state of
+irritation, "I shall be well out of your reach by that time. Now have
+the goodness to take yourself off."
+
+As he went, Mr. Bultitude thought, "I never in all my life saw such a
+fellow as that, never! It would give me real pleasure to hire someone to
+kick him."
+
+The evening passed quietly; the boys left at home sat in their places,
+reading or pretending to read. Mr. Blinkhorn, left in charge of them,
+was at his table in the corner noting up his diary. Paul was free for a
+time to think over his position.
+
+At first he was calm and triumphant; his dearest hopes, his
+long-wished-for opportunity of a fair and unprejudiced hearing, were at
+last to be fulfilled--Chawner was well out of the way for the best part
+of two hours--the Doctor was very unlikely to be detained nearly so long
+over one call; his one anxiety was lest he might not be able, after all,
+to explain himself in a thoroughly effective manner--he planned out a
+little scheme for doing this.
+
+He must begin gradually of course, so as not to alarm the schoolmaster
+or raise doubts of his sincerity or, worse still, his sanity. Perhaps a
+slight glance at instances of extraordinary interventions of the
+supernatural from the earliest times, tending to show the extreme
+probability of their survival on rare occasions even to the present day,
+might be a prudent and cautious introduction to the subject--only he
+could not think of any, and, after all, it might weary the Doctor.
+
+He would start somewhat in this manner: "You cannot, my dear sir, have
+failed to observe since our meeting this year, a certain difference in
+my manner and bearing"--one's projected speeches are somehow generally
+couched in finer language than, when it comes to the point, the tongue
+can be prevailed upon to utter. Mr. Bultitude learned this opening
+sentence by heart, he thought it taking and neat, the sort of thing to
+fix his hearer's attention from the first.
+
+After that he found it difficult to get any further; he knew himself
+that all he was about to describe was plain, unvarnished fact--but how
+would it strike a stranger's ear? He found himself seeking ways in which
+to tone down the glaring improbability of the thing as much as possible,
+but in vain; "I don't know how I shall ever get it all out," he told
+himself at last; "if I think about it much longer I shall begin to
+disbelieve in it myself."
+
+Here Biddlecomb came up in a confidential manner and sat down by Paul;
+"Dick," he began, in rather a trembling voice, "did I hear the Doctor
+say something about your having something to tell him?"
+
+"Oh Lord, here's another of them now!" thought Paul. "You are right,
+young sir," he said: "have you any objection? mention it, you know, if
+you have, pray mention it. It's a matter of life and death to me, but if
+you at all disapprove, of course that ought to be final!"
+
+"No, but," protested Biddlecomb, "I, I daresay I've not treated you very
+well lately, I----"
+
+"You were kind enough to suggest several very uncommonly unpleasant ways
+of annoying me, sir," said Paul resentfully, "if you mean that. You've
+kicked me more than once, and your handkerchief, unless I am very much
+mistaken, had the biggest and the hardest knot in it yesterday. If that
+gives you the right to interfere and dictate to me now, like your
+amiable friend, Master Chawner, I suppose you have it."
+
+"Now you're angry," said Biddlecomb humbly; "I don't wonder at it. I've
+behaved like a cad, I know, but, and this is what I wanted to say, I was
+sorry for you all the time."
+
+"That's very comforting," said Paul drily; "thank you. I'm vastly
+obliged to you."
+
+"I was, though," said Biddlecomb. "I, I was led away by the other
+fellows--I always liked you, you know, Bultitude."
+
+"You've a very odd way of showing your affection," remarked Mr.
+Bultitude; "but go on, let me hear all you have to say."
+
+"It isn't much," said Biddlecomb, quite broken down; "only don't sneak
+of me this time, Dick, let me off, there's a good fellow. I'll stick up
+for you after this, I will really. You used not to be a fellow for
+sneaking once. It's caddish to sneak!"
+
+"Don't be alarmed, my good friend," said Paul; "I won't poach on that
+excellent young man Chawner's preserves. What I am going to tell the
+Doctor has nothing to do with you."
+
+"On your honour?" said Biddlecomb eagerly.
+
+"Yes," said Paul testily, "on my honour. Now, perhaps, you'll let me
+alone. No, I won't shake hands, sir. I've had to accept your kicks, but
+I don't want your friendship."
+
+Biddlecomb went off, looking slightly ashamed of himself but visibly
+relieved from a haunting fear. "Thank goodness!" thought Paul, "he
+wasn't as obstinate as the other fellow. What a set they are! I knew it,
+there's another boy coming up now!"
+
+And indeed one boy after another came up in the same way as Biddlecomb
+had done, some cringing more than others, but all vowing that they had
+never intended to do any harm, and entreating him to change his mind
+about complaining of his ill-treatment. They brought little offerings to
+propitiate him and prove the depth of their unaltered
+regard--pencil-cases and pocket-knives, and so forth, until they drove
+Paul nearly to desperation. However, he succeeded in dispelling their
+fears after some hot arguments, and had just sent away the last
+suppliant, when he saw Jolland too rise and come towards him.
+
+Jolland leaned across Paul's desk with folded arms and looked him full
+in the face with his shallow light green eyes. "I don't know what you've
+said to all those chaps," he began; "they've come back looking precious
+glum, but they won't tell me what you said," (Mr. Bultitude had in
+satisfying their alarm taken care to let them know his private opinion
+of them, which was not flattering), "but I've got something to say to
+you, and it's this. I never thought you would quite come down to this
+sort of thing!"
+
+"What sort of thing?" said Paul, who was beginning to have enough of it.
+
+"Why, going up and letting on against all of us--it's mean, you know. If
+you have got bashed about pretty well since you came back, it's been
+all your own fault, and you know it. Last term you got on well
+enough--this time you began to be queer and nasty the very first day you
+came. I thought it was one of your larks at first, but I don't know what
+it is now, and I don't care. I stood up for you as long as I could, till
+you acted like a funk yesterday. Then I took my share in lamming you,
+and I'd do it again. But if you are cad enough to pay us all out in this
+way, I'll have no more to do with you--mind that. That's all I came to
+say."
+
+This was an unpalatable way of putting things, but Paul could not help
+seeing that there was some truth in it. Jolland had been kind to him,
+too, in a careless sort of way, and at some cost to himself; so it was
+with more mildness than temper that he answered him.
+
+"You're on the wrong tack, my boy, the wrong tack. I've no wish to tell
+tales of anyone, as I've been trying to explain to your friends. There's
+something the matter with me which you wouldn't understand if I told
+you."
+
+"Oh, I didn't know," said Jolland, mollified; "if it's only physic you
+want."
+
+"Whatever it is," said Paul, not caring to undeceive him, "it won't
+affect you or anyone here, but myself. You're not a bad young fellow, I
+believe. I don't want to get you into trouble, sir; you don't want much
+assistance, I'm afraid, in that department. So be off, like a good
+fellow, and leave me in peace."
+
+All these interviews had taken time. He was alarmed on looking at the
+clock to see that it was nearly eight; the Doctor was a long time over
+that call--for the first time he began to feel uneasy--he made hurried
+mental calculations as to the probability of the Doctor or Chawner being
+the first to return.
+
+The walk to church took about twenty minutes; say the service took an
+hour, allowing for the return, he might expect Chawner by about
+half-past eight; it was striking the hour now--half an hour only in
+which he could hope for any favourable result from the interview!
+
+For he saw this plainly, that if Chawner were once permitted to get the
+Doctor's ear first and show him that infamous love-note, no explanation
+of his (even if he had nerve to make it then, which he doubted) could
+possibly seem anything more than a desperate and far-fetched excuse; if
+he could anticipate Chawner, on the other hand, and once convince the
+Doctor of the truth of his story, the informer's malice would fall flat.
+
+And still the long hand went rapidly on, as Mr. Bultitude sat staring
+stupidly at it with a faint sick feeling--it had passed the quarter
+now--why did the Doctor delay in this unwarrantable manner? What a farce
+social civilities were--if he had allowed himself to be prevailed on to
+stay to supper! Twenty minutes past; Chawner and the others might return
+at any moment--a ring at the bell; they were there! all was over
+now--no, he was saved, that was Dr. Grimstone's voice in the hall--what
+an unconscionable time he was taking off his greatcoat and gloves.
+
+But all comes to the man who waits. In another moment the Doctor looked
+in, singled out Mr. Bultitude with a sharp glance, and a, "Now,
+Bultitude, I will hear you!" and led the way to his study.
+
+Paul staggered rather than walked after him: as usual at the critical
+moment his carefully prepared opening had deserted him--his head felt
+heavy and crowded--he wanted to run away, but forced himself to overcome
+such a suicidal proceeding and follow to the study.
+
+There was a lighted reading-lamp with a green glass shade upon the
+table. The Doctor sat down by it in an armchair by the fire, crossed his
+legs, and joined the tops of his fingers together. "Now, Bultitude," he
+said again.
+
+"Might I--might I sit down?" said poor Mr. Bultitude in a thick voice;
+it was all that occurred to him to say.
+
+"Sit by all means," said the Doctor blandly.
+
+So Paul drew a chair opposite the Doctor and sat down. He tried
+desperately to clear his head and throat and begin; but the only
+distinct thought in his mind just then was that the green lamp-shade
+lent a particularly ghastly hue to the Doctor's face.
+
+"Take your time, Bultitude," said the latter, after a long minute, in
+which a little skeleton clock on the mantelpiece ticked loudly--"there's
+no hurry, my boy."
+
+But this only reminded Paul that there was every need for hurry--Chawner
+might come in, and follow him here, unless he made haste.
+
+Still, he could only say, "You see me in a very agitated state, Dr.
+Grimstone--a very agitated state, sir."
+
+The Doctor gave a short, dry cough. "Well, Bultitude," he said.
+
+"The fact is, sir, I'm in a most unfortunate position, and--and the
+worst of it is, I don't know how to begin." Here he made another dead
+stop, while the Doctor raised his heavy eyebrows, and looked at the
+clock.
+
+"Do you see any prospect of your finding yourself able to begin soon?"
+he inquired at last, with rather suspicious suavity. "Perhaps if you
+came to me later on----"
+
+"Not for the world!" said Paul, in a highly nervous condition. "I shall
+begin very soon, Doctor, I shall begin directly. Mine is such a very
+singular case; it's difficult, as you see, to, to open it!"
+
+"Have you anything on your mind?" asked the Doctor suddenly.
+
+Paul could hear steps and voices in the adjoining cloakroom--the
+churchgoers had returned. "Yes--no!" he answered, losing his head
+completely now.
+
+"That's a somewhat extraordinary, not to say an ambiguous, reply," said
+the Doctor; "what am I to understand by----"
+
+There was a tap at the door. Paul started to his feet in a panic. "Don't
+let him in!" he shrieked, finding his voice at last. "Hear me first--you
+shall hear me first! Say that other rascal is not to come in. He wants
+to ruin me!"
+
+"I was going to say I was engaged," said the Doctor; "but there's
+something under this I must understand. Come in, whoever you are."
+
+And the door opened softly, and Chawner stepped meekly in; he was rather
+pale and breathed hard, but was otherwise quite composed.
+
+"Now, then, Chawner," said the Doctor impatiently, "what is it? Have you
+something on your mind, too?"
+
+"Please, sir," said Chawner, "has Bultitude told you anything yet?"
+
+"No, why? Hold your tongue, Bultitude. I shall hear Chawner now--not
+you!"
+
+"Because, sir," explained Chawner, "he knew I had made up my mind to
+tell you something I thought you ought to know about him, and so he
+threatened to come first and tell some falsehood (I'm sure I don't know
+what) about me, sir. I think I ought to be here too."
+
+"It's a lie!" shouted Paul, "What a villain that boy is! Don't believe a
+word he says, Dr. Grimstone; it's all false--all!"
+
+"This is very suspicious," said the Doctor; "if your conscience were
+good, Bultitude, you could have no object in preventing me from hearing
+Chawner. Chawner, in spite of some obvious defects in his character," he
+went on, with a gulp (he never could quite overcome a repulsion to the
+boy), "is, on the whole, a right-minded and, ah, conscientious boy. I
+hear Chawner first."
+
+"Then, sir, if you please," said Chawner, with an odious side smirk of
+triumph at Paul, who, quite crushed by the horror of the situation, had
+collapsed feebly on his chair again, "I thought it was my duty to let
+you see this. I found it to-day in Bultitude's prayerbook, sir." And he
+handed Dick's unlucky scrawl to the Doctor, who took it to the lamp and
+read it hurriedly through.
+
+After that there was a terrible moment of dead silence; then the Doctor
+looked up and said shortly, "You did well to tell me of this, Chawner;
+you may go now."
+
+When they were alone once more he turned upon the speechless Paul with
+furious scorn and indignation. "Contemptible liar and hypocrite," he
+thundered, pacing restlessly up and down the room in his excitement,
+till Paul felt very like Daniel, without his sense of security, "you are
+unmasked--unmasked, sir! You led me to believe that you were as much
+shocked and pained at this girl's venturing to write to you as I could
+be myself. You called it, quite correctly, 'forward and improper'; you
+pretended you had never given her the least encouragement--had not heard
+her name even--till to-day. And here is a note, written, as I should
+imagine, some time since, in which you address her as 'Connie Davenant,'
+and have the impudence to admire the hat she wore the Sunday before! I
+shudder, sir, to think of such duplicity, such precocious and shameless
+depravity. It astounds me. It deprives me of all power to think!"
+
+Paul made some faint and inarticulate remark about being a family
+man--always most particular, and so forth--luckily it passed unheard.
+
+"What shall I do with you?" continued the Doctor; "how shall I punish
+such monstrous misconduct?"
+
+"Don't ask _me_, sir," said Paul, desperately--"only, for heaven's sake,
+get it over as soon as possible."
+
+"If I linger, sir," retorted the Doctor, "it is because I have grave
+doubts whether your offence can be expiated by a mere flogging--whether
+that is not altogether too light a retribution."
+
+"He can't want to _torture_ me," thought Paul.
+
+"Yes," said the Doctor again, "the doubt has prevailed. On a mind so
+hardened the cane would leave no lasting impression. I cannot allow your
+innocent companions to run the risk of contamination from your society.
+I must not permit this serpent to glide uncrushed, this cockatrice to
+practise his epistolary wiles, within my peaceful fold. My mind is made
+up--at whatever cost to myself--however it may distress and grieve your
+good father, who is so pathetically anxious for you to do him credit,
+sir. I must do my duty to the parents of the boys entrusted to my care.
+I shall not flog you, sir, for I feel it would be useless. I shall expel
+you."
+
+"What!" Paul leaped up incredulous. "Expel me? Do I hear you aright, Dr.
+Grimstone? Say it again--you will expel me?"
+
+"I have said it," the Doctor said sternly; "no expostulations can move
+me now" (as if Mr. Bultitude was likely to expostulate!) "Mrs. Grimstone
+will see that your boxes are packed the first thing to-morrow morning,
+and I shall take you myself to the station and consign you to the home
+you have covered with blushes and shame, by the 9.15 train, and I shall
+write a letter to-night explaining the causes for your dismissal."
+
+Mr. Bultitude covered his face with his hands, to hide, not his shame
+and distress, but his indecent rapture. It seemed almost too good to be
+true! He saw himself about to be provided with every means of reaching
+home in comfort and safety. He need dread no pursuit now. There was no
+chance, either, of his being forced to return to the prison-house--the
+Doctor's letter would convince even Dick of the impossibility of that.
+And, best of all, this magnificent stroke of good luck had been obtained
+without the ignominy and pain of a flogging, without even the unpleasant
+necessity of telling his strange secret.
+
+But (having gained some experience during his short stay at the school)
+he had the duplicity to pretend to sob bitterly.
+
+"But one night more, sir," continued the Doctor, "shall you pass beneath
+this roof, and that apart from your fellows. You will occupy the spare
+bedroom until the morning, when you quit the school in disgrace--for
+ever."
+
+I said in another chapter that this Sunday would find Paul, at its
+close, after a trying course of emotions, in a state of delicious
+ecstasy of pure relief and happiness--and really that scarcely seems too
+strong an expression for his feelings.
+
+When he found himself locked securely into a comfortable, warm bedroom,
+with curtains and a carpet in it, safe from the persecutions of all
+those terrible boys, and when he remembered that this was actually the
+last night of his stay here--that he would certainly see his own home
+before noon next day, the reaction was so powerful that he could not
+refrain from skipping and leaping about the room in a kind of hysterical
+gaiety.
+
+And as he laid his head down on a yielding lavender-scented pillow, his
+thoughts went back without a pang to the varied events of the day; they
+had been painful, very painful, but it was well worth while to have gone
+through them to appreciate fully the delightful intensity of the
+contrast. He freely forgave all his tormentors, even Chawner--for had
+not Chawner procured his release?--and he closed his eyes at last with a
+smile of Sybaritic satisfaction and gentle longing for the Monday's dawn
+to break.
+
+And yet some, after his experiences, would have had their misgivings.
+
+
+
+
+13. _A Respite_
+
+     "Discipulorum inter jubeo plorare cathedras."
+
+
+Blithe and gay was Mr. Bultitude when he opened his eyes on Monday
+morning and realised his incredible good fortune; in a few hours he
+would be travelling safely and comfortably home, with every facility for
+regaining his rights. He chuckled--though his sense of humour was not
+large--he chuckled, as he lay snugly in bed, to think of Dick's
+discomfiture on seeing him return so unexpectedly; he began to put it
+down, quite unwarrantably, to his own cleverness, as having conceived
+and executed such a stroke of genius as procuring his own expulsion.
+
+He remained in bed until long after the getting-up bell had rung,
+feeling that his position ensured him perfect impunity in this, and when
+he rose at length it was in high spirits, and he dressed himself with a
+growing toleration for things in general, very unlike his ordinary frame
+of mind. When he had finished his toilet, the Doctor entered the room.
+
+"Bultitude," he said gravely, "before sending you from us, I should like
+to hear from your own lips that you are not altogether without
+contrition for your conduct."
+
+Mr. Bultitude considered that such an acknowledgment could not possibly
+do any harm, so he said--as, indeed, he might with perfect truth--that
+"he very much regretted what had passed."
+
+"I am glad to hear that," said the Doctor, more briskly, "very glad; it
+relieves me from a very painful responsibility. It may not impossibly
+induce me to take a more lenient view of your case."
+
+"Oh!" gasped Mr. Bultitude, feeling very uncomfortable all at once.
+
+"Yes; it is a serious step to ruin a boy's career at its outset by
+unnecessary harshness. Nothing, of course, can palliate the extreme
+baseness of your behaviour. Still from certain faint indications in your
+character of better things, I do not despair even yet (after you have
+received a public lesson at my hands, which you will never forget) of
+rearing you to become in time an ornament to the society in which it
+will be your lot to move. I will not give up in despair--I will
+persevere a little longer."
+
+"Thank you!" Paul faltered, with a sudden sinking sensation.
+
+"Mrs. Grimstone, too," said the Doctor, "has been interceding for you;
+she has represented to me that a public expression of my view of your
+conduct, together with a sharp, severe dose of physical pain, would be
+more likely to effect a radical improvement in your character, and to
+soften your perverted heart, than if I sent you away in hopeless
+disgrace, without giving you an opportunity of showing a desire to
+amend."
+
+"It's--very kind of Mrs. Grimstone," said Paul faintly.
+
+"Then I hope you will show your appreciation of her kindness. Yes, I
+will not expel you. I will give you one more chance to retrieve your
+lost reputation. But, for your own sake, and as a public warning, I
+shall take notice of your offence in public. I shall visit it upon you
+by a sound flogging before the whole school at eleven o'clock. You need
+not come down till then--your breakfast will be sent up to you."
+
+Paul made a frantic attempt to dissuade him from his terrible
+determination. "Dr. Grimstone," he said, "I--I should much prefer being
+expelled, if it is all the same to you."
+
+"It is not all the same to me," said the Doctor. "This is mere pride and
+obstinacy, Bultitude; I should do wrong to take any notice of it."
+
+"I--I tell you I have great objection to--to being flogged," said Paul
+eagerly; "it wouldn't improve me at all; it would harden me,
+sir,--harden me. I--I cannot allow you to flog me, Dr. Grimstone. I have
+strong prejudices against the system of corporal punishment. I object to
+it on principle. Expulsion would make me quite a different being, I
+assure you; it would reform me--save me--it would indeed."
+
+"So, to escape a little personal inconvenience, you would be content to
+bring sorrow upon your worthy father's grey head, would you, sir?" said
+the Doctor. "I shall not oblige you in this. Nor, I may add, will your
+cowardice induce me to spare you in your coming chastisement. I leave
+you, sir--we shall meet again at eleven!"
+
+And he stalked out of the room. Perhaps, though he did not admit this
+even to himself, there were more considerations for commuting the
+sentence of expulsion than those he had mentioned. Boys are not often
+expelled from private schools, except for especially heinous offences,
+and in this case there was no real reason why the Doctor should be
+Quixotic enough to throw up a portion of his income--particularly if he
+could produce as great a moral effect by other means.
+
+But his clemency was too much for Mr. Bultitude; he threw himself on the
+bed and raved at the hideous fate in store for him; ten short minutes
+ago, and he had been so happy--so certain of release--and now, not only
+was he as far from all hope of escape as ever, but he had the certainty
+before him of a sound flogging in less than two hours!
+
+Just after something has befallen us which, for good or ill, will make a
+great change in our lives, what a totally new aspect the common everyday
+things about us are apt to wear--the book we were reading, the letter we
+had begun, the picture we knew--what a new and tender attraction they
+may have for us, or what a grim and terrible irony!
+
+Something of this Paul felt dimly, as he finished dressing, in a dazed,
+unconscious manner. The comfortable bedroom, with its delicately-toned
+wall-paper and flowery cretonnes, had become altogether hateful in his
+eyes now. Instead of feeling grateful (as he surely ought to have been)
+for the one night of perfect security and comfort he had passed there,
+he only loathed it for the delusive peace it had brought him.
+
+There was a gentle tap at the door, and Dulcie came in, bearing a tray
+with his breakfast, and looking like a little Royalist bearing food to a
+fugitive Cavalier; though Paul did not quite carry out his share of the
+simile.
+
+"There!" she said, almost cheerfully; "I got Mummy to let me take up
+your breakfast; and there's an egg for you, and muffins."
+
+Mr. Bultitude sat on a chair and groaned.
+
+"You might say 'thank you,'" said Dulcie, pouting. "That other girl
+wouldn't have brought you up much breakfast if she'd been in my place. I
+was going to tell you that I'd forgiven you, because very likely you
+never meant her to write to you" (Dulcie had not been told the sequel to
+the Davenant episode, which was quite as well for Paul). "But you don't
+seem to care whether I do or not."
+
+"I feel so miserable!" sighed Paul.
+
+"Then you must drink some coffee," prescribed Dulcie decidedly; "and you
+must eat some breakfast. I brought an egg on purpose; it's so
+strengthening, you know."
+
+"Don't!" cried Paul, with a short howl of distress at this suggestion.
+"Don't talk about the--the flogging, I can't bear it."
+
+"But it's not papa's _new_ cane, you know, Dick," said Dulcie
+consolingly. "I've hidden that; it's only the old one, and you always
+said that didn't hurt so very much, after a little while. It isn't as if
+it was the horsewhip, either. Daddy lost that out riding in the
+holidays."
+
+"Oh, the horsewhip's worse, is it?" said Paul, with a sickly smile.
+
+"Tom says so," said Dulcie. "After all, Dick, it will be all over in
+five minutes, or, perhaps, a little longer, and I do think you oughtn't
+to mind that so much, now, after mamma and I have begged you off from
+being expelled. We might never have seen one another again, Dick!"
+
+"You begged me off!" cried Paul.
+
+"Yes," said Dulcie; "Daddy wouldn't change his mind for ever so
+long--till I coaxed him. I couldn't bear to let you go."
+
+"You've done a very cruel thing," said Paul. "For such a little girl as
+you are, you've done an immense amount of mischief. But for you, that
+letter would not have been found out. You need not have spoilt my only
+chance of getting out of this horrible place!"
+
+Dulcie set down the tray, and, putting her hands behind her, leaned
+against a corner of a wardrobe.
+
+"And is that all you say to me!" she said, with a little tremble in her
+voice.
+
+"That is all," said Paul. "I've no doubt you meant well, but you
+shouldn't have interfered. All this has come upon me through that. Take
+away the breakfast. It makes me ill even to look at it."
+
+Dulcie shook out her long brown hair, and clenched her small fist in an
+undeniable passion, for she had something of her father's hot temper
+when roused. "Very well, then," she said, moving with great dignity
+towards the door. "I'm very sorry I ever did interfere. I wish I'd let
+you be sent home to your papa, and see what he'd do to you. But I'll
+never, never interfere one bit with you again. I won't say one single
+word to you any more.... I'll never even look at you if you want me to
+ever so much.... I shall tell Tipping he can hit you as much as ever he
+likes, and I shall show Tom where I put the new cane--and I only hope it
+will hurt!" And with this parting shot she was gone.
+
+Mr. Bultitude wandered disconsolately about the upper part of the house
+after this, not daring to go down, and not able to remain in any one
+place. The maids who came up to make the beds looked at him with pitiful
+interest, but he was too proud to implore help from them. To hide would
+only make matters worse, for, as he had not a penny in his pocket, and
+no probability of being able to borrow one, he must remain in the house
+till hunger forced him from his hiding-place--supposing they did not
+hunt him out long before that time.
+
+The shouts of the boys in the playground during their half-hour's play
+had long since died away; he heard the clock in the hall strike
+eleven--time for him to seek his awful rendezvous. The Doctor had not
+forgotten him, he found, for presently the butler came up and
+ceremoniously announced that the Doctor "would see him now, if he
+pleased."
+
+He stumbled downstairs in a half-unconscious condition, the butler threw
+open the two doors which led to the schoolroom, and Paul tottered in,
+more dead than alive with shame and fear.
+
+The whole school were at their places, with no books before them, and
+arranged as if to hear a lecture. Mr. Blinkhorn alone was absent, for,
+not liking these exhibitions, he had taken an opportunity of slipping
+out into the playground, round which he was now solemnly trotting at the
+"double" with elbows squared and head up; an exercise which he said was
+an excellent thing for the back and lungs. He had a habit of suddenly
+leaving the class he was taking to indulge in it for a few minutes,
+returning breathless but refreshed.
+
+Mr. Tinkler was at his seat, wearing that faint grin on his face with
+which he might have prepared to see a pig killed or a bull-fight, and
+all the boys fixed their eyes expectantly on Mr. Bultitude as he
+appeared at the doorway.
+
+"Stand there, sir," said the Doctor, who was standing at his
+writing-table in an attitude; "out there in the middle, where your
+schoolfellows can see you." Paul obeyed and stood where he was told,
+looking, as he felt, absolutely boneless.
+
+"Some of those here," began the Doctor in an impressive bass, "may
+wonder why I have called you all together on this, the first day of the
+week; most of those who reside under my roof are acquainted with, and I
+trust execrate, the miserable cause of my doing so.
+
+"If there is one virtue which I have striven to implant more than any
+other in your breasts," he continued, "it is the cultivation of a modest
+and becoming reserve in your intercourse with those of the opposite sex.
+
+"With the majority I have, I hope, been successful, and it is as painful
+for me to tell as for you to hear, that there exists in your midst a
+youthful reprobate, trained in all the arts of ensnaring the vagrant
+fancies of innocent but giddy girlhood.
+
+"See him as he cowers there before your gaze, in all the bared
+hideousness of his moral depravity" (the Doctor on occasions like these
+never spared his best epithets, and Paul soon began to feel himself a
+very villain); "a libertine, young in years, but old in--in everything
+else, who has not scrupled to indite an amatory note, so appalling in
+its familiarity, and so outrageous in the warmth of its sentiments, that
+I cannot bring myself to shock your ears with its contents.
+
+"You do well to shun him as a moral leper; but how shall I tell you
+that, not satisfied with pressing his effusions upon the shrinking
+object of his precocious affections, the impious wretch has availed
+himself of the shelter of a church to cloak his insidious advances, and
+even force a response to them from a heedless and imprudent girl!
+
+"If," continued the Doctor, now allowing his powerful voice to boom to
+its full compass--"if I can succeed in bringing this coward, this
+unmanly dallier in a sentiment which the healthy mind of boyhood rejects
+as premature, to a sense of his detestable conduct; if I can score the
+lesson upon his flesh so that some faint notion of its force and purport
+may be conveyed to what has been supplied to him as a heart, then I
+shall not have lifted this hand in vain!
+
+"He shall see whether he will be allowed to trail the fair name of the
+school for propriety and correctness of deportment in the dust of a
+pew-floor, and spurn my reputation as a preceptor like a church hassock
+beneath his feet!
+
+"I shall say no more; I will not prolong these strictures, deserved
+though they be, beyond their proper limits.... I shall now proceed to
+act. Richard Bultitude, remain there till I return to mete out to you
+with no sparing hand the punishment you have so richly merited."
+
+With these awful words the Doctor left the room, leaving Paul in a
+state of abject horror and dread which need not be described. Never,
+never again would he joke, as he had been wont to do with Dick in
+lighter moods, on the subject of corporal punishment under any
+circumstances--it was no fit theme for levity; if this--this outrage
+were really done to him, he could never be able to hold up his head
+again. What if it were to get about in the city!
+
+The boys, who had sunk, as they always did, into a state of torpid awe
+under the Doctor's eloquence, now recovered spirits enough to rally Paul
+with much sprightly humour.
+
+"He's gone to fetch his cane," said some, and imitated for Paul's
+instruction the action of caning by slapping a ruler upon a copy-book
+with a dreadful fidelity and resonance; others sought to cross-examine
+him upon the love-letter, it appearing from their casual remarks that
+not a few had been also honoured by communications from the artless Miss
+Davenant.
+
+It is astonishing how unfeeling even ordinary good-natured boys can be
+at times.
+
+Chawner sat at his desk with raised shoulders, rubbing his hands, and
+grinning like some malevolent ape: "I told you, Dickie, you know," he
+murmured, "that it was better not to cross me."
+
+And still the Doctor lingered. Some kindly suggested that he was "waxing
+the cane." But the more general opinion was that he had been detained by
+some visitor; for it appeared that (though Paul had not noticed it)
+several had heard a ring at the bell. The suspense was growing more and
+more unbearable.
+
+At last the door opened in a slow ominous manner, and the Doctor
+appeared. There was a visible change in his manner, however. The white
+heat of his indignation had died out: his expression was grave but
+distinctly softened--and he had nothing in his hand.
+
+"I want you outside, Bultitude," he said; and Paul, still uncertain
+whether the scene of his disgrace was only about to be shifted, or what
+else this might mean, followed him into the hall.
+
+"If anything can strike shame and confusion into your soul, Richard,"
+said the Doctor, when they were outside, "it will be what I have to tell
+you now. Your unhappy father is here, in the dining-room."
+
+Paul staggered. Had Dick the brazen effrontery to come here to taunt him
+in his slavery? What was the meaning of it? What should he say to him?
+He could not answer the Doctor but by a vacant stare.
+
+"I have not seen him yet," said the Doctor. "He has come at a most
+inopportune moment" (here Mr. Bultitude could _not_ agree with him). "I
+shall allow you to meet him first, and give you the opportunity of
+breaking your conduct to him. I know how it will wring his paternal
+heart!" and the Doctor shook his head sadly, and turned away.
+
+With a curious mixture of shame, anger, and impatience, Paul turned the
+handle of the dining-room door. He was to meet Dick face to face once
+more. The final duel must be fought out between them here. Who would be
+the victor?
+
+It was a strange sensation on entering to see the image of what he had
+so lately been standing by the mantelpiece. It gave a shock to his sense
+of his own identity. It seemed so impossible that that stout substantial
+frame could really contain Dick. For an instant he was totally at a loss
+for words, and stood pale and speechless in the presence of his
+unprincipled son.
+
+Dick on his side seemed at least as much embarrassed. He giggled
+uneasily, and made a sheepish offer to shake hands, which was
+indignantly declined.
+
+As Paul looked he saw distinctly that his son's fraudulent imitation of
+his father's personal appearance had become deteriorated in many
+respects since that unhappy night when he had last seen it. It was then
+a copy, faultlessly accurate in every detail. It was now almost a
+caricature, a libel!
+
+The complexion was nearly sallow, with the exception of the nose, which
+had rather deepened in colour. The skin was loose and flabby, and the
+eyes dull and a little bloodshot. But perhaps the greatest alteration
+was in the dress. Dick wore an old light tweed shooting-coat of his, and
+a pair of loose trousers of blue serge; while, instead of the formally
+tied black neckcloth his father had worn for a quarter of a century, he
+had a large scarf round his neck of some crude and gaudy colour; and the
+conventional chimney-pot hat had been discarded for a shabby old
+wide-brimmed felt wideawake.
+
+Altogether, it was by no means the costume which a British merchant,
+with any self-respect whatever, would select, even for a country visit.
+
+And thus they met, as perhaps never, since this world was first set
+spinning down the ringing grooves of change, met father and son before!
+
+
+
+
+14. _An Error of Judgment_
+
+     "The Survivorship of a worthy Man in his Son is a Pleasure scarce
+     inferior to the Hopes of the Continuance of his own Life."
+                                                          _Spectator._
+
+
+     "Du bist ein Knabe--sei es immerhin
+     Und fahre fort, den Fröhlichen zu spielen."
+                                   SCHILLER, _Don Carlos_.
+
+
+Paul was the first to break a very awkward silence. "You young
+scoundrel!" he said, with suppressed rage. "What the devil do you mean
+by laughing like that? It's no laughing matter, let me tell you, sir,
+for one of us!"
+
+"I can't help laughing," said Dick; "you do look so queer!"
+
+"Queer! I may well look queer. I tell you that I have never, never in my
+whole life, spent such a perfectly infernal week as this last!"
+
+"Ah!" observed Dick, "I thought you wouldn't find it _all_ jam! And yet
+you seemed to be enjoying yourself, too," he said with a grin, "from
+that letter you wrote."
+
+"What made you come here? Couldn't you be content with your miserable
+victory, without coming down to crow and jeer at me?"
+
+"It isn't that," said Dick. "I--I thought I should like to see the
+fellows, and find out how you were getting on, you know." These,
+however, were not his only and his principal motives. He had come down
+to get a sight of Dulcie.
+
+"Well, sir," said Mr. Bultitude, with ponderous sarcasm, "you'll be
+delighted to hear that I'm getting on uncommonly well--oh, uncommonly!
+Your high-spirited young friends batter me to sleep with slippers on
+most nights, and, as a general thing, kick me about during the day like
+a confounded football! And last night, sir, I was going to be expelled;
+and this morning I'm forgiven, and sentenced to be soundly flogged
+before the whole school! It was just about to take place as you came in;
+and I've every reason to believe it is merely postponed!"
+
+"I say, though," said Dick, "you must have been going it rather, you
+know. I've never been expelled. Has Chawner been sneaking again? What
+have you been up to?"
+
+"Nothing. I solemnly swear--nothing! They're finding out things you've
+done, and thrashing _me_."
+
+"Well," said Dick soothingly, "you'll work them all off during the term,
+I daresay. There aren't many really bad ones. I suppose he's seen my
+name cut on his writing-table?"
+
+"No; not that I'm aware of," said Paul.
+
+"Oh, he'd let you hear of it if he had!" said Dick. "It's good for a
+swishing, that is. But, after all, what's a swishing? I never cared for
+a swishing."
+
+"But I do care, sir. I care very much, and, I tell you, I won't stand
+it. I can't! Dick," he said abruptly as a sudden hope seized him. "You,
+you haven't come down here to say you're tired of your folly, have you?
+Do you want to give it up?"
+
+"Rather not," said Dick. "Why should I? No school, no lessons, nothing
+to do but amuse myself, eat and drink what I like, and lots of money.
+It's not likely, you know."
+
+"Have you ever thought that you're bringing yourself within reach of the
+law, sir?" said Paul, trying to frighten him. "Perhaps you don't know
+that there's an offence known as 'false personation with intent to
+defraud,' and that it's a felony. That's what you're doing at this
+moment, sir!"
+
+"Not any more than you are!" retorted Dick. "I never began it. I had as
+much right to wish to be you as you had to wish to be me. You're just
+what you said you wanted to be, so you can't complain."
+
+"It's useless to argue with you, I see," said Paul. "And you've no
+feelings. But I'll warn you of one thing. Whether that is my body or not
+you've fraudulently taken possession of, I don't know; if it is not, it
+is very like mine, and I tell you this about it. The sort of life you're
+leading it, sir, will very soon make an end of you, if you don't take
+care. Do you think that a constitution at my age can stand sweet wines
+and pastry, and late hours? Why, you'll be laid up with gout in another
+day or two. Don't tell me, sir. I know you're suffering from indigestion
+at this very minute. I can see your liver (it may be _my_ liver for
+anything I know) is out of order. I can see it in your eyes."
+
+Dick was a little alarmed at this, but he soon said: "Well, and if I am
+seedy, I can get Barbara to take the stone and wish me all right again,
+can't I? That's easy enough, I suppose."
+
+"Oh, easy enough!" said Paul, with a suppressed groan. "But, Dick, you
+don't go up to Mincing Lane in that suit and that hat? Don't tell me you
+do that!"
+
+"When I do go up, I wear them," said Dick composedly. "Why not? It's a
+roomy suit, and I hate a great topper on my head; I've had enough of
+that here on Sundays. But it's slow up at your office. The chaps there
+aren't half up to any larks. I made a first-rate booby-trap, though, one
+day for an old yellow buffer who came in to see you. He _was_ in a bait
+when he found the waste-paper basket on his head!"
+
+"What was his name?" said Paul, with forced calm.
+
+"Something like 'Shells.' He said he was a very old friend of mine, and
+I told him he lied."
+
+"Shellack--my Canton correspondent--a man I was anxious to be of use
+to when he came over!" moaned Mr. Bultitude. "Miserable young cub, you
+don't know what mischief you've done!"
+
+"Well, it won't matter much to you now," said Dick; "you're out of it
+all."
+
+"Do you--do you mean to keep me out of it for ever, then?" asked Paul.
+
+"As long as ever I can!" returned Dick frankly. "It will be rather
+interesting to see what sort of a fellow you'll grow into--if you ever
+do grow. Perhaps you will always be like that, you know. This magic is a
+rum thing to meddle with."
+
+This suggestion almost maddened Paul. He made one stride forward, and
+faced his son with blazing eyes. "Do you think I will put up with it?"
+he said, between his teeth. "Do you suppose I shall stand calmly by and
+see you degrading and ruining me? I may never be my old self again, but
+I don't mean to play into your hands for all that. You can't always keep
+me here, and wherever I go I'll tell my tale. I know you, you clumsy
+rogue, you haven't the sense to play your part with common intelligence
+now. You would betray yourself directly I challenged you to deny my
+story.... You know you would.... You couldn't face me for five minutes.
+By Gad! I'll do it now. I'll expose you before the Doctor--before the
+whole school. You shall see if you can dispose of me quite so easily as
+you imagine!"
+
+Dick had started back at first in unmistakable alarm at this unexpected
+defiance, probably feeling his self-possession unequal to such a test;
+but, when Paul had finished, he said doggedly: "Well, you can do it if
+you choose, I suppose. I can't stop you. But I don't see what good it
+would do."
+
+"It would show people you were an impudent impostor, sir," said Paul
+sternly, going to the door as if to call the Doctor, though he shrank
+secretly from so extreme and dangerous a measure.
+
+There was a hesitation in his manner, in spite of the firmness of his
+words, which Dick was not likely to miss. "Stop!" he said. "Before you
+call them in, just listen to me for a minute. Do you see this?" And,
+opening his coat, he pulled out from his waistcoat pocket one end of his
+watch-chain. Hanging to it, attached by a cheap gilt fastening of some
+sort, was a small grey tablet. Paul knew it at once--it was the Garudâ
+Stone. "You know it, I see," said Dick, as Paul was about to move
+towards him--with what object he scarcely knew himself. "Don't trouble
+to come any closer. Well, I give you fair warning. You can make things
+very nasty for me if you like. I can't help that--but, if you do--if you
+try to score off me in any way, now or at any time--if you don't keep it
+up when the Doctor comes in--I tell you what I shall do. I shall go
+straight home and find young Roly. I shall give him this stone, and just
+tell him to say some wish after me. I don't believe there are many
+things it can't do, and all I can say is--if you find yourself and all
+this jolly old school (except Dulcie) taken off somewhere and stuck down
+all at once thousands of miles away on a desolate island, or see
+yourself turned into a Red Indian, or, or a cabhorse, you'll have
+yourself to thank for it--that's all. Now you can have them all up and
+fire away."
+
+"No," said Paul, in a broken voice, for, wild as the threat was, he
+could not afford to despise it after his experiences of the stone's
+power, "I--I was joking, Dick; at least I didn't mean it. I know of
+course I'm helpless. It's a sad thing for a father to say, but you've
+got the best of it.... I give in ... I won't interfere with you. There's
+only one thing I ask. You won't try any more experiments with that
+miserable stone.... You'll promise me that, at least?"
+
+"Yes," said Dick: "it's all right. I'll play fair. As long as you behave
+yourself and back me up I won't touch it. I only want to stay as I am. I
+don't want to hurt you."
+
+"You won't lose it?" said Paul anxiously. "Couldn't you lock it up? that
+fastening doesn't look very safe."
+
+"It will do well enough," said Dick. "I got it done at the watchmaker's
+round the corner, for sixpence. But I'll have a stronger ring put in
+somewhere, if I think of it."
+
+There was a pause, in which the conversation seemed about to flag
+hopelessly, but at last Dick said, almost as if he felt some compunction
+for his present unfilial attitude: "Now, you know, it's much better to
+take things quietly. It can't be altered now, can it? And it's not such
+bad fun being a boy after all--for some things. You'll get into it
+by-and-by, you see if you don't, and be as jolly as a sandboy. We shall
+get along all right together, too. I shan't be hard on you. It isn't my
+fault that you happen to be at this particular school--you chose it! And
+after this term you can go to any other school you like--Eton or Rugby,
+or anywhere. I don't mind the expense. Of, if you'd rather, you can have
+a private tutor. And I'll buy you a pony, and you can ride in the Row.
+You shall have a much better time of it than I ever had, as long as you
+let me go on my own way."
+
+But these dazzling bribes had no influence upon Mr. Bultitude; nothing
+short of complete restitution would ever satisfy him, and he was too
+proud and too angry at his crushing defeat to even pretend to be in the
+least pacified.
+
+"I don't want your pony," he said bitterly; "I might as well have a
+white elephant, and I don't suppose I should enjoy myself much more at a
+public school than I do here. Let's have no humbug, sir. You're up and
+I'm down--there's no more to be said--I shall tell the Doctor nothing,
+but I warn you, if ever the time comes----"
+
+"Oh, of course," said Dick, feeling tolerably secure, now he had
+disposed of the main difficulty. "If you can turn me out, I suppose you
+will--that's only fair. I shall take care not to give you the chance.
+And, oh, I say, do you want any tin? How much have you got left?"
+
+Paul turned away his head, lest Dick should see the sudden exultation he
+knew it must betray, as he said, with an effort to appear unconcerned,
+"I came away with exactly five shillings, and I haven't a penny now!"
+
+"I say," said Dick, "you are a fellow; you must have been going it. How
+did you get rid of it all in a week?"
+
+"It went, as far as I can understand," said Mr. Bultitude, "in rabbits
+and mice. Some boys claimed it as money they paid you to get them, I
+believe."
+
+"All your own fault," said Dick, "you would have them drowned. But you'd
+better have some tin to get along with. How much do you want? Will
+half-a-crown do?"
+
+"Half-a-crown is not much, Dick," said his father, almost humbly.
+
+"It's--ahem--a handsome allowance for a young fellow like you," said
+Dick, rather unkindly; "but I haven't any half-crowns left. I must give
+you this, I suppose."
+
+And he held out a sovereign, never dreaming what it signified to Paul,
+who clutched it with feelings too great for words, though gratitude was
+not a part of them, for was it not his own money?
+
+"And now look out," said Dick, "I hear Grim. Remember what I told you;
+keep it up."
+
+Dr. Grimstone came in with the air of a man who has a painful duty to
+perform; he started slightly as his eye noted the change in his
+visitor's dress and appearance. "I hope," he began gravely, "that your
+son has spared me the pain of going into the details of his
+misbehaviour; I wish I could give you a better report of him."
+
+Dick was plainly, in spite of his altered circumstances, by no means at
+ease in the schoolmaster's presence; he stood, shifting from foot to
+foot on the hearth-rug, turning extremely red and obstinately declining
+to raise his eyes from the ground.
+
+"Oh, ah," he stammered at last, "you were just going to swish him,
+weren't you, when I turned up, sir?"
+
+"I found myself forced," said the Doctor, slightly shocked at this
+coarse way of putting things, "forced to contemplate administering to
+him (for his ultimate benefit) a sharp corrective in the presence of his
+schoolfellows. I distress you, I see, but the truth must be told. He has
+no doubt confessed his fault to you?"
+
+"No," said Dick, "he hasn't though. What's he been up to now?"
+
+"I had hoped he would have been more open, more straightforward, when
+confronted with the father who has proved himself so often indulgent and
+anxious for his improvement; it would have been a more favourable
+symptom, I think. Well, I must tell you myself. I know too well what a
+shock it will be to your scrupulously sensitive moral code, my dear Mr.
+Bultitude" (Dick showed a painful inclination to giggle here); "but I
+have to break to you the melancholy truth that I detected this unhappy
+boy in the act of conducting a secret and amorous correspondence with a
+young lady in a sacred edifice!"
+
+Dick whistled sharply: "Oh, I say!" he cried, "that's bad" (and he
+wagged his head reprovingly at his disgusted father, who longed to
+denounce his hypocrisy, but dared not); "that's bad ... he shouldn't do
+that sort of thing you know, should he? At his age too ... the young
+dog!"
+
+"This horror is what I should have expected from you," said the Doctor
+(though he was in truth more than scandalised by the composure with
+which his announcement was received). "Such boldness is indeed
+characteristic of the dog, an animal which, as you are aware, was with
+the ancients a synonym for shamelessness. No boy, however abandoned,
+should hear such words of unequivocal condemnation from a father's lips
+without a pang of shame!"
+
+Paul was only just able to control his rage by a great effort.
+
+"You're right there, sir," said Dick; "he ought to be well ragged for it
+... he'll break my heart, if he goes on like this, the young beggar. But
+we mustn't be too hard on him, eh? After all, it's nature, you know,
+isn't it?"
+
+"I beg your pardon?" said Dr. Grimstone very stiffly.
+
+"I mean," explained Dick, with a perilous approach to digging the other
+in the ribs, "we did much the same sort of thing in our time, eh? I'm
+sure I did--lots of times!"
+
+"I can't reproach myself on that head, Mr. Bultitude; and permit me to
+say, that such a tone of treating the affair is apt to destroy the
+effect, the excellent moral effect, of your most impressively conveyed
+indignation just now. I merely give you a hint, you understand!"
+
+"Oh, ah," said Dick, feeling that he had made a mistake, "yes, I didn't
+mean that. But I say, you haven't given him a--a whopping yet, have
+you?"
+
+"I had just stepped out to procure a cane for that purpose," said the
+Doctor, "when your name was announced."
+
+"Well, look here, you won't want to start again when I'm gone, will
+you?"
+
+"An ancient philosopher, my dear sir, was accustomed to postpone the
+correction of his slaves until the first glow of his indignation had
+passed away. He found that he could----"
+
+"Lay it on with more science," suggested Dick, while Paul writhed where
+he stood. "Perhaps so, but you might forgive him now, don't you think?
+he won't do it again. If he goes writing any more love-letters, tell me,
+and I'll come and talk to him; but he's had a lesson, you know. Let him
+off this time."
+
+"I have no right to resist such an entreaty," said the Doctor, "though I
+may be inclined myself to think that a few strokes would render the
+lesson more permanent. I must ask you to reconsider your plea for his
+pardon."
+
+Paul heard this with indescribable anxiety; he had begun to feel
+tolerably sure that his evil hour was postponed _sine die_, but might
+not Dick be cruel and selfish enough to remain neutral, or even side
+with the enemy, in support of his assumed character?
+
+Luckily he was not. "I'd rather let him off," he said awkwardly; "I
+don't approve of caning fellows myself. It never did me any good, I
+know, and I got enough of it to tell."
+
+"Well, well, I yield. Richard, your father has interceded for you; and I
+cannot disregard his wishes, though I have my own view in the matter.
+You will hear no more of this disgraceful conduct, sir, unless you do
+something to recall it to my memory. Thank your father for his kindness,
+which you so little deserved, and take your leave of him."
+
+"Oh, there, it's all right!" said Dick; "he'll behave himself after
+this, I know. And oh! I say, sir," he added hastily, "is--is Dulcie
+anywhere about?"
+
+"My daughter?" asked the Doctor. "Would you like to see her?"
+
+"I shouldn't mind," said Dick, blushing furiously.
+
+"I'm sorry to say she has gone out for a walk with her mother," said the
+Doctor. "I'm afraid she cannot be back for some time. It's unfortunate."
+
+Dick's face fell. "It doesn't matter," he muttered awkwardly. "She's
+all right, I hope?"
+
+"She is very seldom ailing, I'm happy to say; just now she is
+particularly well, thank you."
+
+"Oh, is she?" said Dick gloomily, probably disappointed to find that he
+was so little missed, and not suspecting that his father had been
+accepted as a substitute.
+
+"Well, do you mind--could I see the fellows again for a minute or two--I
+mean I should rather like to inspect the school, you know."
+
+"See my boys? Certainly, my dear sir, by all means; this way," and he
+took Dick out to the schoolroom--Paul following out of curiosity.
+"You'll find us at our studies, you see," said the Doctor, as he opened
+the first baize door. There was a suspicious hubbub and hum of voices
+from within; but as they entered every boy was bent over his books with
+the rapt absorption of the devoted student--an absorption that was the
+direct effect of the sound the door-handle made in turning.
+
+"Our workshop," said the Doctor airily, looking round. "My first form,
+Mr. Bultitude. Some good workers here, and some idle ones."
+
+Dick stood in the doorway, looking (if the truth must be told)
+uncommonly foolish. He had wanted, in coming there, to enjoy the
+contrast between the past and present--which accounts for a good many
+visits of "old boys" to the scene of their education. But, confronted
+with his former schoolfellows, he was seized at first with an utterly
+unreasonable fear of detection.
+
+The class behaved as classes usually do on such occasions. The good boys
+smirked and the bad ones stared--the general expression being one of
+uneasy curiosity. Dick said never a word, feeling strangely bashful and
+nervous.
+
+"This is Tipping, my head boy," touching that young gentleman on the
+shoulder, and making him several degrees more uncomfortable. "I expect
+solid results from Tipping some day."
+
+"He looks as if his head was pretty solid," said Dick, who had once cut
+his knuckles against it.
+
+"My second boy, Biddlecomb. If he applies himself, he too will do me
+credit in the world."
+
+"How do, Biddlecomb?" said Dick. "I owe you ninepence--I mean--oh hang
+it, here's a shilling for you! Hallo, Chawner!" he went on, gradually
+overcoming his first nervousness, "how are you getting on, eh? Doing
+much in the sneaking way lately?"
+
+"You know him!" exclaimed the Doctor with naive surprise.
+
+"No, no; I don't know him. I've heard of him, you know--heard of him!"
+Chawner looked down his nose with a feeble attempt at a gratified
+simper, while his neighbours giggled with furtive relish.
+
+"Well," said Dick at last, after a long look at all the old familiar
+objects, "I must be off, you know. Got some important business at home
+this evening to look after. The fellows look very jolly and contented,
+and all that sort of thing. Enough to make one want to be a boy again
+almost, eh? Good-bye, you chaps--ahem, young gentlemen, I wish you good
+morning!"
+
+And he went out, leaving behind him the impression that "young
+Bultitude's governor wasn't half such a bad old buffer."
+
+He paused at the open front door, to which Paul and the Doctor had
+accompanied him. "Good-bye," he said; "I wish I'd seen Dulcie. I should
+like to see your daughter, sir; but it can't be helped. Good-bye; and
+you," he added in a lower tone to his father, who was standing by,
+inexpressibly pained and disgusted by his utter want of dignity, "you
+mind what I told you. Don't try any games with me!"
+
+And, as he skipped jauntily down the steps to the gateway, the Doctor
+followed his unwieldy, oddly-dressed form with his eyes, and, inclining
+his head gravely to Dick's sweeping wave of the hand, asked with a
+compassionate tone in his voice. "You don't happen to know, Richard, my
+boy, if your father has had any business troubles lately--anything to
+disturb him?"
+
+And Mr. Bultitude's feelings prevented him from making any intelligible
+reply.
+
+
+
+
+15. _The Rubicon_
+
+                       "My three schoolfellows,
+     Whom I will trust--as I will adders fanged;
+     They bear the mandate."
+
+
+Paul never quite knew how the remainder of that day passed at Crichton
+House. He was ordered to join a class which was more or less engaged
+with some kind of work: he had a hazy idea that it was Latin, though it
+may have been Greek; but he was spared the necessity of taking any
+active part in the proceedings, as Mr. Blinkhorn was not disposed to be
+too exacting with a boy who in one short morning had endured a sentence
+of expulsion, a lecture, the immediate prospect of a flogging, and a
+paternal visit, and, as before, mercifully left him alone.
+
+His classmates, however, did not show the same chivalrous delicacy; and
+Paul had to suffer many unmannerly jests and gibes at his expense,
+frequent and anxious inquiries as to the exact nature of his treatment
+in the dining-room, with sundry highly imaginative versions of the same,
+while there was much candid and unbiassed comment on the appearance and
+conduct of himself and his son.
+
+But he bore it unprotesting--or, rather, he scarcely noticed it; for all
+his thoughts were now entirely taken up by one important subject--the
+time and manner of his escape.
+
+Thanks to Dick's thoughtless liberality, he had now ample funds to carry
+him safely home. It was hardly likely that any more unexpected claims
+could be brought against him now, particularly as he had no intention
+of publishing his return to solvency. He might reasonably consider
+himself in a position to make his escape at the very first favourable
+opportunity.
+
+When would that opportunity present itself? It must come soon. He could
+not wait long for it. Any hour might yet see him pounced upon and
+flogged heartily for some utterly unknown and unsuspected transgression;
+or the golden key which would unlock his prison bars might be lost in
+some unlucky moment; for his long series of reverses had made him loth
+to trust to Fortune, even when she seemed to look smilingly once more
+upon him.
+
+Fortune's countenance is apt to be so alarmingly mobile with some
+unfortunates.
+
+But in spite of the new facilities given him for escape, and his strong
+motives for taking advantage of them, he soon found to his utter dismay
+that he shrank from committing himself to so daring and dangerous a
+course, just as much as when he had tried to make a confidant of the
+Doctor.
+
+For, after all, could he be sure of himself? Would his ill-luck suffer
+him to seize the one propitious moment, or would that fatal
+self-distrust and doubt that had paralysed him for the past week seize
+him again just at the crisis?
+
+Suppose he did venture to take the first irrevocable step, could he rely
+on himself to go through the rest of his hazardous enterprise? Was he
+cool and wary enough? He dared not expect an uninterrupted run. Had he
+ruses and expedients at command on any sudden check?
+
+If he could not answer all these doubts favourably, was it not sheer
+madness to take to flight at all?
+
+He felt a dismal conviction that his success would have to depend, not
+on his own cunning, but on the forbearance or blindness of others. The
+slightest _contretemps_ must infallibly upset him altogether.
+
+The fact was, he had all his life been engaged in the less eventful and
+contentious branches of commerce. His will had seldom had to come in
+contact with others, and when it did so, he had found means, being of a
+prudent and cautious temperament, of avoiding disagreeable personal
+consequences by timely compromises or judicious employment of delegates.
+He had generally found his fellow-men ready to meet him reasonably as an
+equal or a superior.
+
+But now he must be prepared to see in everyone he met a possible enemy,
+who would hand him over to the tyrant on the faintest suspicion. They
+were spies to be baffled or disarmed, pursuers to be eluded. The
+smallest slip in his account of himself would be enough to undo him.
+
+No wonder that, as he thought over all this, his heart quailed within
+him.
+
+They say--the paradox-mongers say--that it requires a far higher degree
+of moral courage for a soldier in action to leave the ranks under fire
+and seek a less distinguished position towards the rear, than would
+carry him on with the rest to charge a battery.
+
+This may be true, though it might not prove a very valuable defence at a
+court-martial; but, at all events, Mr. Bultitude found, when it came to
+the point, that it was almost impossible for him to screw up his courage
+to run away.
+
+It is not a pleasant state, this indecision whether to stay passively
+and risk the worst or avoid it by flight, and the worst of it is that,
+whatever course is eventually forced upon us, it finds us equally
+unprepared, and more liable from such indecision to bungle miserably in
+the sequel.
+
+Paul might never have gained heart to venture, but for an unpleasant
+incident that took place during dinner and a discovery he made after it.
+
+They happened to have a particularly unpopular pudding that day; a
+pallid preparation of suet, with an infrequent currant or two embalmed
+in it, and Paul was staring at his portion of this delicacy
+disconsolately enough, wondering how he should contrive to consume and,
+worse still, digest it, when his attention was caught by Jolland, who
+sat directly opposite him.
+
+That young gentleman, who evidently shared the general prejudice against
+the currant pudding, was inviting Mr. Bultitude's attention to a little
+contrivance of his own for getting rid of it, which consisted in
+delicately shovelling the greater part of what was on his plate into a
+large envelope held below the table to receive it.
+
+This struck Paul as a heaven-sent method of avoiding the difficulty, and
+he had just got the envelope which had held Barbara's letter out of his
+pocket, intending to follow Jolland's example, when the Doctor's voice
+made him start guiltily and replace the envelope in his pocket.
+
+"Jolland," said the Doctor, "what have you got there?"
+
+"An envelope, sir," explained Jolland, who had now got the remains of
+his pudding safely bestowed.
+
+"What is in that envelope?" said the Doctor, who happened to have been
+watching him.
+
+"In the envelope, sir? Pudding, sir," said Jolland, as if it were the
+most natural thing in the world to send bulky portions of pudding by
+post.
+
+"And why did you place pudding in the envelope?" inquired the Doctor in
+his deepest tone.
+
+Jolland felt a difficulty in explaining that he had done so because he
+wished to avoid eating it, and with a view to interring it later on in
+the playground: he preferred silence.
+
+"Shall I tell you why you did it, sir?" thundered the Doctor. "You did
+it, because you were scheming to obtain a second portion--because you
+did not feel yourself able to eat both portions at your leisure here,
+and thought to put by a part to devour in secret at a future time. It's
+a most painful exhibition of pure piggishness. There shall be no
+pocketing at this table, sir. You will eat that pudding under my eye at
+once, and you will stay in and write out French verbs for two days. That
+will put an end to any more gorging in the garden for a time, at least."
+
+Jolland seemed stupefied, though relieved, by the unexpected
+construction put upon his conduct, as he gulped down the intercepted
+fragments of pudding, while the rest diligently cleared their plates
+with as much show of appreciation as they could muster.
+
+Mr. Bultitude shuddered at this one more narrow escape. If he had been
+detected--as he must have been in another instant--in smuggling pudding
+in an envelope he might have incautiously betrayed his real motives, and
+then, as the Doctor was morbidly sensitive concerning all complaints of
+the fare he provided, he would have got into worse trouble than the
+unfortunate Jolland, to say nothing of the humiliation of being detected
+in such an act.
+
+It was a solemn warning to him of the dangers he was exposed to hourly,
+while he lingered within those walls; but his position was still more
+strongly brought home to him by the terrible discovery he made shortly
+afterwards.
+
+He was alone in the schoolroom, for the others had all gone down into
+the playground, except Jolland, who was confined in one of the
+class-rooms below, when the thought came over him to test the truth of
+Dick's hint about a name cut on the Doctor's writing-table.
+
+He stole up to it guiltily, and, lifting the slanting desk which stood
+there, examined the surface below. Dick had been perfectly correct.
+There it was, glaringly fresh and distinct, not large but very deeply
+cut and fearfully legible. "R. Bultitude." It might have been done that
+day. Dick had probably performed it out of bravado, or under the
+impression that he was not going to return after the holidays.
+
+Paul dropped the desk over the fatal letters with a shudder. The
+slightest accidental shifting of it must disclose them--nothing but a
+miracle could have kept them concealed so long. When they did come to
+light, he knew from what he had seen of the Doctor, that the act would
+be considered as an outrage of the blackest and most desperate kind. He
+would most unquestionably get a flogging for it!
+
+He fetched a large pewter ink-pot, and tried nervously to blacken the
+letters with the tip of a quill, to make them, if possible, rather less
+obtrusive than they were. All in vain; they only stood out with more
+startling vividness when picked out in black upon the brown-stained
+deal. He felt very like a conscience-stricken murderer trying to hide a
+corpse that _wouldn't_ be buried. He gave it up at last, having only
+made a terrible mess with the ink.
+
+That settled it. He must fly. The flogging must be avoided at all
+hazards. If an opportunity delayed its coming, why, he must do without
+the opportunity--he must make one. For good or ill, his mind was made up
+now for immediate flight.
+
+All that afternoon, while he sat trying to keep his mind upon long sums
+in Bills of Parcels, which disgusted him as a business man, by the
+glaring improbability of their details, his eye wandered furtively down
+the long tables to where the Doctor sat at the head of the class. Every
+chance movement of the principal's elbow filled him with a sickening
+dread. A hundred times did those rudely carved letters seem about to
+start forth and denounce him.
+
+It was a disquieting afternoon for Paul.
+
+But the time dragged wearily on, and still the desk loyally kept its
+secret. The dusk drew on and the gas-burners were lit. The younger boys
+came up from the lower class-room and were sent out to play; the Doctor
+shortly afterwards dismissed his own class to follow them, and Paul and
+his companions had the room to themselves.
+
+He sat there on the rough form with his slate before him, hearing
+half-unconsciously the shouts, laughter, and ring of feet coming up from
+the darkness outside, and the faint notes of a piano, which filtered
+through the double doors from one of the rooms, where a boy was
+practising Haydn's "Surprise," from Hamilton's exercise book, a surprise
+which he rendered as a mildly interjectional form of astonishment.
+
+All the time Paul was racked with an intense burning desire to get up
+and run for it then, before it became too late; but cold fits of doubt
+and fear preserved him from such lunacy--he would wait, his chance might
+come before long.
+
+His patience was rewarded; the Doctor came in, looking at his watch, and
+said, "I think these boys have had enough of it, Mr. Tinkler, eh? You
+can send them out now till tea-time."
+
+Mr. Tinkler, who had been entangling himself frightfully in intricate
+calculations upon the blackboard, without making a single convert, was
+only too glad to take advantage of the suggestion, and Paul followed the
+rest into the playground with a sense of relief.
+
+The usual "chevy" was going on there, with more spirit than usual,
+perhaps, because the darkness allowed of practical jokes and surprises,
+and offered great facilities for paying off old grudges with secrecy and
+despatch, and as the Doctor had come to the door of the greenhouse, and
+was looking on, the players exerted themselves still more, till the
+"prison" to which most of one side had been consigned by being run down
+and touched by their fleeter enemies was filled with a long line of
+captives holding hands and calling out to be released.
+
+Paul, who had run out vaguely from his base, was promptly pursued and
+made prisoner by an unnecessarily vigorous thump in the back, after
+which he took his place at the bottom of the line of imprisoned ones.
+
+But the enemy's spirit began to slacken; one after another of the
+players still left to the opposite side succeeded in outrunning pursuit
+and touching the foremost prisoner for the time being, so as to set him
+free by the rules of the game. The Doctor went in again, and the enemy
+relapsed as usual into total indifference, so that Paul, without exactly
+knowing how, soon found himself the only one left in gaol, unnoticed and
+apparently forgotten.
+
+He could not see anything through the darkness, but he heard the voices
+of the boys disputing at the other side of the playground; he looked
+round; at his right was the indistinct form of a large laurel bush,
+behind that he knew was the playground gate. Could it be that his chance
+had come at last?
+
+He slipped behind the laurel and waited, holding his breath; the dispute
+still went on; no one seemed to have noticed him, probably the darkness
+prevented all chance of that; he went on tip-toe to the gate--it was not
+locked.
+
+He opened it very carefully a little way; it was forbearing enough not
+to creak, and the next moment he was outside, free to go where he would!
+
+Escape, after all, was simple enough when he came to try it; he could
+hardly believe at first that he really was free at last; free with money
+enough in his pocket to take him home, with the friendly darkness to
+cover his retreat; free to go back and confront Dick on his own ground,
+and, by force, or fraud, get the Garudâ Stone into his own hands once
+more.
+
+As yet he never doubted that it would be easy enough to convince his
+household, if necessary, of the truth of his story, and enlist them one
+and all on his side; all that he required, he thought, was caution; he
+must reach the house unobserved, and wait and watch, and the deuce would
+be in it if the stone were not safe in his pocket again before twelve
+hours had gone by.
+
+All this time he was still within a hundred yards or so of the
+playground wall; he must decide upon some particular route, some
+definite method of ordering his flight; to stay where he was any longer
+would clearly be unwise, yet, where should he go first?
+
+If he went to the station at once, how could he tell that he should be
+lucky enough to catch a train without having to wait long for it, and
+unless he did that, he would almost certainly be sought for first on the
+station platform, and might be caught before a train was due?
+
+At last, with an astuteness he had not suspected himself of possessing,
+which was probably the result of the harrowing experiences he had lately
+undergone, he hit upon a plan of action. "I'll go to a shop," he
+thought, "and change this sovereign, and ask to look at a
+timetable--then, if I find I can catch a train at once, I'll run for it;
+if one is not due for some time, I can hang about near the station till
+it comes in."
+
+With this intention he walked on towards the town till he came to a
+small terrace of shops, when he went into the first, which was a
+stationer's and toy-dealer's, with a stock in trade of cheap wooden toys
+and incomprehensible games, drawing slates, penny packets of stationery
+and cards of pen and pencil-holders, and a particularly stuffy
+atmosphere; the proprietor, a short man with a fat white face with a
+rich glaze all over it and a fringe of ragged brown whisker meeting
+under his chin, was sitting behind the counter posting up his ledger.
+
+Paul looked round the shop in search of something to purchase, and at
+last said, more nervously than he expected to do, "I want a pencil-case,
+one which screws up and down." He thought a pencil-case would be an
+innocent, unsuspicious thing to ask for. The man set rows of cards
+containing pencil-cases of every imaginable shape on the counter before
+him, and when Mr. Bultitude had chosen and paid for one, the stationer
+asked if there would be anything else, and if he might send it for him.
+"You're one of Dr. Grimstone's young gentlemen up at Crichton House,
+aren't you, sir?" he added.
+
+A guilty dread of discovery made Paul anxious to deny this at once.
+"No," he said; "oh no; no connection with the place. Ah, could you allow
+me to look at a time-table?"
+
+"Certainly, sir; expectin' some one to-night or to-morrow p'raps. Let me
+see," he said, consulting a table which hung behind him. "There's a
+train from Pancras comes in in half an hour from now, 6.5 that is;
+there's another doo at 8.15, and one at 9.30. Then from Liverpool Street
+they run----"
+
+"Thank you," said Mr. Bultitude, "but--but I want the up-trains."
+
+"Ah," said the man, with a rather peculiar intonation, "I thought maybe
+your par or mar was comin' down. Ain't Dr. Grimstone got the times the
+trains go?"
+
+"Yes," said Paul desperately, without very well knowing what he said,
+"yes, he has, but ah, not for this month; he--he sent me to inquire."
+
+"Did he though?" said the stationer. "I thought you wasn't one of his
+young gentlemen?"
+
+Mr. Bultitude saw what a fearful trap he had fallen into and stood
+speechless.
+
+"Go along with you!" said the little stationer at last, with a not
+unkindly grin. "Lor bless you, I knew your face the minnit you come in.
+To go and tell me a brazen story like that! You're a young pickle, you
+are!"
+
+Mr. Bultitude began to shuffle feebly towards the door. "Pickle, eh?" he
+protested in great discomposure. "No, no. Heaven knows I'm no pickle.
+It's of no consequence about those trains. Don't trouble. Good evening
+to you."
+
+"Stop," said the man, "don't be in such a nurry now. You tell me what
+you want to know straightforward, and I don't mean to say as I won't
+help you so far as I can. Don't be afraid of my telling no tales. I've
+bin a schoolboy myself in my time, bless your 'art. I shouldn't wonder
+now if I couldn't make a pretty good guess without telling at what
+you're after. You've bin a catchin' of it hot, and you want to make a
+clean bolt of it. I ain't very far off, now, am I?"
+
+"No," said Paul; for something in the man's manner inspired confidence.
+"I do want to make a bolt of it. I've been most abominably treated."
+
+"Well, look here, I ain't got no right to interfere; and if you're
+caught, I look to you not to bring my name in. I don't want to get into
+trouble up at Crichton House and lose good customers, you see. But I
+like the looks of you, and you've always dealt 'ere pretty regular. I
+don't mind if I give you a lift. Just see here. You want to get off to
+London, don't you? What for is your business, not mine. Well, there's a
+train, express, stops at only one station on the way, in at 5.50. It's
+twenty minnits to six now. If you take that road just oppersite, it'll
+bring you out at the end of the Station Road; you can do it easy in ten
+minnits and have time to spare. So cut away, and good luck to you?"
+
+"I'm vastly obliged to you," said Paul, and he meant it. It was a new
+experience to find anyone offering him assistance. He left the close
+little shop, crossed the road, and started off in the direction
+indicated to him at a brisk trot.
+
+His steps rang out cheerfully on the path ironbound with frost. He was
+almost happy again under the exhilarating glow of unusual exercise and
+the excitement of escape and regained freedom.
+
+He ran on, past a series of villa residences enclosed in varnished
+palings and adorned with that mediæval abundance of turrets, balconies,
+and cheap stained-glass, which is accepted nowadays as a guarantee of
+the tenant's culture, and a satisfactory substitute for effective
+drainage. After the villas came a church, and a few yards farther on the
+road turned with a sharp curve into the main thoroughfare leading to the
+station.
+
+He was so near it that he could hear the shrill engine whistles, and the
+banging of trucks on the railway sidings echoed sharply from the
+neighbouring houses. He was saved, in sight of haven at last!
+
+Full of delight at the thought, he put on a still greater pace, and
+turning the corner without looking, ran into a little party of three,
+which was coming in the opposite direction.
+
+Fate's vein of irony was by no means worked out yet. As he was
+recovering from the collision, and preparing to offer or accept an
+apology, as the case might be, he discovered to his horror that he had
+fallen amongst no strangers.
+
+The three were his old acquaintances, Coker, Coggs, and the virtuous
+Chawner--of whom he had fondly hoped to have seen the last for ever!
+
+The moral and physical shock of such an encounter took all Mr.
+Bultitude's remaining breath away. He stood panting under the sickly
+rays of a street-lamp, the very incarnation of helpless, hopeless
+dismay.
+
+"Hallo!" said Coker, "it's young Bultitude!"
+
+"What do you mean by cannoning into a fellow like this?" said Coggs.
+"What are you up to out here, eh?"
+
+"If it comes to that," said Paul, casting about for some explanation of
+his appearance, "what are you up to here?"
+
+"Why," said Chawner, "if you want to know, Dick, we've been to fetch the
+_St. James' Gazette_ for the Doctor. He said I might go if I liked, and
+I asked for Coker and Coggs to come too; because there was something I
+wanted to tell them, very important, and I have told them, haven't I,
+Corny?"
+
+Coggs growled sulkily; Coker gave a tragic groan, and said: "I don't
+care when you tell, Chawner. Do it to-night if you like. Let's talk
+about something else. Bultitude hasn't told us yet how he came out here
+after us."
+
+His last words suggested a pretext to Paul, of which he hastened to make
+use. "Oh," he said, "I? I came out here, after you, to say that Dr.
+Grimstone will not require the _St. James' Gazette_. He wants the
+_Globe_ and, ah, the _Star_ instead."
+
+It did not sound a very probable combination; but Paul used the first
+names that occurred to him, and, as it happened, aroused no suspicions,
+for the boys read no newspapers.
+
+"Well, we've got the other now," said Coker. "We shall have to go back
+and get the fellow at the bookstall to change it, I suppose. Come on,
+you fellows!"
+
+This was at least a move in the right direction; for the three began at
+once to retrace their steps. But, unfortunately, all these explanations
+had taken time, and before they had gone many yards, Mr. Bultitude was
+horrified to hear the station-bell ring loudly, and immediately after a
+cloud of white steam rose above the station roof as the London train
+clanked cumbrously in, and was brought to with a prolonged screeching of
+brakes.
+
+The others were walking very slowly. At the present pace it would be
+almost impossible to reach the train in time. He looked round at them
+anxiously. "H-hadn't we better run, don't you think?" he asked.
+
+"Run!" said Coker scornfully. "What for? I'm not going to run. You can,
+if you like."
+
+"Why, ah, really," said Paul briskly, very grateful for the permission;
+"do you know, I think I will!"
+
+And run he did, with all his might, rushing headlong through the gates,
+threading his way between the omnibuses and under the Roman noses of the
+mild fly-horses in the enclosure, until at length he found himself
+inside the little booking-office.
+
+He was not too late; the train was still at the platform, the engine
+getting up steam with a dull roar. But he dared not risk detection by
+travelling without a ticket. There was time for that, too. No one was at
+the pigeon-hole but one old lady.
+
+But, unhappily, the old lady considered taking a ticket as a solemn rite
+to be performed with all due caution and deliberation. She had already
+catechised the clerk upon the number of stoppages during her proposed
+journey, and exacted earnest assurances from him that she would not be
+called upon to change anywhere in the course of it; and as Paul came up
+she was laying out the purchase-money for her ticket upon the ledge and
+counting it, which, the fare being high and the coins mostly halfpence,
+seemed likely to take some time.
+
+"One moment, ma'am, if you please," cried Mr. Bultitude, panting and
+desperate. "I'm pressed for time."
+
+"Now you've gone and put me out, little boy," said the old lady fussily.
+"I shall have to begin all over again. Young man, will you take and
+count the other end and see if it adds up right? There's a halfpenny
+wrong somewhere; I know there is."
+
+"Now then," shouted the guard from the platform. "Any more going on?"
+
+"I'm going on!" said Paul. "Wait for me. First single to St. Pancras,
+quick!"
+
+"Drat the boy!" said the old lady angrily. "Do you think the world's to
+give way for you? Such impidence! Mind your manners, little boy, can't
+you? You've made me drop a threepenny bit with your scrouging!"
+
+"First single, five shillings," said the clerk, jerking out the precious
+ticket.
+
+"Right!" cried the guard at the same instant. "Stand back there, will
+you!"
+
+Paul dashed towards the door of the booking-office which led to the
+platform; but just as he reached it a gate slammed in his face with a
+sharp click, through the bars of it he saw, with hot eyes, the tall,
+heavy carriages which had shelter and safety in them jolt heavily past,
+till even the red lamp on the last van was quenched in the darkness.
+
+That miserable old woman had shattered his hopes at the very moment of
+their fulfilment. It was fate again!
+
+As he stood, fiercely gripping the bars of the gate, he heard Coggs'
+hateful voice again.
+
+"Hallo! so you haven't got the _Globe_ and the other thing after all,
+then; they've shut you out?"
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Bultitude in a hollow voice; "they've shut me out!"
+
+
+
+
+16. _Hard Pressed_
+
+     "Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles,
+     How he outruns the wind, and with what care
+     He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles:
+         The many musets through the which he goes
+         Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes."
+
+
+As soon as the gate was opened, Paul went through mechanically with the
+others on to the platform, and waited at the bookstall while they
+changed the paper. He knew well enough that what had seemed at the time
+a stroke of supreme cunning would now only land him in fresh
+difficulties, if indeed it did not lead to the detection of his scheme.
+But he dared not interfere and prevent them from making the unlucky
+exchange. Something seemed to tie his tongue, and in sullen leaden
+apathy he resigned himself to whatever might be in store for him.
+
+They passed out again by the booking-office. There was the old lady
+still at the pigeon-hole, trying to persuade the much-enduring clerk to
+restore a lucky sixpence she had given him by mistake, and was quite
+unable to describe. Mr. Bultitude would have given much just then to go
+up and shake her into hysterics, or curse her bitterly for the mischief
+she had done; but he refrained, either from an innate chivalry, or from
+a feeling that such an outburst would be ill-judged.
+
+So, silent and miserable, with slow step and hanging head, he set out
+with his gaolers to render himself up once more at his house of
+bondage--a sort of involuntary Regulus, without the oath.
+
+"Dickie, you were very anxious to run just now," observed Chawner,
+after they had gone some distance on their homeward way.
+
+"We were late for tea--late for tea," explained Paul hastily.
+
+"If you think the tea worth racing like that for, I don't," said Coggs
+viciously; "it's muck."
+
+"You don't catch me racing, except for something worth having," said
+Coker.
+
+One more flash of distinct inspiration came to Paul's aid in the very
+depths of his gloom. It was, in fact, a hazy recollection from English
+history of the ruse by which Edward I., when a prince, contrived to
+escape from his captors at Hereford Castle.
+
+"Why--why," he said excitedly, "would you race if you had something
+worth racing for, hey? would you now?"
+
+"Try us!" said Coker emphatically.
+
+"What do you call 'something'?" inquired Chawner suspiciously.
+
+"Well," said Mr. Bultitude; "what do you say to a shilling?"
+
+"You haven't got a shilling," objected Coggs.
+
+"Here's a shilling, see," said Paul, producing one. "Now then, I'll give
+this to any boy I see get into tea first!"
+
+"Bultitude thinks he can run," said Coker, with an amiable unbelief in
+any disinterestedness. "He means to get in first and keep the shilling
+himself, I know."
+
+"I'll back myself to run him any day," put in Coggs.
+
+"So will I," added Chawner.
+
+"Well, is it agreed?" Paul asked anxiously. "Will you try?"
+
+"All right," said Chawner. "You must give us a start to the next
+lamp-post, though. You stay here, and when we're ready we'll say 'off'!"
+
+They drew a line on the path with their feet to mark Paul's starting
+point, and went on to the next lamp. After a moment or two of anxious
+waiting he heard Coggs shout, all in one breath, "One-two-three-off!"
+and the sound of scampering feet followed immediately.
+
+It was a most exciting and hotly contested race. Paul saw them for one
+brief moment in the lamplight. He saw Chawner scudding down the path
+like some great camel, and Coker squaring his arms and working them as
+if they were wings. Coggs seemed to be last.
+
+He ran a little way himself just to encourage them, but, as the sound of
+their feet grew fainter and fainter, he felt that his last desperate
+ruse had taken effect, and with a chuckle at his own cleverness, turned
+round and ran his fastest in the opposite direction. He felt little or
+no interest in the result of the race.
+
+Once more he entered the booking-office and, kneeling on a chair,
+consulted the time-board that hung on the wall over the sheaf of texts
+and the missionary box.
+
+The next train was not until 7.25. A whole hour and twenty-five minutes
+to wait! What was he to do? Where was he to pass the weary time till
+then? If he lingered on the platform he would assuredly be recaptured.
+His absence could not remain long undiscovered and the station would be
+the first place they would search for him.
+
+And yet he dared not wander away from the neighbourhood of the station.
+If he kept to the shops and lighted thoroughfares he might be recognised
+or traced. If, on the other hand, he went out farther into the country
+(which was utterly unknown to him), he had no watch, and it would be
+only too easy to lose his way, or miscalculate time and distance in the
+darkness.
+
+To miss the next train would be absolutely fatal.
+
+He walked out upon the platform, and on past the refreshment and waiting
+rooms, past the weighing machine, the stacked trucks and the lamp-room,
+meeting and seen by none--even the boy at the bookstall was busy with
+bread and butter and a mug of tea in a dark corner, and never noticed
+him.
+
+He went on to the end of the platform where the planks sloped gently
+down to a wilderness of sheds, coaling stages and sidings; he could just
+make out the bulky forms of some tarpaulined cattle-vans and open
+coal-trucks standing on the lines of metals which gleamed in the scanty
+gaslights.
+
+It struck him that one of these vans or trucks would serve his purpose
+admirably, if he could only get into it, and very cautiously he picked
+his way over the clogging ballast and rails, till he came to a low
+narrow strip of platform between two sidings.
+
+He mounted it and went on till he came to the line of trucks and vans
+drawn up alongside; the vans seemed all locked, but at the end he found
+an empty coal-waggon in which he thought he could manage to conceal
+himself and escape pursuit till the longed-for 7.25 train should arrive
+to relieve him.
+
+He stepped in and lay down in one corner of it, listening anxiously for
+any sound of search, but hearing nothing more than the dismal dirge of
+the telegraph wires overhead; he soon grew cold and stiff, for his
+enforced attitude was far from comfortable, and there was more coal-dust
+in his chosen retreat than he could have wished. Still it was secluded
+enough; it was not likely that it would occur to anyone to look for him
+there. Ten days ago Mr. Paul Bultitude would have found it hard to
+conceive himself lying down in a hard and grimy coal-truck to escape his
+son's schoolmaster, but since then he had gone through too much that was
+unprecedented and abnormal to see much incongruity in his situation--it
+was all too hideously real to be a nightmare.
+
+But even here he was not allowed to remain undisturbed; after about half
+an hour, when he was beginning to feel almost secure, there came a sharp
+twanging of wires beneath, and two short strokes of a bell in the
+signal-box hard by.
+
+He heard some one from the platform, probably the station-master,
+shout, "Look alive, there, Ing, Pickstones, some of you. There's those
+three trucks on the A siding to go to Slopsbury by the 6.30
+luggage--she'll be in in another five minutes."
+
+There were steps as if some persons were coming out of a cabin
+opposite--they came nearer and nearer: "These three, ain't it, Tommy?"
+said a gruff voice, close to Paul's ear.
+
+"That's it, mate," said another, evidently Tommy's--"get 'em along up to
+the points there. Can't have the 6.30 standing about on this 'ere line
+all night, 'cos of the Limited. Now then, all together, shove! they've
+got the old 'orse on at the other end."
+
+And to Paul's alarm he felt the truck in which he was begin to move
+ponderously on the greasy metals, and strike the next with its buffers
+with a jarring shock and a jangling of coupling chains.
+
+He could not stand this; unless he revealed himself at once, or managed
+to get out of this delusive waggon, the six-whatever-it-was train would
+be up and carry him off to Slopsbury, a hundred miles or so farther from
+home; they would have time to warn Dick--he would be expected--ambushes
+laid for him, and his one chance would be gone for ever!
+
+There was a whistle far away on the down line, and that humming
+vibration which announces an approaching train: not a moment to lose--he
+was afraid to attempt a leap from the moving waggons, and resolved to
+risk all and show himself.
+
+With this intention he got upon his knees, and putting his head above
+the dirty bulwark, looked over and said softly, "Tommy, I say, Tommy!"
+
+A porter, who had been laboriously employed below, looked up with a
+white and scared face, and staggered back several feet; Mr. Bultitude in
+a sudden panic ducked again.
+
+"Bill!" Paul heard the porter say hoarsely, "I'll take my Bible oath
+I've never touched a drop this week, not to speak of--but I've got 'em
+again, Bill, I've got 'em again!"
+
+"Got what agin?" growled Bill. "What's the matter now?"
+
+"It's the jumps, Bill," gasped the other, "the 'orrors--they've got me
+and no mistake. As I'm a livin' man, as I was a shovin' of that there
+truck, I saw a imp--a gashly imp, Bill, stick its hugly 'ed over the
+side and say, 'Tommy,' it ses, jest like that--it ses, 'Tommy, I wants
+you!' I dursn't go near it, Bill. I'll get leave, and go 'ome and lay
+up--it glared at me so 'orrid, Bill, and grinned--ugh! I'll take the
+pledge after this 'ere, I will--I'll go to chapel Sundays reg'lar!"
+
+"Let's see if there ain't something there first," said the practical
+Bill. "Easy with the 'oss up there. Now then," here he stepped on the
+box of the wheel and looked in. "Shin out of this, whatever y'are, we
+don't contrack to carry no imps on this line--Well, if ever I--Tommy,
+old man, it's all right, y'ain't got 'em this time--'ere's yer imp!"
+
+And, reaching over, he hauled out the wretched Paul by the scruff of his
+neck in a state of utter collapse, and deposited him on the ground
+before him.
+
+"That ain't your private kerridge, yer know, that ain't--there wasn't no
+bed made up there for you, that I know on. You ain't arter no good, now;
+you're a wagabone! that's about your size, I can see--what d'yer mean by
+it, eh?"
+
+"Shet yer 'ed, Bill, will yer?" said Tommy, whose relief probably
+softened his temper, "this here's a young gent."
+
+"Young gent, or no young gent," replied Bill sententiously, "he's no
+call to go 'idin' in our waggins and givin' 'ard-workin' men a turn.
+'Old 'im tight, Tommy--here's the luggage down on us."
+
+Tommy held him fast with a grip of iron, while the other porters coupled
+the trucks, and the luggage train lumbered away with its load.
+
+After this the men slouched up and stood round their captive, staring
+at him curiously.
+
+"Look here, my men," said Paul, "I've run away from school, I want to go
+on to town by the next train, and I took the liberty of hiding in the
+truck, because the schoolmaster will be up here very soon to look for
+me--you understand?"
+
+"I understand," said Bill, "and a nice young party _you_ are."
+
+"I--I don't want to be caught," said Paul.
+
+"Naterally," assented Tommy sympathetically.
+
+"Well, can't you hide me somewhere where he won't see me? Come, you can
+do that?"
+
+"What do you say, Bill?" asked Tommy.
+
+"What'll the Guv'nor say?" said Bill dubiously.
+
+"I've got a little money," urged Paul. "I'll make it worth your while."
+
+"Why didn't you say that afore?" said Bill; "the Guv'nor needn't know."
+
+"Here's half-a-sovereign between you," said Paul, holding it out.
+
+"That's something like a imp," said Tommy warmly; "if all bogeys acted
+as 'andsome as this 'ere, I don't care how often they shows theirselves.
+We'll have a supper on this, mates, and drink young Delirium Trimminses'
+jolly good 'ealth. You come along o' me, young shaver, I'll stow you
+away right enough, and let you out when yer train comes in."
+
+He led Paul on to the platform again and opened a sort of cupboard or
+closet. "That's where we keeps the brooms and lamp-rags, and them," he
+said; "it ain't what you may call tidy, but if I lock you in no one
+won't trouble you."
+
+It was perfectly dark and the rags smelt unpleasantly, but Mr. Bultitude
+was very glad of this second ark of refuge, even though he did bruise
+his legs over the broom-handles; he was gladder still by-and-by, when he
+heard a rapid heavy footfall outside, and a voice he knew only too
+well, saying, "I want to see the station-master. Ha, there he is. Good
+evening, station-master, you know me--Dr. Grimstone, of Crichton House.
+I want you to assist me in a very unpleasant affair--the fact is, one of
+my pupils has had the folly and wickedness to run away."
+
+"You don't say so!" said the station-master.
+
+"It's only too true, I'm sorry to say; he seemed happy and contented
+enough, too; it's a black ungrateful business. But I must catch him, you
+know; he must be about here somewhere, I feel sure. You don't happen to
+have noticed a boy who looked as if he belonged to me? They can't tell
+me at the booking-office."
+
+How glad Paul was now he had made no inquiries of the station-master!
+
+"No," said the latter, "I can't say I have, sir, but some of my men may
+have come across him. I'll inquire--here, Ing, I want you; this
+gentleman here has lost one of his boys, have you seen him?"
+
+"What sort of a young gentleman was he to look at?" Paul heard Tommy's
+voice ask.
+
+"A bright intelligent-looking boy," said the Doctor, "medium height,
+about thirteen, with auburn hair."
+
+"No, I ain't seen no intelligent boys with median 'eight," said Tommy
+slowly, "not leastways, to speak to positive. What might he 'ave on,
+now, besides his oburn 'air?"
+
+"Black cloth jacket, with a wide collar," was the answer; "grey
+trousers, and a cloth cap with a leather peak."
+
+"Oh," said Tommy, "then I see 'im."
+
+"When--where?"
+
+"'Bout arf an 'our since."
+
+"Do you know where he is now?"
+
+"Well," said Tommy, to Paul's intense horror, for he was listening,
+quaking, to every word of this conversation, which was held just outside
+his cupboard door.
+
+"I dessay I could give a guess if I give my mind to it."
+
+"Out with it, Ing, now, if you know; no tricks," said the
+station-master, who had apparently just turned to go away. "Excuse me,
+sir, but I've some matters in there to see after."
+
+When he had gone, the Doctor said rather heatedly, "Come, you're keeping
+something from me, I _will_ have it out of you. If I find you have
+deceived me, I'll write to the manager and get you sent about your
+business--you'd better tell me the truth."
+
+"You see," said Tommy, very slowly, and reluctantly, "that young gent o'
+yourn _was_ a gent."
+
+"I tried my very best to render him so," said the Doctor stiffly, "here
+is the result--how did you discover he was one, pray?"
+
+"'Cos he acted like a gent," said Tommy; "he took and give me a
+'arf-suffering."
+
+"Well, I'll give you another," said the Doctor, "if you can tell me
+where he is."
+
+"Thankee, sir, don't you be afraid--you're a gent right enough, too,
+though you do 'appen to be a schoolmaster."
+
+"Where is the unhappy boy?" interrupted the Doctor.
+
+"Seems as if I was a roundin' on 'im, like, don't it a'most, sir?" said
+Tommy, with too evident symptoms of yielding in his voice. Paul shook so
+in his terror that he knocked down a broom or two with a clatter which
+froze his blood.
+
+"Not at all," said the Doctor, "not at all, my good fellow;
+you're--ahem--advancing the cause of moral order."
+
+"Oh, ah," said Tommy, obviously open to conviction. "Well, if I'm a
+doin' all that, I can't go fur wrong, can I? And arter all, we mayn't
+like schools or schoolmasters, not over above, but we can't get on
+without 'em, I s'pose. But, look ye here, sir--if I goes and tells you
+where you can get hold of this here boy, you won't go and wallop him
+now, will ye?"
+
+"I can make no bargains," said the Doctor; "I shall act on my own
+discretion."
+
+"That's it," said Tommy, unaccountably relieved, "spoke like a merciful
+Christian gen'leman; if you don't go actin' on nothing more nor your
+discretion, you can't hurt him much, I take it. Well then, since you've
+spoke out fair, I don't mind putting you on his track like."
+
+If the door of the cupboard had not been locked, Paul would undoubtedly
+have burst out and yielded himself up, to escape the humiliation of
+being sold like this by a mercenary and treacherous porter. As it was,
+he had to wait till the inevitable words should be spoken.
+
+"Well, you see," went on Tommy, very slowly, as if struggling with the
+remnants of a conscience, "it was like this here--he comes up to me, and
+says--your young gen'leman, I mean--says he, 'Porter, I wants to 'ide,
+I've run away.' And I says to him, says I, 'It's no use your 'anging
+about 'ere,' I says, ''cause, if you do, your guv'nor (meanin' no
+offence to you, sir) 'll be comin' up and ketchin' of you on the 'op.'
+'Right you are, porter,' says he to me, 'what do you advise?' he says.
+'Well,' I says, 'I don't know as I'm right in givin' you no advice at
+all, havin' run away from them as has the care on you,' I says; 'but if
+_I_ was a young gen'leman as didn't want to be ketched, I should just
+walk on to Dufferton; it ain't on'y three mile or so, and you'll 'ave
+time for to do it before the up-train comes along there.' 'Thankee,
+porter,' he says, 'I'll do that,' and away he bolts, and for anything I
+know, he's 'arf way there by this time."
+
+"A fly!" shouted the Doctor excitedly, when Tommy had come to the end of
+his veracious account. "I'll catch the young rascal now--who has a good
+horse? Davis, I'll take you. Five shillings if you reach Dufferton
+before the up-train. Take the----"
+
+The rest was lost in the banging of the fly door and the rumble of
+wheels; the terrible man had been got safely off on a wrong scent, and
+Paul fell back amongst the lumber in his closet, faint with the suspense
+and relief.
+
+Presently he heard Tommy's chuckling whisper through the keyhole: "Are
+you all right in there, sir? he's safe enough now--orf on a pretty
+dance. You didn't think I was goin' to tell on ye, did ye now? I ain't
+quite sech a cur as that comes to, particular when a young gent saves me
+from the 'orrors, and gives me a 'arf-suffering. I'll see you through,
+you make yourself easy about that."
+
+Half an hour went slowly by for Mr. Bultitude in his darkness and
+solitude. The platform gradually filled, as he could tell by the tread
+of feet, the voices, and the scent of cigars, and at last, welcome
+sound, he heard the station bell ringing for the up-train.
+
+It ran in the next minute, shaking the cupboard in which Paul crouched,
+till the brushes rattled. There was the usual blind hurry and confusion
+outside as it stopped. Paul waited impatiently inside. The time passed,
+and still no one came to let him out. He began to grow alarmed. Could
+Tommy have forgotten him? Had he been sent away by some evil chance at
+the critical moment? Two or three times his excited fancy heard the
+fatal whistle sound for departure. Would he be left behind after all?
+
+But the next instant the door was noiselessly unlocked. "Couldn't do it
+afore," said honest Tommy. "Our guv'nor would have seen me. Now's your
+time. Here's a empty first-class coach I've kept for ye. In with you
+now."
+
+He hoisted Paul up the high footboard to an empty compartment, and shut
+the door, leaving him to sink down on the luxurious cushions in
+speechless and measureless content. But Tommy had hardly done so before
+he reappeared and looked in. "I say," he suggested, "if I was you, I'd
+get under the seat before you gets to Dufferton, otherways your
+guv'nor'll be spottin' you. I'll lock you in."
+
+"I'll get under now; some one might see me here," said Paul; and, too
+anxious for safety to thank his preserver, he crawled under the low,
+blue-cushioned seat, which left just room enough for him to lie there in
+a very cramped and uncomfortable position. Still he need not stay there
+after the train had once started, except for five minutes or so at
+Dufferton.
+
+Unfortunately he had not been long under the seat before he heard two
+loud imperious voices just outside the carriage door.
+
+"Porter! guard! Hi, somebody! open this door, will you; it's locked."
+
+"This way, sir," he heard Tommy's voice say outside. "Plenty of room
+higher up."
+
+"I don't want to go higher up. I'll go here. Just open it at once, I
+tell you."
+
+The door was opened reluctantly, and two middle-aged men came in.
+"Always take the middle carriage of a train," said the first. "Safest in
+any accident, y'know. Never heard of a middle carriage of a train
+getting smashed up, to speak of."
+
+The other sat heavily down just over Paul, with a comfortable grunt, and
+the train started, Paul feeling naturally annoyed by this intrusion, as
+it compelled him to remain in seclusion for the whole of the journey.
+"Still," he thought, "it is lucky that I had time to get under here
+before they came in; it would have seemed odd if I had done it
+afterwards." And he resigned himself to listen to the conversation which
+followed.
+
+"What was it we were talking about just now?" began the first. "Let me
+see. Ah! I remember. Yes; it was a very painful thing--very, indeed, I
+assure you."
+
+There is a certain peculiar and uncomfortable suspicion that attacks
+most of us at times, which cannot fairly be set down wholly to
+self-consciousness or an exaggerated idea of our own importance. I mean
+the suspicion that a partly-heard conversation must have ourselves for
+its subject. More often than not, of course, it proves utterly
+unfounded, but once in a way, like most presentiments, it finds itself
+unpleasantly fulfilled.
+
+Mr. Bultitude, though he failed to recognise either of the voices, was
+somehow persuaded that the conversation had something to do with
+himself, and listened with eager attention.
+
+"Yes," the speaker continued; "he was never, according to what I hear, a
+man of any extraordinary capacity, but he was always spoken of as a man
+of standing in the City, doing a safe business, not a risky one, and so
+on, you know. So, of course, his manner, when I called, shocked me all
+the more."
+
+"Ah!" said the other. "Was he violent or insulting, then?"
+
+"No, no! I can only describe his conduct as eccentric--what one might
+call reprehensibly eccentric and extravagant. I didn't call exactly in
+the way of business, but about a poor young fellow in my house, who is,
+I fear, rather far gone in consumption, and, knowing he was a Life
+Governor, y'know, I thought he might give me a letter for the hospital.
+Well, when I got up to Mincing Lane----"
+
+Paul started. It was as he had feared, then; they _were_ speaking of
+him!
+
+"When I got there, I sent in my card with a message that, if he was
+engaged or anything, I would take the liberty of calling at his private
+house, and so on. But they said he would see me. The clerk who showed me
+in said: 'You'll find him a good deal changed, if you knew him, sir.
+We're very uneasy about him here,' which prepared me for something out
+of the common. Well, I went into a sort of inner room, and there he was,
+in his shirt-sleeves, busy over some abomination he was cooking at the
+stove, with the office-boy helping him! I never was so taken aback in my
+life. I said something about calling another time, but Bultitude----"
+
+Paul groaned. The blow had fallen. Well, it was better to be prepared
+and know the worst.
+
+"Bultitude says, just like a great awkward schoolboy, y'know, 'What's
+your name? How d'ye do? Have some hardbake, it's just done?' Fancy
+finding a man in his position cooking toffee in the middle of the day,
+and offering it to a perfect stranger!"
+
+"Softening of the brain--must be," said the other.
+
+"I fear so. Well, he asked what I wanted, and I told him, and he
+actually said he never did any business now, except sign his name where
+his clerks told him. He'd worked hard all his life, he said, and he was
+tired of it. Business was, I understood him to say, 'all rot!'"
+
+"Then he wouldn't promise me votes or give me a letter or anything,
+without consulting his head clerk; he seemed to know nothing whatever
+about it himself, and when that was over, he asked me a quantity of
+frivolous questions which appeared to have a sort of catch in them, as
+far as I could gather, and he was exceedingly angry when I wouldn't
+humour him."
+
+"What kind of questions?"
+
+"Well, really I hardly know. I believe he wanted to know whether I would
+rather be a bigger fool than I looked or look a bigger fool than I was,
+and he pressed me quite earnestly to repeat some foolishness after him,
+about 'being a gold key,' when he said 'he was a gold lock,' I was very
+glad to get away from him, it was so distressing."
+
+"They tell me he has begun to speculate, too, lately," said the other.
+"You see his name about in some very queer things. It's a pitiful affair
+altogether."
+
+Paul writhed under his seat with shame. How could he, even if he
+succeeded in ousting Dick and getting back his old self, how could he
+ever hold up his head again after this?
+
+Why, Dick must be mad. Even a schoolboy would have had more caution when
+so much depended on it. But none would suspect the real cause of the
+change. These horrible tales were no doubt being circulated everywhere!
+
+The conversation fell back into a less personal channel again after
+this; they talked of "risks," of some one who had only been "writing" a
+year and was doing seven thousand a week, of losses they had been "on,"
+and of the uselessness of "writing five hundred on everything," and
+while at this point the train slackened and stopped--they had reached
+Dufferton.
+
+There was an opening of doors all along the train, and sounds of some
+inquiry and answer at each. The voices became audible at length, and, as
+he had expected, Paul found that the Doctor, not having discovered him
+on the platform, was making a systematic search of the train, evidently
+believing that he had managed to slip in somewhere unobserved.
+
+It was a horrible moment when the door of his compartment was flung open
+and a stream of ice-cold air rushed under the blue cloth which,
+fortunately for Paul, hung down almost to the floor.
+
+Some one held a lantern up outside, and by its rays Paul saw from behind
+the hanging the upper half of Dr. Grimstone appear, very pale and
+polite, at the doorway. He remained there for some moments without
+speaking, carefully examining every corner of the compartment.
+
+The two men on the seats drew their wraps about them and shivered, until
+at length one said rather testily--"Get in, sir; kindly get in if you're
+coming on, please. This draught is most unpleasant!"
+
+"I do not propose to travel by this train, sir," said the Doctor; "but,
+as a person entrusted with the care of youth, permit me to inquire
+whether you have seen (or, it may be assisted to conceal) a small boy of
+intelligent appearance----"
+
+"Why should we conceal small boys of intelligent appearance about us,
+pray?" demanded the man who had described his visit to Mincing Lane.
+"And may we ask you to shut that door, and make any communications you
+wish to make through the window, or else come in and sit down?"
+
+"That's not an answer to my question, sir," retorted the Doctor. "I
+notice you carefully decline to say whether you have seen a boy. I
+consider your manner suspicious, sir; and I shall insist on searching
+this carriage through and through till I find that boy!"
+
+Mr. Bultitude rolled himself up close against the partition at these
+awful words.
+
+"Guard, guard!" shouted the first gentleman. "Come here. Here's a
+violent person who will search this carriage for something he has lost.
+I won't be inconvenienced in this way without any reason whatever! He
+says we're hiding a boy in here!"
+
+"Guard!" said the Doctor, quite as angrily, "I insist upon looking under
+these seats before you start the train. I've looked through every other
+carriage and he must be in here. Gentlemen, let me pass, I'll get him if
+I have to travel in this compartment to town with you!"
+
+"For peace and quietness sake, gentlemen," said the guard, "let him look
+round, just to ease his mind. Lend me your stick a minute, sir, please.
+I'll turn him out if he's anywhere about this here compartment!"
+
+And with this he pulled Dr. Grimstone down from the footboard and
+mounted it himself; after which he began to rummage about under the
+seats with the Doctor's heavy stick.
+
+Every lunge found out some tender part in Mr. Bultitude's person and
+caused him exquisite torture; but he clenched his teeth hard to prevent
+a sound, while he thought each fresh dig must betray his whereabouts.
+
+"There," said the guard at last; "there really ain't no one there, sir,
+you see. I've felt everywhere and---- Hello, I certainly did feel
+something just then, gentlemen!" he added, in an undertone, after a
+lunge which took all the breath out of Paul's body. All was lost now!
+
+"You touch that again with that confounded stick if you dare!" said one
+of the passengers. "That's a parcel of mine. I won't have you poking
+holes through it in that way. Don't tell that lunatic behind you, he'll
+be wanting it opened to see if his boy's inside! Now perhaps you'll let
+us alone!"
+
+"Well, sir," said the guard at last to the Doctor, as he withdrew, "he
+ain't in there. There's nothing under any of the seats. Your boy'll be
+comin' on by the next train, most likely--the 8.40. We're all behind.
+Right!"
+
+"Good night, sir," said the first passenger as he leant out of the
+window, to the baffled schoolmaster on the platform. "You've put us to
+all this inconvenience for nothing, and in the most offensive way too. I
+hope you won't find your boy till you're in a better temper, for his
+sake."
+
+"If I had you out on this platform, sir," shouted the angry Doctor, "I'd
+horsewhip you for that insult. I believe the boy's there and you know
+it. I----"
+
+But the train swept off and, to Paul's joy and thankfulness, soon left
+the Doctor, gesticulating and threatening, miles behind it.
+
+"What a violent fellow for a schoolmaster, eh?" said one of Paul's
+companions, when they were fairly off again. "I wasn't going to have him
+turning the cushions inside out here; we shouldn't have settled down
+again before we got in!"
+
+"No; and if the guard hasn't, as it is, injured that Indian shawl in my
+parcel, I shall be---- Why, bless my soul, that parcel's not under the
+seat after all! It's up in the rack. I remember putting it there now."
+
+"The guard must have fancied he felt something; and yet---- Look here,
+Goldicutt; just feel under here with your feet. It certainly does seem
+as if something soft was--eh?"
+
+Mr. Goldicutt accordingly explored Paul's ribs with his boot for some
+moments, which was very painful.
+
+"Upon my word," he said at last, "it really does seem very like it. It's
+not hard enough for a bag or a hat-box. It yields distinctly when you
+kick it. Can you fetch it out with your umbrella, do you think? Shall we
+tell the guard at the next----? Lord, it's coming out of its own accord.
+It's a dog! No, my stars--it's the boy, after all!"
+
+For Paul, alarmed at the suggestion about the guard, once more felt
+inclined to risk the worst and reveal himself. Begrimed with coal,
+smeared with whitewash, and covered with dust and flue, he crawled
+slowly out and gazed imploringly up at his fellow-passengers.
+
+After the first shock of surprise they lay back in their seats and
+laughed till they cried.
+
+"Why, you young rascal!" they said, when they recovered breath, "you
+don't mean to say you've been under there the whole time?"
+
+"I have indeed," said Paul. "I--I didn't like to come out before."
+
+"And are you the boy all this fuss was about? Yes? And we kept the
+schoolmaster off without knowing it! Why, this is splendid, capital!
+You're something like a boy, you little dog, you! This is the best joke
+I've heard for many a day!"
+
+"I hope," said Paul, "I haven't inconvenienced you. I could not help it,
+really."
+
+"Inconvenienced us? Gad, your schoolmaster came very near
+inconveniencing us and you too. But there, he won't trouble any of us
+now. To think of our swearing by all our gods there was no boy in here,
+and vowing he shouldn't come in, while you were lying down there under
+the seat all the time! Why, it's lovely! The boy's got pluck and manners
+too. Shake hands, young gentleman, you owe us no apologies. I haven't
+had such a laugh for many a day!"
+
+"Then you--you won't give me up?" faltered poor Paul.
+
+"Well," said the one who was called Goldicutt, and who was a jovial old
+gentleman with a pink face and white whiskers, "we're not exactly going
+to take the trouble of getting out at the next station, and bringing
+you back to Dufferton, just to oblige that hot-tempered master of yours,
+you know; he hasn't been so particularly civil as to deserve that."
+
+"But if he were to telegraph and get some one to stop me at St.
+Pancras?" said Paul nervously.
+
+"Ah, he might do that, to be sure--sharp boy this--well, as we've gone
+so far, I suppose we must go through with the business now and smuggle
+the young scamp past the detectives, eh, Travers?"
+
+The younger man addressed assented readily enough, for the Doctor had
+been so unfortunate as to prejudice them both from the first by his
+unjustifiable suspicions, and it is to be feared they had no scruples in
+helping to outwit him.
+
+Then they noticed the pitiable state Mr. Bultitude was in, and he had to
+give them a fair account of his escape and subsequent adventures, at
+which even their sympathy could not restrain delighted shouts of
+laughter--though Paul himself saw little enough in it all to laugh at;
+they asked his name, which he thought more prudent, for various reasons,
+to give as "Jones," and other details, which I am afraid he invented as
+he went on, and altogether they reached Kentish Town in a state of high
+satisfaction with themselves and their protégé.
+
+At Kentish Town there was one more danger to be encountered, for with
+the ticket collector there appeared one of the station inspectors. "Beg
+pardon, gentlemen," said the latter, peering curiously in, "but does
+that young gent in the corner happen to belong to either of you?"
+
+The white-whiskered gentleman seemed a little flustered at this
+downright inquiry, but the other was more equal to the occasion. "Do you
+hear that, Johnny, my boy," he said, to Paul (whom they had managed
+during the journey to brush and scrape into something approaching
+respectability), "they want to know if you belong to me. I suppose
+you'll allow a son to belong to his father to a certain extent, eh?" he
+asked the inspector.
+
+The man apologised for what he conceived to be a mistake. "We've orders
+to look out for a young gent about the size of yours, sir," he
+explained; "no offence meant, I'm sure," and he went away satisfied.
+
+A very few minutes more and the train rolled in to the terminus, under
+the same wide arch beneath which Paul had stood, helpless and
+bewildered, a week ago.
+
+"Now my advice to you, young man," said Mr. Goldicutt, as he put Paul
+into a cab, and pressed half-a-sovereign into his unwilling hand, "is to
+go straight home to Papa and tell him all about it. I daresay he won't
+be very hard on you--here's my card, refer him to me if you like.
+Good-night, my boy, good-night, and good luck to you. Gad, the best joke
+I've had for years!"
+
+And the cab rolled away, leaving them standing chuckling on the
+platform, and, as Paul found himself plunging once more into the welcome
+roar and rattle of London streets, he forgot the difficulties and
+dangers that might yet lie before him in the thought that at last he was
+beyond the frontier, and, for the first time since he had slipped
+through the playground gate, he breathed freely.
+
+
+
+
+17. _A Perfidious Ally_
+
+     "But homeward--home--what home? had he a home?
+     His home--he walk'd;
+     Then down the long street having slowly stolen,
+     His heart foreshadowing all calamity,
+     His eyes upon the stones, he reached his home."
+
+
+Paul had been careful, whilst in the hearing of his friends, to give the
+cabman a fictitious address, but as soon as he reached the Euston Road,
+he stopped the man and ordered him to put him down at the church near
+the south end of Westbourne Terrace, for he dared not drive up openly to
+his own door.
+
+At last he found himself standing safely on the pavement, looking down
+the long line of yellow lamps of his own terrace, only a few hundred
+yards from home.
+
+But though his purpose was now within easy reach, his spirits were far
+from high; his anxiety had returned with tenfold power; he felt no
+eagerness or exultation; on the contrary, the task he had set himself
+had never before seemed so hopeless, so insurmountable.
+
+He stood for some time by the railing of the church, which was lighted
+up for evening service, listening blankly to the solemn drone of the
+organ within, unable to summon up resolution to move from the spot and
+present himself to his unsuspecting family.
+
+It was a cold night, with a howling wind, and high in the blue black sky
+fleecy clouds were coursing swiftly along; he obliged himself to set out
+at last, and walked down the flags towards his house, shivering as much
+from nervousness as cold.
+
+There was a dance somewhere in the terrace that evening, a large one; as
+far as he could see there were close ranks of carriages with blazing
+lamps, and he even fancied he could hear the shouts of the link-boys and
+the whistles summoning cabs.
+
+As he came nearer, he had a hideous suspicion, which soon became a
+certainty, that the entertainment was at his own house; worse still, it
+was of a kind and on a scale calculated to shock and horrify any prudent
+householder and father of a family.
+
+The balcony above the portico was positively hung with gaudy Chinese
+lanterns, and there were even some strange sticks and shapes up in one
+corner that looked suspiciously like fireworks. Fireworks in Westbourne
+Terrace! What would the neighbours think or do?
+
+Between the wall which separates the main road from the terrace and the
+street front there were no less than four piano-organs, playing, it is
+to be feared, by express invitation; and there was the usual crowd of
+idlers and loungers standing about by the awning stretched over the
+portico, listening to the music and loud laughter which came from the
+brilliantly lighted upper rooms.
+
+Paul remembered then, too late, that Barbara in that memorable letter
+of hers had mentioned a grand children's party as being in
+contemplation. Dick had held his tongue about it that morning; and he
+himself had not thought it was to be so soon.
+
+For an instant he felt almost inclined to turn away and give the whole
+thing up in sick despair--even to return to Market Rodwell and brave the
+Doctor's anger; for how could he hope to explain matters to his family
+and servants, or get the Garudâ Stone safely into his hands again before
+all these guests, in the whirl and tumult of an evening party?
+
+And yet he dared not, after all, go back to Crichton House--that was too
+terrible an alternative, and he obviously could not roam the world to
+any extent, a runaway schoolboy to all appearance, and with less than a
+sovereign in his pocket!
+
+After a short struggle, he felt he must make his way in, watch and wait,
+and leave the rest to chance. It was his evil fate, after all, that had
+led him on to make his escape on this night of all others, and had
+allowed him to come through so much, only to be met with these
+unforeseen complications just when he might have imagined the worst was
+over.
+
+He forced his way through the staring crowd, and went down the steps
+into the area; for he naturally shrank from braving the front door, with
+its crowd of footmen and hired waiters.
+
+He found the door in the basement open, which was fortunate, and slipped
+quietly through the pantry, intending to reach the hall by the kitchen
+stairs. But here another check met him. The glass door which led to the
+stairs happened to be shut, and he heard voices in the kitchen, which
+convinced him that if he wished to escape notice he must wait quietly in
+the darkness until the door was opened for him, whenever that might be.
+
+The door from the pantry to the kitchen was partly open, however, and
+Mr. Bultitude could not avoid hearing everything that passed there,
+although every fresh word added to his uneasiness, until at last he
+would have given worlds to escape from his involuntary position of
+eavesdropper.
+
+There were only two persons just then in the kitchen: his cook, who,
+still in her working dress, was refreshing herself after her labours
+over the supper with a journal of some sort, and the housemaid, who, in
+neat gala costume, was engaged in fastening a pin more securely in her
+white cap.
+
+"They haven't give me a answer yet, Eliza," said the cook, looking up
+from her paper.
+
+"Lor, cook!" said Eliza, "you couldn't hardly expect it, seeing you only
+wrote on Friday."
+
+"No more I did, Eliza. You see it on'y began to come into my mind sudden
+like this last week. I'm sure I no more dreamt----. But they've answered
+a lady who's bin in much the same situation as me aperiently. You just
+'ark to this a minute." And she proceeded to read from her paper:
+"'_Lady Bird._--You ask us (1) what are the signs by which you may
+recognise the first dawnings of your lover's affection. On so delicate a
+matter we are naturally averse from advising you; your own heart must be
+your best guide. But perhaps we may mention a few of the most usual and
+infallible symptoms'--What sort of a thing is a symptim, Eliza?"
+
+"A symptim, cook," explained Eliza, "is somethink wrong with the inside.
+Her at my last place in Cadogan Square had them uncommon bad. She was
+what they call æsthetical, pore young thing. Them infallible ones are
+always the worst."
+
+"It don't seem to make sense though, Eliza," objected cook doubtfully.
+"Hear how it goes on: 'Infallible symptoms. If you have truly inspired
+him with a genuine and lasting passion' (don't he write beautiful?)
+'passion, he will continually haunt those places in which you are most
+likely to be found' (I couldn't tell you the times master's bin down in
+my kitching this last week); 'he will appear awkward and constrained in
+your presence' (anything more awkward than master _I_ never set eyes on.
+He's knocked down one of the best porcelain vegetables this very
+afternoon!); 'he will beg for any little favours, some trifle, it may
+be, made by your own hand' (master's always a-asking if I've got any of
+those doughnuts to give away); 'and, if granted, he will treasure them
+in secret with pride and rapture' (I don't think master kep' any of them
+doughnuts though, Eliza. I saw him swaller five; but you couldn't
+treasure a doughnut, not to mention---- I'll make him a pincushion when
+I've time, and see what he does with it). 'If you detect all these
+indications of liking in the person you suspect of paying his addresses
+to you, you may safely reckon upon bringing him to your feet in a very
+short space of time. (2) Yes, fuller's earth will make them exquisitely
+white.'"
+
+"There, Eliza!" said cook, with some pride, when she had finished; "if
+it had been meant for me it couldn't have been clearer. Ain't it written
+nice? And on'y to think of my bringing master to my feet! It seems
+almost too much for a cook to expect!"
+
+"I wouldn't say so, cook; I wouldn't. Have some proper pride. Don't let
+him think he's only to ask and have! Why, in the _London Journal_ last
+week there was a dook as married a governess; and I should 'ope as a
+cook ranked above a governess. Nor yet master ain't a dook; he's only in
+the City! But are you sure he's not only a-trifling with your
+affections, cook? He's bin very affable and pleasant with all of us
+lately."
+
+"It ain't for me to speak too positive, Eliza," said cook almost
+bashfully, "nor to lay bare the feelings of a bosom, beyond what's right
+and proper. You're young yet, Eliza, and don't understand these
+things--leastways, it's to be hoped not" (Eliza having apparently tossed
+her head); "but do you remember that afternoon last week as master
+stayed at home a-playin' games with the children? I was a-goin' upstairs
+to fetch my thimble, and there, on the bedroom landin', was master all
+alone, with one of Master Dick's toy-guns in his 'and, and a old slouch
+'at on his head.
+
+"'Have you got a pass, cook?' he says, and my 'art came right up into my
+mouth, he looked that severe and lofty at me. I thought he was put out
+about something."
+
+"I said I didn't know as it was required, but I could get one, I says,
+not knowing what he was alludin' to all the same."
+
+"But he says, quite soft and tender-like," (here Paul shivered with
+shame), "'No, you needn't do that, cook, there ain't any occasion for
+it; only,' he says, 'if you haven't got no pass, you'll have to give me
+a kiss, you know, cook!' I thought I should have sunk through the
+stairs, I was that overcome. I saw through his rouge with half an eye."
+
+"Why, he said the same to me," said Eliza, "only I had a pass, as luck
+had it, which Miss Barbara give me. I'd ha' boxed his ears if he'd tried
+it, too, master or no master!"
+
+"You talk light, Eliza," said the cook sentimentally, "but you weren't
+there to see. It wasn't only the words, it was the way he said it, and
+the 'ug he gave me at the time. It was as good as a proposial. And, I
+tell you, whatever you may say--and mark my words--I 'ave 'opes!"
+
+"Then, if I was you, cook," said Eliza, "I'd try if I could get him to
+speak out plain in writing; then, whatever came of it, there'd be as
+good as five hundred pounds in your pockets."
+
+"Love-letters!" cried the cook, "why, Lord love you, Eliza---- Why,
+William, how you made me jump! I thought you was up seein' to the
+supper-table."
+
+"The pastrycook's man is looking after all that, Jane," said Boaler's
+voice. "I've been up outside the droring-room all this time, lookin' at
+the games goin' on in there. It's as good as a play to see the way as
+master is a unbendin' of himself, and such a out and out stiff-un as he
+used to be, too! But it ain't what I like to see in a respectable house.
+I'm glad I give warning. It doesn't do for a man in my position to
+compromise his character by such goings on. I never see anything like it
+in any families I lived with before. Just come up and see for yourself.
+You needn't mind about cleanin' of yourself--they won't see you."
+
+So the cook allowed herself to be persuaded by Boaler, and the two went
+up to the hall, and, to Mr. Bultitude's intense relief, forgot to close
+the glazed door which cut him off from the staircase.
+
+As he followed them upstairs at a cautious interval, and thought over
+what he had just so unwillingly overheard, he felt as one who had just
+been subjected to a moral showerbath. "That dreadful woman!" he groaned.
+"Who would have dreamed that she would get such horrible ideas into her
+head? I shall never be able to look either of those women in the face
+again: they will both have to go--and she made such excellent soup, too.
+I do hope that miserable Dick has not been fool enough to write to
+her--but no, that's too absurd."
+
+But more than ever he began to wish that he had stayed in the
+playground.
+
+When he reached the hall he stood there for some moments in anxious
+deliberation over his best course of proceeding. His main idea was to
+lie in wait somewhere for Dick, and try the result of an appeal to his
+better feelings to acknowledge his outcast parent and abdicate
+gracefully.
+
+If that failed, and there was every reason to expect that it would fail,
+he must threaten to denounce him before the whole party. It would cause
+a considerable scandal no doubt, and be extremely repugnant to his own
+feelings, but still he must do it, or frighten Dick by threatening to do
+it, and at all hazards he must contrive during the interview to snatch
+or purloin the magic stone; without that he was practically helpless.
+
+He looked round him: the study was piled up with small boys' hats and
+coats, and in one corner was a kind of refined bar, where till lately a
+trim housemaid had been dispensing coffee and weak lemonade; she might
+return at any moment, he would not be safe there.
+
+Nor would the dining-room be more secluded, for in it there was an
+elaborate supper being laid out by the waiters which, as far as he could
+see through the crack in the door, consisted chiefly of lobsters,
+trifle, and pink champagne. He felt a grim joy at the sight, more than
+he would suffer for this night's festivities.
+
+As he stole about, with a dismal sense of the unfitness of his sneaking
+about his own house in this guilty fashion, he became gradually aware of
+the scent of a fine cigar, one of his own special Cabañas. He wondered
+who had the impudence to trespass on his cigar-chest; it could hardly be
+one of the children.
+
+He traced the scent to a billiard room which he had built out at the
+side of the house, which was a corner one, and going down to the door
+opened it sharply and walked in.
+
+Comfortably imbedded in the depths of a long well-padded lounging chair,
+with a spirit case and two or three bottles of soda water at his elbow,
+sat a man who was lazily glancing through the _Field_ with his feet
+resting on the mantelpiece, one on each side of the blazing fire. He was
+a man of about the middle size, with a face rather bronzed and reddened
+by climate, a nose slightly aquiline and higher in colour, quick black
+eyes with an uneasy glance in them, bushy black whiskers, more like the
+antiquated "Dundreary" type than modern fashion permits, and a wide
+flexible mouth.
+
+Paul knew him at once, though he had not seen him for some years; it was
+Paradine, his disreputable brother-in-law--the "Uncle Marmaduke" who, by
+importing the mysterious Garudâ Stone, had brought all these woes upon
+him; he noticed at once that his appearance was unusually prosperous,
+and that the braided smoking coat he wore over his evening clothes was
+new and handsome. "No wonder," he thought bitterly, "the fellow has been
+living on me for a week!" He stood by the cue-rack looking at him for
+some time, and then he said with a cold ironic dignity that (if he had
+known it) came oddly from his boyish lips: "I hope you are making
+yourself quite comfortable?"
+
+Marmaduke put down his cigar and stared: "Uncommonly attentive and
+polite of you to inquire," he said at last, with a dubious smile, which
+showed a row of very white teeth, "whoever you are. If it will relieve
+your mind at all to know, young man, I'm happy to say I am tolerably
+comfortable, thanks."
+
+"I--I concluded as much," said Paul, nearly choked with rage.
+
+"You've been very nicely brought up," said Uncle Marmaduke, "I can see
+that at a glance. So you've come in here, like me, eh? because the
+children bore you, and you want a quiet gossip over the world in
+general? Sit down then, take a cigar, if you don't think it will make
+you very unwell. I shouldn't recommend it myself, you know, before
+supper--but you're a man of the world and know what's good for you. Come
+along, enjoy yourself till you find yourself getting queer--then drop
+it."
+
+Mr. Bultitude had always detested the man--there was an underbred
+swagger and familiarity in his manner that made him indescribably
+offensive; just now he seemed doubly detestable, and yet Paul by a
+strong effort succeeded in controlling his temper.
+
+He could not afford to make enemies just then, and objectionable as the
+man was, his astuteness made him a valuable ally; he determined, without
+considering the risk of making such a confident, to tell him all and ask
+his advice and help.
+
+"Don't you know me, Paradine?"
+
+"I don't think I have the privilege--you're one of Miss Barbara's
+numerous young friends, I suppose? and yet, now I look at you, you
+don't seem to be exactly got up for an evening party; there's something
+in your voice, too, I ought to know."
+
+"You ought," said Paul, with a gulp. "My name is Paul Bultitude!"
+
+"To be sure!" cried Marmaduke. "By Jove, then, you're my young nephew,
+don't you know; I'm your long-lost uncle, my boy, I am indeed (I'll
+excuse you from coming to my arms, however; I never was good at family
+embraces). But, I say, you little rascal, you've never been asked to
+these festivities, you ought to be miles away, fast asleep in your bed
+at school. What in the name of wonder are you doing here?"
+
+"I've--left school," said Paul.
+
+"So I perceive. Sulky because they left you out of all this, eh? Thought
+you'd turn up in the middle of the banquet, like the spectre
+bridegroom--'the worms they crawled in, and the worms they crawled out,'
+eh? Well, I like your pluck, but, ahem--I'm afraid you'll find they've
+rather an unpleasant way of laying your kind of apparitions."
+
+"Never mind about that," said Paul hurriedly; "I have something I must
+tell you--I've no time to lose. I'm a desperate man!"
+
+"You are," Paradine assented with a loud laugh, "oh, you are indeed! 'a
+desperate man.' Capital! a stern chase, eh? the schoolmaster close
+behind with the birch! It's quite exciting, you know, but, seriously,
+I'm very much afraid you'll catch it!"
+
+"If," began Mr. Bultitude in great embarrassment, "if I was to tell you
+that I was not myself at all--but somebody else, a--in fact, an entirely
+different person from what I seem to you to be--I suppose you would
+laugh?"
+
+"I beg your pardon," said his brother-in-law politely, "I don't think I
+quite catch the idea."
+
+"When I assure you now, solemnly, as I stand here before you, that I am
+not the miserable boy whose form I am condemned to--to wear, you'll say
+it is incredible?"
+
+"Not at all--by no means, I quite believe you. Only (really it's a mere
+detail), but I should rather like to know, if you're not that particular
+boy, what other boy you may happen to be. You'll forgive my curiosity."
+
+"I'm not a boy at all--I'm your own unhappy brother-in-law, Paul! You
+don't believe me, I see."
+
+"Oh, pardon me, it's perfectly clear! you're not your own son, but your
+own father--it's a little confusing at first, but no doubt common
+enough. I'm glad you mentioned it, though."
+
+"Go on," said Paul bitterly, "make light of it--you fancy you are being
+very clever, but you will find out the truth in time!"
+
+"Not without external assistance, I'm afraid," said Paradine calmly. "A
+more awful little liar for your age I never saw!"
+
+"I'm tired of this," said Paul. "Only listen to reason and common
+sense!"
+
+"Only give me a chance."
+
+"I tell you," protested Paul earnestly, "it's the sober awful truth--I'm
+not a boy, it's years since I was a boy--I'm a middle-aged man, thrust
+into this, this humiliating form."
+
+"Don't say that," murmured the other; "it's an excellent fit--very
+becoming, I assure you."
+
+"Do you want to drive me mad with your clumsy jeers?" cried Paul. "Look
+at me. Do I speak, do I behave, like an ordinary schoolboy?"
+
+"I really hope not--for the sake of the rising generation," said Uncle
+Marmaduke, chuckling at his own powers of repartee.
+
+"You are very jaunty to-day--you look as if you were well off," said
+Paul slowly. "I remember a time when a certain bill was presented to me,
+drawn by you, and appearing to be accepted (long before I ever saw it)
+by me. I consented to meet it for my poor Maria's sake, and because to
+disown my signature would have ruined you for life. Do you remember how
+you went down on your knees in my private room and swore you would
+reform and be a credit to your family yet? You weren't quite so well
+off, or so jaunty then, unless I am very much mistaken."
+
+These words had an extraordinary effect upon Uncle Marmaduke; he turned
+ashy white, and his quick eyes shifted restlessly as he half rose from
+his chair and threw away his unfinished cigar.
+
+"You young hound!" he said, breathing hard and speaking under his
+breath. "How did you get hold of that--that lying story? Your father
+must have let it out! Why do you bring up bygones like this? You--you're
+a confounded, disagreeable little prig! Who told you to play an
+ill-natured trick of this sort on an uncle, who may have been wild and
+reckless in his youth--was in fact--but who never, never misused his
+relation towards you as--as an uncle?"
+
+"How did I get hold of the story?" said Paul, observing the impression
+he had made. "Do you think if I were really a boy of thirteen I should
+know as much about you as I do? Do you want to know more? Ask, if you
+dare! Shall I tell you how it was you left your army coach without going
+up for examination? Will you have the story of your career in my old
+friend Parkinson's counting-house, or the real reason of your trip to
+New York, or what it was that made your father add that codicil, cutting
+you off with a set of engravings of the 'Rake's Progress,' and a guinea
+to pay for framing them? I can tell you all about it, if you care to
+hear."
+
+"No!" shrieked Paradine, "I won't listen. When you grow up, ask your
+father to buy you a cheap Society journal. You're cut out for an editor
+of one. It doesn't interest me."
+
+"Do you believe my story or not?" asked Paul.
+
+"I don't know. Who could believe it?" said the other sullenly. "How can
+you possibly account for it?"
+
+"Do you remember giving Maria a little sandal-wood box with a small
+stone in it?" said Paul.
+
+"I have some recollection of giving her something of that kind. A
+curiosity, wasn't it?"
+
+"I wish I had never seen it. That infernal stone, Paradine, has done all
+this to me. Did no one tell you it was supposed to have any magic
+power?"
+
+"Why, now I think of it, that old black rascal, Bindabun Doss, did try
+to humbug me with some such story; said it was believed to be a
+talisman, but the secret was lost. I thought it was just his stingy way
+of trying to make the rubbish out as something priceless, as it ought to
+have been, considering all I did for the old ruffian."
+
+"You told Maria it was a talisman. Bindabun what's-his-name was right.
+It is a talisman of the deadliest sort. I'll soon convince you, if you
+will only hear me out."
+
+And then, in white-hot wrath and indignation, Mr. Bultitude began to
+tell the story I have already attempted to sketch here, dwelling
+bitterly on Dick's heartless selfishness and cruelty, and piteously on
+his own incredible sufferings, while Uncle Marmaduke, lolling back in
+his armchair with an attempt (which was soon abandoned) to retain a
+smile of amused scepticism on his face, heard him out in complete
+silence and with all due gravity.
+
+Indeed, Paul's manner left him no room for further unbelief. His tale,
+wild and improbable as it was, was too consistent and elaborate for any
+schoolboy to have invented, and, besides, the imposture would have been
+so entirely purposeless.
+
+When his brother-in-law had come to the end of his sad history, Paradine
+was silent for some time. It was some relief to know that the darkest
+secrets of his life had not been ferreted out by a phenomenally sharp
+nephew; but the change in the situation was not without its
+drawbacks--it remained to be seen how it might affect himself. He
+already saw his reign in Westbourne Terrace threatened with a speedy
+determination unless he played his cards well.
+
+"Well," he said at last, with a swift, keen glance at Paul, who sat
+anxiously waiting for his next words; "suppose I were to say that I
+think there may be something in this story of yours, what then? What is
+it you want me to do for you?"
+
+"Why," said Paul, "with all you owe to me, now you know the horrible
+injustice I have had to bear, you surely don't mean to say that you
+won't help me to right myself?"
+
+"And if I did help you, what then?"
+
+"Why, I should be able to recover all I have lost, of course," said Mr.
+Bultitude. He thought his brother-in-law had grown very dull.
+
+"Ah, but I mean, what's to become of _me_?"
+
+"You?" repeated Paul (he had not thought of that). "Well, hum, from what
+I know and what you know that I know about your past life, you can't
+expect me to encourage you to remain here?"
+
+"No," said Uncle Marmaduke. "Of course not; very right and proper."
+
+"But," said Paul, willing to make all reasonable concessions, "anything
+I can do to advance your prospects--such as paying your passage out to
+New York, you know, and so on--I should be very ready to do."
+
+"Thank you!" said the other.
+
+"And even, if necessary, provide you with a small fund to start afresh
+upon--honestly," said Paul; "you will not find me difficult to deal
+with."
+
+"It's a dazzling proposition," remarked Paradine drily. "You have such
+an alluring way of putting things. But the fact, is, you'll hardly
+believe it, but I'm remarkably well off here. I am indeed. Your son, you
+know, though not you (except as a mere matter of form), really makes, as
+they say of the marmalade in the advertisements, an admirable
+substitute. I doubt, I do assure you, whether you yourself would have
+received me with quite the same warmth and hospitality I have met with
+from him."
+
+"So do I," said Paul; "very much."
+
+"Just so; for, without your admirable business capacity and
+extraordinary firmness of character, you know, he has, if you'll excuse
+my saying so, a more open guileless nature, a more entire and touching
+faith in his fellow-man and brother-in-law, than were ever yours."
+
+"To say that to me," said Paul hotly, "is nothing less than sheer
+impudence."
+
+"My dear Paul (it does seem deuced odd to be talking to a little shrimp
+like you as a grown-up brother-in-law. I shall get used to it presently,
+I daresay). I flatter myself I am a man of the world. We're dealing with
+one another now, as the lawyers have it, at arm's length. Just put
+yourself in my place (you're so remarkably good at putting yourself in
+other people's places, you know). Look at the thing from my point of
+view. Accidentally dropping in at your offices to negotiate (if I could)
+a small temporary loan from anyone I chanced to meet on the premises, I
+find myself, to my surprise, welcomed with effusion into what I then
+imagined to be your arms. More than that, I was invited here for an
+indefinite time, all my little eccentricities unmentioned, overlooked. I
+was deeply touched (it struck me, I confess, at one time that you must
+be touched too), but I made the best use of my opportunities. I made hay
+while the sun shone."
+
+"Do you mean to make me lose my temper?" interrupted Paul. "It will not
+take much more."
+
+"I have no objection. I find men as a rule easier to deal with when they
+have once lost their temper, their heads so often go too. But to return:
+a man with nerve and his fair share of brains, like myself, only wants a
+capitalist (he need not be a millionaire) at his back to conquer the
+world. It's not by any means my first campaign, and I've had my
+reverses, but I see victory in my grasp, sir, in my grasp at last!"
+
+Paul groaned.
+
+"Now you--it's not your fault, I know, a mere defect of constitution;
+but you, as a speculator, were, if I may venture to put it so, not worth
+your salt; no boldness, no dash, all caution. But your promising son is
+a regular whale on speculation, and I may tell you that we stand in
+together in some little ventures that would very probably make your hair
+stand on end--_you_ wouldn't have touched them. And yet there's money in
+every one of them."
+
+"_My_ money!" said Paul savagely; "and it won't come out again."
+
+"You don't know much about these things, you see," said Marmaduke; "I
+tell you I have my eye on some fine openings for capital."
+
+"Your pockets always were very fine openings for capital," retorted
+Paul.
+
+"Ha, ha, deuced sharp that! But, to come to the point, you were always a
+sensible practical kind of a fellow, and you must see, that, for me to
+back you up and upset this young rascal who has stepped into your
+slippers, might be morally meritorious enough, but, treating it from a
+purely pecuniary point of view, it's not business."
+
+"I see," said Mr. Bultitude heavily; "then you side against me?"
+
+"Did I ever say I would side against you? Let us hear first what you
+propose to do."
+
+Paul, upon this, explained that, as he believed the Stone still retained
+its power of granting one wish to any other person who happened to get
+hold of it, his idea was to get possession of it somehow from Dick, who
+probably would have it about him somewhere, and then pass it on to some
+one whom he could trust not to misuse it so basely.
+
+"A good idea that, Paul, my boy," said Paradine, smiling; "but you
+don't imagine our young friend would be quite such an idiot as not to
+see your game! Why, he would pitch the Stone in the gutter or stamp it
+to powder, rather than let you get hold of it."
+
+"He's quite capable of it," said Paul; "in fact, he threatened to do
+worse than that. I doubt if I shall ever be able to manage it myself;
+but what am I to do? I must try, and I've no time to lose about it
+either."
+
+"I tell you this," said Marmaduke, "if you let him see you here, it's
+all up with you. What you want is some friend to manage this for you,
+some one he won't suspect. Now, suppose I were willing to risk it for
+you?"
+
+"You!" cried Paul, with involuntary distrust.
+
+"Why not?" said Marmaduke, with a touch of feeling. "Ah, I see, you
+can't trust me. You've got an idea into your head that I'm a
+thorough-paced rascal, without a trace of human feeling about me. I
+daresay I deserve it, I daresay I do; but it's not generous, my boy, for
+all that. I hope to show you your mistake yet, if you give me the
+chance. You allow yourself to be prejudiced by the past, that's where
+you make your mistake. I only put before you clearly and plainly what it
+was I was giving up in helping you. A fellow may have a hard cynical
+kind of way of putting things, and yet, take my word for it, Paul, have
+a heart as tender as a spring chicken underneath. I believe I'm
+something like that myself. I tell you I'm sorry for you. I don't like
+to see a family man of your position in such a regular deuce of a hole.
+I feel bound to give you a lift out of it, and let my prospects take
+their own chance. I leave the gratitude to you. When I've done, kick me
+down the doorsteps if you like. I shall go out into the world with the
+glow of self-approval (and rapid motion) warming my system. Take my
+advice, don't attempt to tackle Master Dick yourself. Leave him to me."
+
+"If I could only make up my mind to trust you!" muttered Paul.
+
+"The old distrust!" cried Marmaduke; "you can't forget. You won't
+believe a poor devil like me can have any gratitude, any
+disinterestedness left in him. Never mind, I'll go. I'll leave it to
+you. I'll send Dick in here, and we shall see whether he's such a fool
+as you think him."
+
+"No," said Paul, "no; I feel you're right; that would never do."
+
+"It would be for my advantage, I think," said the other, "but you had
+better take me while I am in a magnanimous mood, the opportunity may
+never occur again. Come, am I to help you or not? Yes or no?"
+
+"I must accept," said Paul reluctantly; "I can't find Boaler now, and it
+might take hours to make him see what I wanted. I'll trust to your
+honour. What shall I do?"
+
+"Do? Get away from this, he'll be coming in here very soon to see me.
+Run away and play with the children or hide in the china
+closet--anything but stay here."
+
+"I--I must be here while you are managing him," objected Paul.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Paradine angrily. "I tell you it will spoil all, unless
+you--who's that? it's his step--too late now--dash it all! Behind that
+screen, quick--don't move for your life till I tell you you may come
+out!"
+
+Mr. Bultitude had no choice; there was just time to set up an old
+folding screen which stood in a corner of the room and slip behind it
+before the door opened.
+
+It might not be the highest wisdom to trust everything to his new ally
+in this manner; but what else could he do, except stand by in forced
+inactivity while the momentous duel was being fought out? Just then, at
+all events, he saw no other course.
+
+
+
+
+18. _Run to Earth_
+
+     "The is noon in this hous schuld bynde me this night."
+                                 --_The Coke's Tale of Gamelyn._
+
+
+Dick burst open the door of the billiard-room rather suddenly, and then
+stood holding on to the handle and smiling down upon his relative in a
+happy and affectionate but rather weak manner.
+
+"So here you are!" he said. "Been lookin' for you everywhere. What's
+good of shutting 'self in here? Come up and play gamesh. No? Come in and
+have shupper. I've had shupper."
+
+"So I perceive," observed Uncle Marmaduke; and the fact was certainly
+obvious enough.
+
+"Tell y'what I did," giggled the wretched Dick. "You know I never did
+get what I call regular good blow out--always some one to shay 'had
+quite 'nough' 'fore I'd begun. So I thought this time I would have a
+tuck-in till--till I felt tired, and I--he-he-he--I got down 'fore
+anybody elsh and helped myshelf. Had first go-in. No one to help to
+thingsh. No girlsh to bother. It was prime! When they've all gone up
+again you and me'll go in and have shome more, eh?"
+
+"You're a model host," said his uncle.
+
+"It's a good shupper," Dick went on. "I ought to know. I've had some of
+everything. It'sh almost too good for kids. But it'sh a good thing I
+went in first. After I'd been in a little time I saw a sponge-cake on
+the table, and when I tried it, what d'ye think I found? It was as full
+inside of brandy-an'-sherry as it could be. All it could do to shtand! I
+saw d'rectly it washn't in condition come to table, and I said, 'Take it
+away! take it away! It'sh drunk; it'sh a dishgraceful sight for
+children!' But they wouldn't take it away; sho I had to take it away.
+But you can't take away a whole tipshy-cake!"
+
+"I am quite sure you did your best," murmured Paradine.
+
+"Been having such gamesh upstairs!" said Dick, with another giggle.
+"That lil' Dolly Merridew's jolly girl. Not sho nice as Dulcie, though.
+Here, you, let'sh go up and let off fireworksh on balcony, eh? Letsh
+have jolly lark!"
+
+"No, no," said his uncle. "You and I are too old for that sort of thing.
+You should leave the larks to the young fellows."
+
+"How do you know I'm too old for sorterthing?" said Dick, with an
+offended air.
+
+"Well, you're not a young man any longer, you know. You ought to behave
+like the steady old buffer you look."
+
+"Why?" demanded Dick; "why should I behave like shteady ole buffer, when
+I don't feel shteady ole buffer? What do you want shpoil fun for? Tell
+you I shall do jus' zackly wharriplease. And, if you shay any more, I'll
+punch y' head!"
+
+"No, no," said his uncle, slightly alarmed at this intimation. "Come,
+you're not going to quarrel with me, I'm sure!"
+
+"All ri'," said Dick. "No; I won' quarrel. Don' wanter quarrel anybody."
+
+"That's right," said Paradine. "I knew you were a noble fellow!"
+
+"Sho I am," said Dick, shaking hands with effusion. "Sho are you. Nearly
+ash noble 'sh me. There, you're jolly good fellow. I say, I've goo' mind
+tell you something. Make you laugh. But I won't; not now."
+
+"Oh, you can tell me," said Marmaduke. "No secrets between friends, you
+know."
+
+"Shan't tell you now," said Dick. "Keep shecret little longer."
+
+"Do you know, my friend, that there's something very odd about you I've
+noticed lately? Something that makes me almost fancy sometimes you're
+not what you pretend to be."
+
+Dick sat down heavily on one of the leather benches placed against the
+wall.
+
+"Eh, what d'you shay?" he gasped. "Shay tharragain."
+
+"You look to me," said Marmaduke slowly, "like some one excellently made
+up for the part of heavy father, without a notion how to play it. Dick,
+you young dog, you see I know you! You can't take me in with all this.
+You'd better tell me all about it."
+
+Dick seemed almost sobered by this shock.
+
+"You've found me out," he repeated dully. "Then it's all up. If you've
+found me out, everybody elsh can find me out!"
+
+"No, no; it's not so bad as that, my boy. I've better eyes than most
+people, and then I had the privilege of knowing your excellent father
+rather well once upon a time. You haven't studied his little
+peculiarities closely enough; but you'll improve. By the way, where _is_
+your excellent father all this time?"
+
+"He's all right," said Dick, beginning to chuckle. "He-he. He's at
+school, he is!"
+
+"At school. You mean to say you've put him to school at his time of
+life! He's rather old for that sort of thing, isn't he? They don't take
+him on the ordinary terms, do they?"
+
+"Ah," said Dick, "that'sh where it is. He isn't old, you see, now, to
+look at."
+
+"Not old to look at! Then how on earth---- I should like to know how you
+managed all that. What have you been doing to the poor gentleman?"
+
+"That'sh my affair," said Dick. "An' if I don' tell you you won' find
+that out anyway!"
+
+"There's only one way you could have done it," said Paradine, pretending
+to hesitate. "It must have been done by some meddling with magic. Now
+what---- Let me see--yes---- Surely the Stone I brought your poor mother
+from India was given to me as a talisman of some sort? You can't have
+been sharp enough to get hold of that!"
+
+"How did you know?" cried Dick sharply. "Who told you?"
+
+"I am right, then? Well, you are a clever fellow. I should like to know
+how you did it, now?"
+
+"Did it with the Shtone," said Dick, evidently discomposed by such
+unexpected penetration, but unable to prevent a little natural
+complacency. "All my own idea. No one helped me. It--it washn't sho bad
+for me, wash it?"
+
+"Bad! it was capital!" cried Marmaduke enthusiastically. "It was a
+stroke of genius! And so my Indian Stone has done all this for you.
+Sounds like an Arabian Night, by Jove! By-the-by, you don't happen to
+have it about you, do you? I should rather like to look at it again.
+It's a real curiosity after this."
+
+Paul trembled with anxiety. Would Dick be induced to part with it? If
+so, he was saved! But Dick looked at his uncle's outstretched hand, and
+wagged his head with tipsy cunning.
+
+"I dareshay you would," he said, "but I'm not sho green as all that.
+Don't let that Stone out of my hands for anyone."
+
+"Why, I only wanted to look at it for a minute or two," said Marmaduke;
+"I wouldn't hurt it or lose it."
+
+"You won' get chance," said Dick.
+
+"Oh, very well," said Paradine carelessly, "just as you please, it
+doesn't matter; though when we come to talk things over a little, you
+may find it better to trust me more than that."
+
+"Wha' do you mean?" said Dick uneasily.
+
+"Well, I'll try to explain as well as I can, my boy (drink a little of
+this soda water first, it's an excellent thing after supper); there,
+you're better now, aren't you? Now, I've found you out, as you see; but
+only because I knew something of the powers of this Stone of yours, and
+guessed the rest. It doesn't at all follow that other people, who know
+nothing at all, will be as sharp; if you're more careful about your
+behaviour in future--unless, unless, young fellow----" and here he
+paused meaningly.
+
+"Unless what?" asked Dick suspiciously.
+
+"Unless I chose to tell them what I've found out."
+
+"What would you tell them?" said Dick.
+
+"What? Why, what I know of this talisman; tell them to use their eyes;
+they wouldn't be very long before they found out that something was
+wrong. And when one or two of your father's friends once get hold of the
+idea, your game will be very soon over--you know that as well as I do."
+
+"But," stammered Dick, "you wouldn't go and do beastly mean thing like
+that? I've not been bad fellow to you."
+
+"The meanness, my dear boy, depends entirely upon the view you take of
+it. Now, the question with me, as a man of honour (and I may tell you an
+over-nice sense of honour has been a drawback I've had to struggle
+against all my life), the question with me is this: Is it not my plain
+duty to step in and put a stop to this topsy-turvy state of things, to
+show you up as the barefaced young impostor you are, and restore my
+unhappy brother-in-law to his proper position?"
+
+"Very well expressed," thought Paul, who had been getting uncomfortable;
+"he has a heart, as he said, after all!"
+
+"How does that seem to strike you?" added Paradine.
+
+"It shtrikes me as awful rot," said Dick, with refreshing candour.
+
+"It's the language of conscience, but I don't expect you to see it in
+the same light. I don't mind confessing to you, either, that I'm a poor
+devil to whom money and a safe and respectable position (all of which I
+have here) are great considerations. But whenever I see the finger of
+duty and honour and family affection all beckoning me along a particular
+road, I make a point of obeying their monitions--occasionally. I don't
+mean to say that I never have bolted down a back way, instead, when it
+was made worth my while, or that I never will."
+
+"I wonder what he's driving at now," thought Paul.
+
+"I don't know about duty and honour, and all that," said Dick; "my head
+aches, it's the noise they're making upstairs. Are you goin' to tell?"
+
+"The fact is, my dear boy, that when one has had a keen sense of honour
+in constant use for several years, it's like most other articles, apt to
+become a little the worse for wear. Mine is not what it used to be,
+Dicky (that's your name, isn't it?). Our powers fail as we grow old."
+
+"I don' know what you're talking about!" said Dick helplessly. "Do tell
+me what you mean to do."
+
+"Well then, your head's clear enough to understand this much, I hope,"
+said Paradine a little impatiently, "that, if I did my duty and exposed
+you, you wouldn't be able to keep up the farce for a single hour, in
+spite of all your personal advantages--you know that, don't you?"
+
+"I shpose I know that," said Dick feebly.
+
+"You know too, that if I could be induced--mind, I don't say I can--to
+hold my tongue and stay on here and look after you and keep you from
+betraying yourself by any more of these schoolboy follies, there's not
+much fear that anyone else will ever find out the secret----"
+
+"Which are you going to do, then?" said Dick.
+
+"Suppose I say that I like you, that you have shown me more kindness in
+a single week than ever your respectable father has since I first made
+his acquaintance? Suppose I say that I am willing to let the sense of
+honour and duty, and all the rest of it, go overboard together; that we
+two together are a match for Papa, wherever he may be and whatever he
+chooses to say and do?"
+
+There was a veiled defiance in his voice that seemed meant for more than
+Dick, and alarmed Mr. Bultitude; however, he tried to calm his
+uneasiness and persuade himself that it was part of the plot.
+
+"Will you say that?" cried Dick excitedly.
+
+"On one condition, which I'll tell you by-and-by. Yes, I'll stand by
+you, my boy, I'll coach you till I make you a man of business every bit
+as good as your father, and a much better man of the world. I'll show
+you how to realise a colossal fortune if you only take my advice. And
+we'll pack Papa off to some place abroad where he'll have no holidays
+and give no trouble!"
+
+"No," said Dick firmly; "I won't have that. After all, he's my
+governor."
+
+"Do what you like with him then, he can't do much harm. I tell you, I'll
+do all this, on one condition--it's a very simple one----"
+
+"What is it?" asked Dick.
+
+"This. You have, somewhere or other, the Stone that has done all this
+for you--you may have it about you at this very moment--ah!" (as Dick
+made a sudden movement towards his white waistcoat) "I thought so! Well,
+I want that Stone. You were afraid to leave it in my hands for a minute
+or two just now; you must trust me with it altogether."
+
+Paul was relieved; of course this was merely an artifice to recover the
+Garudâ Stone, and Marmaduke was not playing him false after all--he
+waited breathlessly for Dick's answer.
+
+"No," said Dick, "I can't do that; I want it too."
+
+"Why, man, what use is it to you? it only gives you one wish, you can't
+use it again."
+
+Dick mumbled something about his being ill, and Barbara wishing him well
+again.
+
+"I suppose I can do that as well as Barbara," said his uncle. "Come,
+don't be obstinate, give me the Stone; it's very important that it
+should be in safe hands."
+
+"No," said Dick obstinately; he was fumbling all the time irresolutely
+in his pockets; "I mean to keep it myself."
+
+"Very well then, I have done with you. To-morrow morning I shall step up
+to Mincing Lane, and then to your father's solicitor. I think his
+offices are in Bedford Row, but I can easily find out at your father's
+place. After that, young man, you'll have a very short time to amuse
+yourself in, so make the best of it."
+
+"No, don't leave me, let me alone for a minute," pleaded Dick, still
+fumbling.
+
+At this a sudden suspicion of his brother-in-law's motives for wishing
+to get the Stone into his own hands overcame all Paul's prudence. If he
+was so clever in deceiving Dick, might he not be cheating _him_, too,
+just as completely? He could wait no longer, but burst from behind the
+screen and rushed in between the pair.
+
+"Go back!" screamed Paradine. "You infernal old idiot, you've ruined
+everything!"
+
+"I won't go back," said Paul, "I don't believe in you. I'll hide no
+longer. Dick, I forbid you to trust that man."
+
+Dick had risen in horror at the sudden apparition, and staggered back
+against the wall, where he stood staring stupidly at his unfortunate
+father with fixed and vacant eyes.
+
+"Badly as you've treated me, I'd rather trust you than that shifty
+plausible fellow there. Just look at me, Dick, and then say if you can
+let this cruelty go on. If you knew all I've suffered since I have been
+among those infernal boys, you would pity me, you would indeed.... If
+you send me back there again, it will kill me.... You know as well as I
+do that it is worse for me than ever it could be for you.... You can't
+really justify yourself because of a thoughtless wish of mine, spoken
+without the least intention of being taken at my word. Dick, I may not
+have shown as much affection for you as I might have done, but I don't
+think I deserve all this. Be generous with me now, and I swear you will
+never regret it."
+
+Dick's lips moved; there really was something like pity and repentance
+in his face, muddled and dazed as his general expression was by his
+recent over-indulgence, but he said nothing.
+
+"Give papa the Stone by all means," sneered Paradine. "If you do, he
+will find some one to wish the pair of you back again, and then, back
+you go to school again, the laughing-stock of everybody, you silly young
+cub!"
+
+"Don't listen to him, Dick," urged Paul. "Give it to me, for Heaven's
+sake; if you let him have it, he'll use it to ruin us all."
+
+But Dick turned his white face to the rival claimants and said, getting
+the words out with difficulty: "Papa, I'm shorry. It is a shame. If I
+had the Shtone, I really would give it you, upon my word-an'-honour I
+would. But--but, now I can't ever give it up to you. It'sh gone. Losht!"
+
+"Lost!" cried Marmaduke. "When, where? When do you last recollect seeing
+it? you must know!"
+
+"In the morning," said Dick, twirling his chain, where part of the cheap
+gilt fastening still hung.
+
+"No; afternoon. I don't know," he added helplessly.
+
+Paul sank down on a chair with a heartbroken groan; a moment ago he had
+felt himself very near his goal, he had regained something of his old
+influence over Dick, he had actually managed to touch his heart--and now
+it was all in vain!
+
+Paradine's jaw fell; he, too, had had his dreams of doing wonderful
+things with the talisman after he had cajoled Dick to part with it.
+Whether the restoration of his brother-in-law formed any part of his
+programme, it is better, perhaps, not to inquire. His dreams were
+scattered now; the Stone might be anywhere, buried in London mud, lying
+on railway ballast, or ground to powder by cartwheels. There was little
+chance, indeed, that even the most liberal rewards would lead to
+discovery. He swore long and comprehensively.
+
+As for Mr. Bultitude, he sat motionless in his chair, staring in dull,
+speechless reproach at the conscience-stricken Dick, who stood in the
+corner blinking and whimpering with an abject penitence, odd and painful
+to see in one of his portly form. The children had now apparently
+finished supper, for there were sounds above as of dancing, and "Sir
+Roger de Coverley," with its rollicking, never-wearying repetition, was
+distinctly audible above the din and laughter. Once before, a week ago
+that very day, had that heartless piano mocked him with its untimely
+gaiety.
+
+But things were not at their worst even yet, for, while they sat like
+this, there was a sharp, short peal at the house-bell, followed by loud
+and rather angry knocking, for carriages being no longer expected, the
+servants and waiters had now closed the front-door, and left the passage
+for the supper-room.
+
+"The visitors' bell!" cried Paul, roused from his apathy; and he rushed
+to the window which commanded a side-view of the portico; it might be
+only a servant calling for one of the children, but he feared the worst,
+and could not rest till he knew it.
+
+It was a rash thing to do, for as he drew the blind, he saw a large
+person in a heavy Inverness cloak standing on the steps, and (which was
+worse) the person both saw and recognised _him_!
+
+With fascinated horror, Mr. Bultitude saw the Doctor's small grey eyes
+fixed angrily on him, and knew that he was hunted down at last.
+
+He turned to the other two with a sort of ghastly composure: "It's all
+over now," he said. "I've just seen Dr. Grimstone standing on my
+doorstep; he has come after me."
+
+Uncle Marmaduke gave a malicious little laugh: "I'm sorry for you, my
+friend," he said, "but I really can't help it."
+
+"You can," said Paul; "you can tell him what you know. You can save me."
+
+"Very poor economy that," said Marmaduke airily. "I prefer spending to
+saving, always did. I have my own interests to consider, my dear Paul."
+
+"Dick," said poor Mr. Bultitude, disgusted at this exhibition of
+selfishness, "you said you were sorry just now. Will you tell him the
+truth?"
+
+But Dick was quite unnerved, he cowered away, almost crying; "I
+daren't, I daren't," he stammered; "I--I can't go back to the fellows
+like this. I'm afraid to tell him. I--I want to hide somewhere."
+
+And certainly he was in no condition to convince an angry schoolmaster
+of anything whatever, except that he was in a state very unbecoming to
+the head of a family.
+
+It was all over; Paul saw that too well, he dashed frantically from the
+fatal billiard-room, and in the hall met Boaler preparing to admit the
+visitor.
+
+"Don't open the door!" he screamed. "Keep him out, you mustn't let him
+in. It's Dr. Grimstone."
+
+Boaler, surprised as he naturally was at his young master's
+unaccountable appearance and evident panic, nevertheless never moved a
+muscle of his face; he was one of those perfectly bred servants, who, if
+they chanced to open the door to a ghoul or a skeleton, would merely
+inquire, "What name, if you please?"
+
+"I must go and ask your Par, then, Master Dick; there's time to 'ook it
+upstairs while I'm gone. I won't say nothing," he added compassionately.
+
+Paul lost no time in following this suggestion, but rushed upstairs, two
+or three steps at the time, stumbling at every flight, with a hideous
+nightmare feeling that some invisible thing behind was trying to trip up
+his heels.
+
+He rushed blindly past the conservatory, which was lit up by Chinese
+lanterns and crowded with little "Kate Greenaway" maidens crowned with
+fantastic headdresses out of the crackers, and comparing presents with
+boy-lovers; he upset perspiring waiters with glasses and trays, and
+scattered the children sitting on the stairs, as he bounded on in his
+reckless flight, leaving crashes of glass behind him.
+
+He had no clear idea of what he meant to do; he thought of barricading
+himself in his bedroom and hiding in the wardrobe; he had desperate
+notions of getting on to the housetop by means of a step-ladder and the
+sky-light above the nursery landing; on one point he was resolved--he
+would not be retaken _alive_!
+
+Never before in this commonplace London world of ours was an unfortunate
+householder hunted up his own staircase in this distressing manner; even
+his terror did not blind him to the extreme ignominy and injustice of
+his position.
+
+And below he heard the bell ringing more and more impatiently, as the
+Doctor still remained on the wrong side of the door. In another minute
+he must be admitted--and then!
+
+Who will not sympathise with Mr. Bultitude as he approaches the crisis
+of his misfortunes? I protest, for my own part, that as I am compelled
+to describe him springing from step to step in wild terror, like a
+highly respectable chamois before some Alpine marksman, my own heart
+bleeds for him, and I hasten to end my distressing tale, and make the
+rest of it as little painful as I may with honesty.
+
+
+
+
+19. _The Reckoning_
+
+     MONTR.   The father is victorious.
+     BELF.                              Let us haste
+              To gratulate his conquest.
+     1ST CAPT.                          We to mourn
+              The fortune of the son.
+                        MASSINGER. _The Unnatural Combat._
+
+
+Poor Mr. Bultitude, springing wildly upstairs in a last desperate effort
+to avoid capture, had now almost reached his goal. Just above him was
+the nursery landing, with its little wooden gate, and near it, leaning
+against the wall, was a pair of kitchen steps, with which he had hopes
+of reaching the roof, or the cistern loft, or some other safe and
+inaccessible place. Better a night spent on the slates amongst the
+chimney-pots than a bed in that terrible No. 6 Dormitory!
+
+But here, too, fate was against him. He was not more than half-a-dozen
+steps from the top, when, to his unspeakable horror, he saw a small form
+in a white frock and cardinal-red sash come running out of the nursery,
+and begin to descend slowly and cautiously, clinging to the banisters
+with one chubby little hand.
+
+It was his youngest son, Roly, and as soon as he saw this, he lost hope
+once and for all; he could not escape being recognised, the child would
+probably refuse to leave him, and even if he did contrive to get away
+from him, it would be hopeless to make Roly understand that he was not
+to betray his hiding-place.
+
+So he stopped on the stairs, aghast at this new misfortune, and feeling
+himself at the end of all his resources. Roly knew him at once, and
+began to dance delightedly up and down on the stair in his little bronze
+shoes. "Buzzer Dicky," he cried, "dear buzzer Dicky, tum 'ome to party!"
+
+"It's not brother Dicky," said Paul miserably; "it's all a mistake."
+
+"Oh, but it is though," said Roly; "and you don't know what Roly's
+found."
+
+"No, no," said Paul, trying to pass (which, as Roly persisted in leaping
+joyously from side to side of the narrow stair, was difficult); "you
+shall show me another time. I'm in a hurry, my boy, I've got an
+appointment."
+
+"Roly's got something better than that," observed the child.
+
+Mr. Bultitude, in spite of his terror, was too much afraid of hurting
+him by brushing roughly past to attempt such a thing, so he tried
+diplomacy. "Well, what has Roly found--a cracker?"
+
+"No, no, better than a cwacker--you guess."
+
+"I can't guess," said Paul; "never mind, I don't want to know."
+
+"Well then," said Roly, "there." And he slowly unclosed a fat little
+fist, and in it Paul saw, with a revulsion of feeling that turned him
+dizzy and faint, the priceless talisman itself, the identical Garudâ
+Stone, with part of the frail gilt ring still attached to it.
+
+The fastening had probably given way during Master Dick's uproarious
+revels in the drawing-room, and Roly must have picked it up on the
+carpet shortly afterwards.
+
+"Isn't it a pitty sing?" said Roly, insisting that his treasure should
+be duly admired.
+
+"A very pretty thing," said his father, hoarse and panting; "but it's
+mine, Roly, it's mine!"
+
+And he tried to snatch it, but Roly closed his fist over it and pouted,
+"It isn't yours," he said, "it's Roly's. Roly found it."
+
+Paul's fears rose again; would he be wrecked in port after all? His ear,
+unnaturally strained, caught the sound of the front door being opened,
+he heard the Doctor's deep voice booming faintly below, then the noise
+of persons ascending.
+
+"Roly shall have it, then," he said perfidiously, "if he will say after
+me what I tell him. Say, 'I wish Papa and Brother Dick back as they were
+before,' Roly."
+
+"Ith it a game?" asked Roly, his face clearing and evidently delighted
+with his eccentric brother Dick, who had run all the way home from
+school to play games with him on the staircase.
+
+"No--yes!" cried Paul, "it's a very funny game; only do what I tell you.
+Now say, 'I wish Papa and Brother Dick back again as they were before.'
+I'll give you a sugar-plum if you say it nicely."
+
+"What sort of sugar-plum?" demanded Roly, who inherited business
+instincts.
+
+"Any sort you like best!" almost shrieked Paul; "oh, do get on!"
+
+"Lots of sugar-plums, then. 'I with'--I forget what you told me--oh, 'I
+with Papa and----' there'th thomebody tummin' upsthairs!" he broke off
+suddenly; "it'h nurth tummin' to put me to bed. I don't want to go to
+bed yet."
+
+"And you shan't go to bed!" cried Paul, for he too thought he heard
+some one. "Never mind nurse, finish the--the game."
+
+--'Papa and Buzzy Dicky back again as--as they were before,' repeated
+Roly at last. "What a funny--ow, ow, it'h Papa! it'h Papa! and he told
+me it wath Dicky. I'm afwaid! Whereth Dicky gone to? I want Bab, take me
+to Bab!"
+
+For the Stone had done its work once more, and this time with happier
+results; with a supreme relief and joy, which no one who has read this
+book can fail to understand, Mr. Bultitude felt that he actually was his
+old self again.
+
+Just when all hope seemed cut off and relief was most unlikely, the
+magic spell that had caused him such intolerable misery for one hideous
+week was reversed by the hand of his innocent child.
+
+He caught Roly up in his arms and kissed him as he had never been kissed
+in his whole life before, at least by his father, and comforting him as
+well as he could, for the poor child had naturally received rather a
+severe shock, he stepped airily down the staircase, which he had mounted
+with such different emotions five minutes before.
+
+On his way he could not resist going into his dressing-room and assuring
+himself by a prolonged examination before the cheval-glass that the
+Stone had not played him some last piece of jugglery; but he found
+everything quite correct; he was the same formal, precise and portly
+person, wearing the same morning dress even as on that other Monday
+evening, and he went on with greater confidence.
+
+He took care, however, to stop at the first window, when he managed,
+after some coaxing, to persuade Roly to give up the Garudâ Stone. As
+soon as he had it in his hands again, he opened the window wide and
+flung the dangerous talisman far out into the darkness. Not till then
+did he feel perfectly secure.
+
+He passed the groups of little guests gathered about the conservatory,
+and lower down he met Boaler, the nurse, and one or two servants and
+waiters, rushing up in a state of great anxiety and flurry; even
+Boaler's usual composure seemed shaken. "Please, sir," he asked, "the
+schoolmaster gentleman, Master Dick--he've run upstairs, haven't you
+seen him?"
+
+Paul had almost forgotten Dick in his new happiness; there would be a
+heavy score to settle with him; he had the upper hand once more, and
+yet, somehow, he did not feel as much righteous wrath and desire for
+revenge as he expected to do.
+
+"Don't be alarmed," he said, waving them back with more benignity than
+he thought he had in him. "Master Dick is safe enough. I know all about
+it. Where is Dr. Grimstone? In the library, eh? Very well, I will see
+him there."
+
+And leaving Roly with the nurse, he went down to the library; not, if
+the truth must be told, without a slight degree of nervousness,
+unreasonable and unaccountable enough now, but quite beyond his power to
+control.
+
+He entered the room, and there, surrounded by piles of ticketed hats and
+coats, under the pale light of one gas-burner, he saw the terrible man
+before whom he had trembled for the last seven horrible days.
+
+A feeling of self-defence made Paul assume rather more than his old
+stiffness as he shook hands. "I am very glad to see you, Dr. Grimstone,"
+he said, "but your coming at this time forces me to ask if there is any
+unusual reason for, for my having the--a--pleasure of seeing you here?"
+
+"I am exceedingly distressed to have to say that there is," said the
+Doctor solemnly, "or I should not have troubled you at this hour. Try to
+compose yourself, my dear sir, to bear this blow."
+
+"I will," said Paul, "I will try."
+
+"The fact is then, and I know how sad a story it must be for a parent's
+ear, but the fact is, that your unhappy boy has had the inconceivable
+rashness to quit my roof." And the Doctor paused to watch the effect of
+his announcement.
+
+"God bless my soul!" cried Paul. "You don't say so!"
+
+"I do indeed; he has, in short, run away. But don't be alarmed, my dear
+Mr. Bultitude, I think I can assure you he is quite safe at the present
+moment" ("Thank Heaven, he is!" thought Paul, thinking of his own
+marvellous escape). "I should certainly have recaptured him before he
+could have left the railway station, where he seems to have gone at
+once, only, acting on information (which I strongly suspect now was
+intentionally misleading), I drove on to the station on the up-line,
+thinking to find him there. He was not there, sir, I believe he never
+went there at all; but, guessing how matters were, I searched the train,
+carriage by carriage, compartment by compartment, when it came up."
+
+"I am very sorry you should have had so much trouble," said Paul, with a
+vivid recollection of the exploring stick; "and so you found him?"
+
+"No, sir," said the Doctor passionately, "I did not find him, but he was
+there; he must have been there! but the shameless connivance of two
+excessively ill-bred persons, who positively refused to allow me access
+to their compartment, caused him to slip through my fingers."
+
+Mr. Bultitude observed, rather ungratefully, that, if this was so, it
+was a most improper thing for them to do.
+
+"It was, indeed, but it is of no consequence fortunately. I was forced
+to wait for the next train, but that was not a very slow one, and so I
+was able to come on here before a very late hour and acquaint you with
+what had taken place."
+
+"Thank you very much," said Paul.
+
+"It's a painful thing to occur in a school," observed the Doctor after a
+pause.
+
+"Most unfortunate," agreed Paul, coughing.
+
+"So apt to lead persons who are not acquainted with the facts to imagine
+that the boy was unhappy under my care," continued the Doctor.
+
+"In this case, I assure you, I have no doubts," protested Paul with
+politeness and (seldom a possible combination) perfect truth.
+
+"Very kind of you to say so; really, it's a great mystery to me. I
+certainly, as I felt it my duty to inform you at the time, came very
+near inflicting corporal punishment upon him this morning--very near.
+But then he was pardoned on your intercession; and, besides, the boy
+would never have run away for fear of a flogging."
+
+"Oh, no, perfectly absurd!" agreed Paul again.
+
+"Such a merry, high-spirited lad, too," said the Doctor, sincerely
+enough; "popular with his schoolfellows; a favourite (in spite of his
+faults) with his teachers."
+
+"No, was he though?" said Paul with more surprise, for he had not been
+fortunate enough to reap much vicarious benefit from his son's
+popularity, as he could not help remembering.
+
+"All this, added to the comforts (or, may I say, the luxuries?) he
+enjoyed under my supervision, does make it seem very strange and
+ungrateful in the boy to take this sudden and ill-considered step."
+
+"Very, indeed; but do you know, Dr. Grimstone, I can't help
+thinking--and pray do not misunderstand me if I speak plainly--that,
+perhaps, he had reasons for being unhappy you can have no idea of?"
+
+"He would have found me ready to hear any complaints and prompt to
+redress them, sir," said the Doctor. "But, now I think of it, he
+certainly did appear to have something on his mind which he wished to
+tell me; but his manner was so strange and he so persistently refused to
+come to the point, that I was forced to discourage him at last."
+
+"You did discourage him, indeed!" said Paul inwardly, thinking of those
+attempted confidences with a shudder. "Perhaps some of his schoolfellows
+may have--eh?" he said aloud.
+
+"My dear sir," exclaimed the Doctor, "quite out of the question!"
+
+"Do you think so?" said Paul, not being able to resist the suggestion.
+"And yet, do you know, some of them did not appear to me to look
+very--very good-natured, now."
+
+"A more manly, pleasant, and gentlemanly set of youths never breathed!"
+said the Doctor, taking up the cudgels for his boys, and, to do him
+justice, probably with full measure of belief in his statement. "Curious
+now that they should have struck you so differently!"
+
+"They certainly did strike me very differently," said Paul. "But I may
+be mistaken."
+
+"You are, my dear sir. And, pardon me, but you had no opportunity of
+testing your opinion."
+
+"Oh, pardon me," retorted Paul grimly, "I had indeed!"
+
+"A cursory visit," said the Doctor, "a formal inspection--you cannot
+fairly judge boys by that. They will naturally be reserved and
+constrained in the presence of an elder. But you should observe them
+without their knowledge--you want to know them, my dear Mr. Bultitude,
+you want to go among them!"
+
+It was the very last thing Paul did want--he knew them quite well
+enough, but it was of no use to say so, and he merely assented politely.
+
+"And now," said the Doctor, "with regard to your misguided boy. I have
+to tell you that he is here, in this very house. I tracked him here,
+and, ten minutes ago, saw him with my own eyes at one of your windows.
+
+"Here!" cried Paul, with a well-executed start; "you astonish me!"
+
+"It has occurred to me within the last minute," said the Doctor, "that
+there may be a very simple explanation of his flight. I observe you are
+giving a--a juvenile entertainment on a large scale."
+
+"I suppose I am," Paul admitted. "And so you think----?"
+
+"I think that your son, who doubtless knew of your intention, was hurt
+at being excluded from the festivities and, in a fit of mad wilful
+folly, resolved to be present at them in spite of you."
+
+"My dear Doctor," cried Paul, who saw the conveniences of this theory,
+"that must be it, of course--that explains it all!"
+
+"So grave an act of insubordination," said the Doctor, "an act of double
+disobedience--to your authority and mine--deserves the fullest
+punishment. You agree with me, I trust?"
+
+The memory of his wrongs overcame Mr. Bultitude for the moment: "Nothing
+can be too bad for the little scoundrel!" he said, between his teeth.
+
+"He shall have it, sir, I swear to you; he shall be made to repent this
+as long as he lives. This insult to me (and of course to you also) shall
+be amply atoned for. If you will have the goodness to deliver him over
+to my hands, I will carry him back at once to Market Rodwell, and
+to-morrow, sir, to-morrow, I will endeavour to awaken his conscience in
+a way he will remember!"
+
+The Doctor was more angry than an impartial lover of justice might
+perhaps approve of, but then it must be remembered that he had seen
+himself completely outwitted and his authority set at nought in a very
+humiliating fashion.
+
+However, his excessive wrath cooled Paul's own resentment instead of
+inflaming it; it made him reflect that, after all, it was he who had the
+best right to be angry.
+
+"Well," he said, rather coldly, "we must find him first, and then
+consider what shall be done to him. If you will allow me I will ring
+and----"
+
+But before he could lay his hand upon the bell the library door opened,
+and Uncle Marmaduke made his appearance, dragging with him the unwilling
+Dick: the unfortunate boy was effectually sobered now, pale and
+trembling and besmirched with coal-dust--in fact, in very much the same
+plight as his ill-used father had been in only three hours ago.
+
+There was a brazen smile of triumph on Mr. Paradine's face as he met
+Paul's eyes with a knowing wink, which the latter did not at all
+understand.
+
+Such audacity astonished him, for he could hardly believe that Paradine,
+after his perfidious conduct in the billiard-room, could have the clumsy
+impudence to try to propitiate him now.
+
+"Here he is, my boy," shouted Paradine; "here's the scamp who has given
+us all this trouble! He came into the billiard-room just now and told me
+who he was, but I would have nothing to do with him of course. Not my
+business, as I told him at the time. Then--(I think I have the pleasure
+of seeing Dr. Grimstone? just so) well, then you, sir, arrived--and he
+made himself scarce. But when I saw him in the act of making a bolt up
+the area, where he had been taking shelter apparently in the
+coal-cellar, I thought it was time to interfere, and so I collared him.
+I have much pleasure in handing him over now to the proper authorities."
+
+And, letting Dick go, he advanced towards his brother-in-law, still with
+the same odd expression of having a secret understanding with him, which
+made Paul's blood boil.
+
+"Stand where you are, sir," said Paul to his son. "No, Dr. Grimstone,
+allow me--leave him to me for the present, please."
+
+"That's much better," whispered Paradine approvingly; "capital. Keep it
+up, my boy; keep it up! Papa's as quiet as a lamb now. Go on."
+
+Then Paul understood; his worthy brother-in-law had not been present at
+the last transformation and was under a slight misapprehension: he
+evidently imagined that he had by this last stroke made himself and Dick
+masters of the situation--it was time to undeceive him.
+
+"Have the goodness to leave my house at once, will you!" he said
+sternly.
+
+"You young fool!" said Marmaduke, under his breath, "after all I have
+done for you, too! Is this your gratitude? You know you can't get on
+without me. Take care what you're about!"
+
+"If you can't see that the tables are turned at last," said Paul slowly,
+"you're a duller knave than I take you to be."
+
+Marmaduke started back with an oath: "It's a trick," he said savagely;
+"you want to get rid of me."
+
+"I certainly intend to," said Paul. "Are you satisfied? Do you want
+proofs--shall I give them--I did just now in the billiard-room?"
+
+Paradine went to Dick and shook him angrily: "You young idiot!" he said,
+in a furious aside, "why didn't you tell me? What did you let me make a
+fool of myself like this for, eh?"
+
+"I did tell you," muttered Dick, "only you wouldn't listen. It just
+serves you right!"
+
+Marmaduke soon collected himself after this unexpected shock; he tried
+to shake Paul's hands with an airy geniality. "Only my little joke," he
+said, laughing; "ha, ha, I thought I should take you in!... Why, I knew
+it directly.... I've been working for you all the time--but it wouldn't
+have done to let you see my line."
+
+"No," said Paul; "it was not a very straight one, as usual."
+
+"Well," said Marmaduke, "I shouldn't have stopped Master Dick there if I
+hadn't been on your side, should I now? I knew you'd come out of it all
+right, but I had a difficult game to play, don't you know? I don't
+wonder that you didn't follow me just at first."
+
+"You've lost your game," said Paul; "it's no use to say any more. So
+now, perhaps, you'll go?"
+
+"Go, eh?" said Paradine, without showing much surprise at the failure
+of so very forlorn a hope, "oh, very well, just as you please, of
+course. Let your poor wife's only brother go from your doors without a
+penny in the world!--but I warn you that a trifle or so laid out in
+stopping my mouth would not be thrown away. Some editors would be glad
+enough of a sensation from real life just now, and I could tell some
+very odd tales about this little affair!"
+
+"Tell them, if a character for sanity is of no further use to you," said
+Paul. "Tell them to anyone you can get to believe you--tell the
+crossing-sweeper and the policemen, tell your grandmother, tell the
+horse-marines--it will amuse them. Only, you shall tell them on the
+other side of my front door. Shall I call anyone to show you out?"
+
+Paradine saw his game was really played out, and swaggered insolently to
+the door: "Not on my account, I beg," he said. "Good-bye, Paul, my boy,
+no more dissolving views. Good-bye, my young friend Richard, it was good
+fun while it lasted, eh? like the Servian crown--always a pleasant
+reminiscence! Good evening to you, Doctor. By the way, for educational
+purposes let me recommend a 'Penang lawyer'--buy one as you go back for
+the boys--just to show them you haven't forgotten them!"
+
+And, having little luggage to impede him, the front door closed upon him
+shortly afterwards--this time for ever.
+
+When he had gone, Dick looked imploringly at his father and then at the
+Doctor, who, until Paradine's parting words had lashed him into fury
+again, had been examining the engravings on the walls with a studied
+delicacy during the recent painful scene, and was now leaning against
+the chimney-piece with his arms folded and a sepulchral gloom on his
+brow.
+
+"Richard," said Mr. Bultitude, in answer to the look, "you have not done
+much to deserve consideration at my hands."
+
+"Or at mine!" added the Doctor ominously.
+
+"No," said Dick, "I know I haven't. I've been a brute. I deserve a jolly
+good licking."
+
+"You do," said his father, but in spite of his indignation, the
+broken-down look of the boy, and the memory of his own sensations when
+waiting to be caned that morning, moved him to pity. And then Dick had
+shown some compunction in the billiard-room: he was not entirely lost to
+feeling.
+
+"Well," he said at last, "you've acted very wrongly. Because I thought
+it best that you should not--ahem, leave your studies for this party,
+you chose to disobey me and alarm your master by defying my orders and
+coming home by stealth--that was your object, I presume?"
+
+"Y--yes," said Dick, looking rather puzzled, but seeing that he was
+expected to agree; "that was it."
+
+"You know as well as I do what good cause I have to be angry; but, if I
+consent to overlook your conduct this time, if I ask Dr. Grimstone to
+overlook it too" (the Doctor made an inarticulate protest, while Dick
+stared, incredulous), "will you undertake to behave better for the
+future--will you?"
+
+Dick's voice broke at this, and his eyes swam--he was effectually
+conquered. "Oh, I will!" he cried, "I will, really. I never meant to go
+so far when I began."
+
+"Then, Dr. Grimstone," said Paul, "you will do me a great favour if you
+will take no further notice of this. You see the boy is sorry, and I am
+sure he will apologise to you amply for the grave slight he has done
+you. And by the way--I should have mentioned it before--but he will have
+to leave your care at the end of the term for a public school--I intend
+to send him to Harrow, so he will require some additional preparation,
+perhaps: I may leave that in your hands?"
+
+Dr. Grimstone looked deeply offended, but he only said, "I will see to
+that myself, my dear sir. I am sorry you did not tell me this earlier.
+But, may I suggest that a large public school has its pitfalls for a
+boy of your son's disposition? And I trust this leniency may not have
+evil consequences, but I doubt it--I greatly doubt it."
+
+As for Dick, he ran to his father, and hung gratefully on to his arm
+with a remorseful hug, a thing he had never dared to do, or thought of
+attempting, in his life till then.
+
+"Dad," he said in a choked voice, "you're a brick! I don't deserve any
+of it, but I'll never forget this as long as I live."
+
+Mr. Bultitude too, felt something spring up in his heart which drew him
+towards the boy in an altogether novel manner, but no one will say that
+either was the worse for it.
+
+"Well," he said mildly, "prove to me that I have made no mistake. Go
+back to Crichton House now, work and play well, and try to keep out of
+mischief for the rest of the term. I trust to you," he added, in a lower
+tone, "while you remain at Market Rodwell, to keep my--my connection
+with it a secret; you owe that at least to me. You may probably
+have--ahem, some inconveniences to put up with--inconveniences you are
+not prepared for. You must bear them as your punishment."
+
+And soon afterwards a cab was called, and Dr. Grimstone prepared to
+return to Market Rodwell, with the deserter, by the last train.
+
+As Paul shook hands through the cab window with his prodigal son, he
+repeated his warning. "Mind," he said, "_you_ have been at school all
+this past week; you have run away to attend this party, you understand?
+Good-bye, my boy, and here's something to put in your pocket, and
+another for Jolland; but he need not know it comes from me." And when
+Dick opened his hand afterwards, he found two half-sovereigns in it.
+
+So the cab rolled away, and Paul went up to the drawing-room, where,
+although he certainly allowed the fireworks on the balcony and in the
+garden to languish forgotten on their sticks, he led all the other
+revels up to an advanced hour with jovial _abandon_ quite worthy of
+Dick, and none of his little guests ever suspected the change of host.
+
+When it was all over, and the sleepy children had driven off, Paul sat
+down in an easy chair by the bright fire which sparkled frostily in his
+bedroom, to think gratefully over all the events of the day--events
+which were beginning already to take an unreal and fantastic shape.
+
+Bitterly as he had suffered, and in spite of the just anger and thirst
+for revenge with which he had returned, I am glad to say he did not
+regret the spirit of mildness that had stayed his hand when his hour of
+triumph came.
+
+His experiences, unpleasant as they had been, had had their advantages:
+they had drawn him and his family closer together.
+
+In his daughter Barbara, as she wished him good-night (knowing nothing,
+of course, of the escape), he had suddenly become aware of a girlish
+freshness and grace he had never looked for or cared to see before. Roly
+after this, too, had a claim upon him he could never wish to forget, and
+even with the graceless Dick there was a warmer and more natural feeling
+on both sides--a strange result, no doubt, of such unfilial behaviour,
+but so it was.
+
+Mr. Bultitude would never after this consider his family as a set of
+troublesome and thankless incumbrances; thanks to Dick's offices during
+the interregnum, they would henceforth throw off their reserve and
+constraint in their father's presence, and in so doing, open his eyes to
+qualities of which he had hitherto been in contented ignorance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It would be pleasanter perhaps to take leave of Mr. Bultitude thus, as
+he sits by his bedroom fire in the first flush of supreme and unalloyed
+content.
+
+But I feel almost bound to point out a fact which few will find any
+difficulty in accepting, namely, that, although the wrong had been
+retrieved without scandal or exposure, for which Paul could not be too
+thankful, there were many consequences which could not but survive it.
+
+Neither father nor son found himself exactly in the same position as
+before their exchange of characters.
+
+It took Mr. Bultitude considerable time and trouble to repair all the
+damage his son's boyish excesses had wrought both at Westbourne Terrace
+and in the City. He found the discipline of his clerks' room and
+counting-house sorely relaxed, and his office-boy in particular
+attempted a tone towards him of such atrocious familiarity that he was
+indignantly dismissed, much to his astonishment, the very first day. And
+probably Paul will never quite clear himself of the cloud that hangs
+over a man of business who, in the course of however well regulated a
+career, is known to have been at least once "a little odd."
+
+And his home, too, was distinctly demoralised: his cook was an artist,
+unrivalled at soups and entrées; but he had to get rid of her
+notwithstanding.
+
+It was only too evident that she looked upon herself as the prospective
+mistress of his household, and he did not feel called upon as a parent
+to fulfil any expectations which Dick's youthful cupboard love had
+unintentionally excited.
+
+For some time, as fresh proof of Dick's extravagances came home to him,
+Paul found it cost him no little effort to restrain a tendency to his
+former bitterness and resentment, but he valued the new understanding
+between himself and his son too highly to risk losing it again by any
+open reproach, and so with each succeeding discovery the victory over
+his feelings became easier.
+
+As for Dick, he found the inconveniences at which his father had hinted
+anything but imaginary, as will perhaps be easily understood.
+
+It was an unpleasant shock to discover that in one short week his
+father had contrived somehow to procure him a lasting unpopularity. He
+was obviously looked upon by all, masters and boys, as a confirmed
+coward and sneak. And although some of his companions could not fairly
+reproach him on the latter score, the imputation was particularly
+galling to Dick, who had always treated such practices with sturdy
+contempt.
+
+He was sorely tempted at times to right himself by declaring the real
+state of the case; but he remembered his promise and his father's
+unexpected clemency and his gratitude always kept him silent.
+
+He never quite understood how it was that the whole school seemed to
+have an impression that they could kick and assault him generally with
+perfect impunity; but a few very unsuccessful experiments convinced them
+that this was a popular error on their part.
+
+Although, however, in everything else he did gradually succeed in
+recovering all the ground his father had lost him, yet there was one
+respect in which, I am sorry to say, he found all his efforts to
+retrieve himself hopeless.
+
+His little sweetheart, with the grey eyes and soft brown hair, cruelly
+refused to have anything more to do with him. For Dulcie's pride had
+been wounded by what she considered his shameless perfidy on that
+memorable Saturday by the parallel bars; the last lingering traces of
+affection had vanished before Paul's ingratitude on the following
+Monday, and she never forgave him.
+
+She did not even give him an opportunity of explaining himself, never by
+word or sign up to the last day of the term showing that she was even
+aware of his return. What was worse, in her resentment she transferred
+her favour to Tipping, who became her humble slave for a too brief
+period; after which he was found wanting in polish, and was
+ignominiously thrown over for the shy new boy Kiffin, whose head Dick
+found a certain melancholy pleasure in punching in consequence.
+
+This was Dick's punishment, and a very real and heavy one he found it.
+He is at Harrow now, where he is doing fairly well; but I think there
+are moments even yet when Dulcie's charming little face, her pretty
+confidences, and her chilling disdain, are remembered with something as
+nearly resembling a heartache as a healthy unsentimental boy can allow
+himself.
+
+Perhaps, if some day he goes back once more to Crichton House "to see
+the fellows," this time with the mysterious glamour of a great public
+school about him, he may yet obtain forgiveness, for she is getting
+horribly tired of Kiffin, who, to tell the truth, is something of a
+milksop.
+
+As for the Garudâ Stone, I really cannot say what has become of it.
+Perhaps it was dashed to pieces on the cobble-stones of the stables
+behind the terrace, and a good thing too. Perhaps it was not, and is
+still in existence, with all its dangerous powers as ready for use as
+ever it was; and in that case the best I can wish my readers is, that
+they may be mercifully preserved from finding it anywhere, or if they
+are unfortunate enough to come upon it, that they may at least be more
+careful with it than Mr. Paul Bultitude, by whose melancholy example I
+trust they will take timely warning.
+
+And with these very sincere wishes I beg to bid them a reluctant
+farewell.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Vice Versa, by F. Anstey
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Vice Versâ, by  F. Anstey.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Vice Versa, by F. Anstey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Vice Versa
+       or A Lesson to Fathers
+
+Author: F. Anstey
+
+Release Date: October 9, 2008 [EBook #26853]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VICE VERSA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Clarke, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>VICE VERS&Acirc;</h1>
+
+<h3>OR</h3>
+
+<h2>A LESSON TO FATHERS</h2>
+
+<h2>BY F. ANSTEY</h2>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>LONDON</h4>
+
+<h4>JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<table summary="Print history">
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="smcap">First Edition</span> (<i>Smith, Elder &amp; Co.</i>)</td>
+    <td class="right"><i>June 1882</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="smcap">Fiftieth Impression</span></td>
+    <td class="right"><i>May 1915</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Reprinted</i> (<i>F'cap 8vo</i>) (<i>John Murray</i>)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class="right"><i>October 1917</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Reprinted</i></td>
+    <td class="right"><i>March 1918</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Reprinted</i></td>
+    <td class="right"><i>January 1920</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Reprinted</i></td>
+    <td class="right"><i>August 1924</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Reprinted</i></td>
+    <td class="right"><i>June 1926</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Reprinted</i></td>
+    <td class="right"><i>August 1928</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Reprinted</i> (<i>Cr. 8vo</i>)</td>
+    <td class="right"><i>September 1929</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Reprinted</i> (<i>F'cap 8vo</i>)</td>
+    <td class="right"><i>December 1931</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Reprinted</i></td>
+    <td class="right"><i>November 1937</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Reprinted</i> (<i>Cr. 8vo</i>)</td>
+    <td class="right"><i>June 1949</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Reprinted</i></td>
+    <td class="right"><i>October 1954</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Reprinted</i></td>
+    <td class="right"><i>March 1962</i></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY LOWE AND BRYDONE (PRINTERS) LIMITED, LONDON,
+N.W.10</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#PREFACE"><span class="smcap">Preface</span></a></span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#Black_Monday">1.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Black Monday</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#A_Grand_Transformation_Scene">2.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Grand Transformation Scene</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#In_the_Toils">3.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">In the Toils</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#A_Minnow_amongst_Tritons">4.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Minnow amongst Tritons</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#Disgrace">5.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Disgrace</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#Learning_and_Accomplishments">6.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Learning and Accomplishments</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#Cutting_the_Knot">7.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Cutting the Knot</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#Unbending_the_Bow">8.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Unbending the Bow</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#A_Letter_from_Home">9.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Letter from Home</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#The_Complete_Letter-Writer">10.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Complete Letter-Writer</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#A_Day_of_Rest">11.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Day of Rest</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#Against_Time">12.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Against Time</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#A_Respite">13.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Respite</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#An_Error_of_Judgment">14.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">An Error of Judgment</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#The_Rubicon">15.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Rubicon</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#Hard_Pressed">16.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Hard Pressed</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#A_Perfidious_Ally">17.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Perfidious Ally</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#Run_to_Earth">18.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Run to Earth</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#The_Reckoning">19.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Reckoning</span></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a><i>PREFACE</i></h2>
+
+<p>There is an old story of a punctiliously polite Greek, who, while
+performing the funeral of an infant daughter, felt bound to make his
+excuses to the spectators for "bringing out such a ridiculously small
+corpse to so large a crowd."</p>
+
+<p>The Author, although he trusts that the present production has more
+vitality than the Greek gentleman's child, still feels that in these
+days of philosophical fiction, metaphysical romance, and novels with a
+purpose, some apology may perhaps be needed for a tale which has the
+unambitious and frivolous aim of mere amusement.</p>
+
+<p>However, he ventures to leave the tale to be its own apology, merely
+contenting himself with the entreaty that his little fish may be spared
+the rebuke that it is not a whale.</p>
+
+<p>In submitting it with all possible respect to the Public, he conceives
+that no form of words he could devise would appeal so simply and
+powerfully to their feelings as that which he has ventured to adopt from
+a certain Anglo-Portuguese Phrase-Book of deserved popularity.</p>
+
+<p>Like the compilers of that work, he&mdash;"expects then who the little book,
+for the care what he wrote him and her typographical corrections, will
+commend itself to the&mdash;<i>British Paterfamilias</i>&mdash;at which he dedicates
+him particularly."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="Black_Monday" id="Black_Monday"></a>1. <i>Black Monday</i></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>"In England, where boys go to boarding schools, if the holidays
+were not long there would be no opportunity for cultivating the
+domestic affections."&mdash;<i>Letter of Lord Campbell's, 1835</i>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>On a certain Monday evening late in January, 1881, Paul Bultitude, Esq.
+(of Mincing Lane, Colonial Produce Merchant), was sitting alone in his
+dining-room at Westbourne Terrace after dinner.</p>
+
+<p>The room was a long and lofty one, furnished in the stern uncompromising
+style of the Mahogany Age, now supplanted by the later fashions of
+decoration which, in their outset original and artistic, seem fairly on
+the way to become as meaningless and conventional.</p>
+
+<p>Here were no skilfully contrasted shades of grey or green, no dado, no
+distemper on the walls; the woodwork was grained and varnished after the
+manner of the Philistines, the walls papered in dark crimson, with heavy
+curtains of the same colour, and the sideboard, dinner-waggon, and row
+of stiff chairs were all carved in the same massive and expensive style
+of ugliness. The pictures were those familiar presentments of dirty
+rabbits, fat white horses, bloated goddesses, and misshapen boors, by
+masters who, if younger than they assume to be, must have been quite old
+enough to know better.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude was a tall and portly person, of a somewhat pompous and
+overbearing demeanour; not much over fifty, but looking considerably
+older. He had a high shining head, from which the hair had mostly
+departed, what little still remained being of a grizzled auburn,
+prominent pale blue eyes with heavy eyelids<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> and fierce, bushy
+whitey-brown eyebrows. His general expression suggested a conviction of
+his own extreme importance, but, in spite of this, his big underlip
+drooped rather weakly and his double chin slightly receded, giving a
+judge of character reason for suspecting that a certain obstinate
+positiveness observable in Mr. Bultitude's manner might possibly be due
+less to the possession of an unusually strong will than to the
+circumstance that, by some fortunate chance, that will had hitherto
+never met with serious opposition.</p>
+
+<p>The room, with all its &aelig;sthetic shortcomings, was comfortable enough,
+and Mr. Bultitude's attitude&mdash;he was lying back in a well-wadded leather
+arm-chair, with a glass of claret at his elbow and his feet stretched
+out towards the ruddy blaze of the fire&mdash;seemed at first sight to imply
+that happy after-dinner condition of perfect satisfaction with oneself
+and things in general, which is the natural outcome of a good cook, a
+good conscience, and a good digestion.</p>
+
+<p>At first sight; because his face did not confirm the impression&mdash;there
+was a latent uneasiness in it, an air of suppressed irritation, as if he
+expected and even dreaded to be disturbed at any moment, and yet was
+powerless to resent the intrusion as he would like to do.</p>
+
+<p>At the slightest sound in the hall outside he would half rise in his
+chair and glance at the door with a mixture of alarm and resignation,
+and as often as the steps died away and the door remained closed, he
+would sink back and resettle himself with a shrug of evident relief.</p>
+
+<p>Habitual novel readers on reading thus far will, I am afraid, prepare
+themselves for the arrival of a faithful cashier with news of
+irretrievable ruin, or a mysterious and cynical stranger threatening
+disclosures of a disgraceful nature.</p>
+
+<p>But all such anticipations must at once be ruthlessly dispelled. Mr.
+Bultitude, although he was certainly a merchant, was a fairly successful
+one&mdash;in direct defiance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> of the laws of fiction, where any connection
+with commerce seems to lead naturally to failure in one of the three
+volumes.</p>
+
+<p>He was an elderly gentleman, too, of irreproachable character and
+antecedents; no Damocles' sword of exposure was swinging over his bald
+but blameless head; he had no disasters to fear and no indiscretions to
+conceal. He had not been intended for melodrama, with which, indeed, he
+would not have considered it a respectable thing to be connected.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, the secret of his uneasiness was so absurdly simple and
+commonplace that I am rather ashamed to have made even a temporary
+mystery of it.</p>
+
+<p>His son Dick was about to return to school that evening, and Mr.
+Bultitude was expecting every moment to be called upon to go through a
+parting scene with him; that was really all that was troubling him.</p>
+
+<p>This sounds very creditable to the tenderness of his feelings as a
+father&mdash;for there are some parents who bear such a bereavement at the
+close of the holidays with extraordinary fortitude, if they do not
+actually betray an unnatural satisfaction at the event.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not exactly from softness of heart that he was restless and
+impatient, nor did he dread any severe strain upon his emotions. He was
+not much given to sentiment, and was the author of more than one of
+those pathetically indignant letters to the papers, in which the British
+parent denounces the expenses of education and the unconscionable length
+and frequency of vacations.</p>
+
+<p>He was one of those nervous and fidgety persons who cannot understand
+their own children, looking on them as objectionable monsters whose next
+movements are uncertain&mdash;much as Frankenstein must have felt towards
+<i>his</i> monster.</p>
+
+<p>He hated to have a boy about the house, and positively writhed under the
+irrelevant and irrepressible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> questions, the unnecessary noises and
+boisterous high spirits which nothing would subdue; his son's society
+was to him simply an abominable nuisance, and he pined for a release
+from it from the day the holidays began.</p>
+
+<p>He had been a widower for nearly three years, and no doubt the loss of a
+mother's loving tact, which can check the heedless merriment before it
+becomes intolerable, and interpret and soften the most peevish and
+unreasonable of rebukes, had done much to make the relations between
+parent and children more strained than they might otherwise have been.</p>
+
+<p>As it was, Dick's fear of his father was just great enough to prevent
+any cordiality between them, and not sufficient to make him careful to
+avoid offence, and it is not surprising if, when the time came for him
+to return to his house of bondage at Dr. Grimstone's, Crichton House,
+Market Rodwell, he left his father anything but inconsolable.</p>
+
+<p>Just now, although Mr. Bultitude was so near the hour of his
+deliverance, he still had a bad quarter of an hour before him, in which
+the last farewells must be said, and he found it impossible under these
+circumstances to compose himself for a quiet half-hour's nap, or retire
+to the billiard-room for a cup of coffee and a mild cigar, as he would
+otherwise have done&mdash;since he was certain to be disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>And there was another thing which harassed him, and that was a haunting
+dread lest at the last moment some unforeseen accident should prevent
+the boy's departure after all. He had some grounds for this, for only a
+week before, a sudden and unprecedented snowstorm had dashed his hopes,
+on the eve of their fulfilment, by forcing the Doctor to postpone the
+day on which his school was to re-assemble, and now Mr. Bultitude sat on
+brambles until he had seen the house definitely rid of his son's
+presence.</p>
+
+<p>All this time, while the father was fretting and fuming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> in his
+arm-chair, the son, the unlucky cause of all this discomfort, had been
+standing on the mat outside the door, trying to screw up enough courage
+to go in as if nothing was the matter with him.</p>
+
+<p>He was not looking particularly boisterous just then. On the contrary,
+his face was pale, and his eyelids rather redder than he would quite
+care for them to be seen by any of the "fellows" at Crichton House. All
+the life and spirit had gone out of him for the time; he had a
+troublesome dryness in his throat, and a general sensation of chill
+heaviness, which he himself would have described&mdash;expressively enough,
+if not with academical elegance&mdash;as "feeling beastly."</p>
+
+<p>The stoutest hearted boy, returning to the most perfect of schools,
+cannot always escape something of this at that dark hour when the sands
+of the holidays have run out to their last golden grain, when the boxes
+are standing corded and labelled in the hall, and some one is going to
+fetch the fatal cab.</p>
+
+<p>Dick had just gone the round of the house, bidding dreary farewells to
+all the servants; an unpleasant ordeal which he would gladly have
+dispensed with, if possible, and which did not serve to raise his
+spirits.</p>
+
+<p>Upstairs, in the bright nursery, he had found his old nurse sitting
+sewing by the high wire fender. She was a stern, hard-featured old lady,
+who had systematically slapped him through infancy into boyhood, and he
+had had some stormy passages with her during the past few weeks; but she
+softened now in the most unexpected manner as she said good-bye, and
+told him he was a "pleasant, good-hearted young gentleman, after all,
+though that aggravating and contrairy sometimes." And then she
+predicted, with some of the rashness attaching to irresponsibility, that
+he would be "the best boy this next term as ever was, and work hard at
+all his lessons, and bring home a prize"&mdash;but all this unusual
+gentleness only made the interview more difficult to come out of with
+any credit for self-control.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p><p>Then downstairs, the cook had come up in her evening brown print and
+clean collar, from her warm spice-scented kitchen, to remark cheerily
+that "Lor bless his heart, what with all these telegrafts and things,
+time flew so fast nowadays that they'd be having him back again before
+they all knew where they were!" which had a certain spurious consolation
+about it, until one saw that, after all, it put the case entirely from
+her own standpoint.</p>
+
+<p>After this Dick had parted from his elder sister Barbara and his young
+brother Roly, and had arrived where we found him first, at the mat
+outside the dining-room door, where he still lingered shivering in the
+cold foggy hall.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow, he could not bring himself to take the next step at once; he
+knew pretty well what his father's feelings would be, and a parting is a
+very unpleasant ceremony to one who feels that the regret is all on his
+own side.</p>
+
+<p>But it was no use putting it off any longer; he resolved at last to go
+in and get it over, and opened the door accordingly. How warm and
+comfortable the room looked&mdash;more comfortable than it had ever seemed to
+him before, even on the first day of the holidays!</p>
+
+<p>And his father would be sitting there in a quarter of an hour's time,
+just as he was now, while he himself would be lumbering along to the
+station through the dismal raw fog!</p>
+
+<p>How unspeakably delightful it must be, thought Dick enviously, to be
+grown up and never worried by the thoughts of school and lesson-books;
+to be able to look forward to returning to the same comfortable house,
+and living the same easy life, day after day, week after week, with no
+fear of a swiftly advancing Black Monday.</p>
+
+<p>Gloomy moralists might have informed him that we cannot escape school by
+simply growing up, and that,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> even for those who contrive this and make
+a long holiday of their lives, there comes a time when the days are
+grudgingly counted to a blacker Monday than ever made a school-boy's
+heart quake within him.</p>
+
+<p>But then Dick would never have believed them, and the moralists would
+only have wasted much excellent common sense upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Bultitude's face cleared as he saw his son come in. "There you are,
+eh?" he said, with evident satisfaction, as he turned in his chair,
+intending to cut the scene as short as possible. "So you're off at last?
+Well, holidays can't last for ever&mdash;by a merciful decree of Providence,
+they don't last quite for ever! There, good-bye, good-bye, be a good boy
+this term, no more scrapes, mind. And now you'd better run away, and put
+on your coat&mdash;you're keeping the cab waiting all this time."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm not," said Dick, "Boaler hasn't gone to fetch one yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Not gone to fetch a cab yet!" cried Paul, with evident alarm, "why, God
+bless my soul, what's the man thinking about? You'll lose your train! I
+know you'll lose the train, and there will be another day lost, after
+the extra week gone already through that snow! I must see to this
+myself. Ring the bell, tell Boaler to start this instant&mdash;I insist on
+his fetching a cab this instant!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's not my fault, you know," grumbled Dick, not considering so
+much anxiety at all flattering, "but Boaler has gone now. I just heard
+the gate shut."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said his father, with more composure, "and now," he suggested,
+"you'd better shake hands, and then go up and say good-bye to your
+sister&mdash;you've no time to spare."</p>
+
+<p>"I've said good-bye to them," said Dick. "Mayn't I stay here till&mdash;till
+Boaler comes?"</p>
+
+<p>This request was due, less to filial affection than a faint desire for
+dessert, which even his feelings could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> not altogether stifle. Mr.
+Bultitude granted it with a very bad grace.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you can if you want to," he said impatiently, "only do one
+thing or the other&mdash;stay outside, or shut the door and come in and sit
+down quietly. I cannot sit in a thorough draught!"</p>
+
+<p>Dick obeyed, and applied himself to the dessert with rather an injured
+expression.</p>
+
+<p>His father felt a greater sense of constraint and worry than ever; the
+interview, as he had feared, seemed likely to last some time, and he
+felt that he ought to improve the occasion in some way, or, at all
+events, make some observation. But, for all that, he had not the
+remotest idea what to say to this red-haired, solemn boy, who sat
+staring gloomily at him in the intervals of filling his mouth. The
+situation grew more embarrassing every moment.</p>
+
+<p>At last, as he felt himself likely to have more to say in reproof than
+on any other subject, he began with that.</p>
+
+<p>"There's one thing I want to talk to you about before you go," he began,
+"and that's this. I had a most unsatisfactory report of you this last
+term; don't let me have that again. Dr. Grimstone tells me&mdash;ah, I have
+his letter here&mdash;yes, he says (and just attend, instead of making
+yourself ill with preserved ginger)&mdash;he says, 'Your son has great
+natural capacity, and excellent abilities; but I regret to say that,
+instead of applying himself as he might do, he misuses his advantages,
+and succeeds in setting a mischievous example to&mdash;if not actually
+misleading&mdash;his companions.' That's a pleasant account for a father to
+read! Here am I, sending you to an expensive school, furnishing you with
+great natural capacity and excellent abilities, and&mdash;and&mdash;every other
+school requisite, and all you do is to misuse them! It's disgraceful!
+And misleading your companions, too! Why, at your age, they ought to
+mislead <i>you</i>&mdash;No, I don't mean that&mdash;but what I may tell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> you is that
+I've written a very strong letter to Dr. Grimstone, saying what pain it
+gave me to hear you misbehaved yourself, and telling him, if he ever
+caught you setting an example of any sort, mind that, <i>any</i> sort, in the
+future&mdash;he was to, ah, to remember some of Solomon's very sensible
+remarks on the subject. So I should strongly advise you to take care
+what you're about in future, for your own sake!"</p>
+
+<p>This was not a very encouraging address, perhaps, but it did not seem to
+distress Dick to any extent; he had heard very much the same sort of
+thing several times before, and had been fully prepared for it then.</p>
+
+<p>He had been seeking distraction in almonds and raisins, but now they
+only choked instead of consoling him, and he gave them up and sat
+brooding silently over his hard lot instead, with a dull, blank
+dejection which those only who have gone through the same thing in their
+boyhood will understand. To others, whose school life has been one
+unchequered course of excitement and success, it will be
+incomprehensible enough&mdash;and so much the better for them.</p>
+
+<p>He sat listening to the grim sphinx clock on the black marble
+chimneypiece, as it remorselessly ticked away his last few moments of
+home-life, and he ingeniously set himself to crown his sorrow by
+reviving recollections of happier days.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the corners of the overmantel there was still a sprig of
+withered laurel left forgotten, and his eye fell on it now with grim
+satisfaction. He made his thoughts travel back to that delightful
+afternoon on Christmas Eve, when they had all come home riotous through
+the brilliant streets, laden with purchases from the Baker Street
+Bazaar, and then had decorated the rooms with such free and careless
+gaiety.</p>
+
+<p>And the Christmas dinner too! He had sat just where he was sitting now,
+with, ah, such a difference in every other respect&mdash;the time had not
+come then when the thought of "only so many more weeks and days left"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+had begun to intrude its grisly shape, like the skull at an ancient
+feast.</p>
+
+<p>And yet he could distinctly recollect now, and with bitter remorse, that
+he had not enjoyed himself then as much as he ought to have done; he
+even remembered an impious opinion of his that the proceedings were
+"slow." Slow! with plenty to eat, and three (four, if he had only known
+it) more weeks of holiday before him; with Boxing Day and the brisk
+exhilarating drive to the Crystal Palace immediately following, with all
+the rest of a season of licence and varied joys to come, which he could
+hardly trust himself to look back upon now! He must have been mad to
+think such a thing.</p>
+
+<p>Overhead his sister Barbara was playing softly one of the airs from "The
+Pirates" (it was Frederic's appeal to the Major-General's daughters),
+and the music, freed from the serio-comic situation which it
+illustrates, had a tenderness and pathos of its own which went to Dick's
+heart and intensified his melancholy.</p>
+
+<p>He had gone (in secret, for Mr. Bultitude disapproved of such
+dissipations) to hear the Opera in the holidays, and now the piano
+conjured the whole scene up for him again&mdash;there would be no more
+theatre-going for him for a very long time!</p>
+
+<p>By this time Mr. Bultitude began to feel the silence becoming once more
+oppressive, and roused himself with a yawn. "Heigho!" he said, "Boaler's
+an uncommonly long time fetching that cab!"</p>
+
+<p>Dick felt more injured than ever, and showed it by drawing what he
+intended for a moving sigh.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately it was misunderstood.</p>
+
+<p>"I do wish, sir," said his parent testily, "you would try to break
+yourself of that habit of breathing hard. The society of a grampus (for
+it's no less) delights no one and offends many&mdash;including me&mdash;and for
+Heaven's sake, Dick, don't kick the leg of the table in that way; you
+know it simply maddens me. What do you do it for? Why can't you learn to
+sit at table like a gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p><p>Dick mumbled some apology, and then, having found his tongue and
+remembered his necessities, said, with a nervous catch in his voice,
+"Oh, I say, father, will you&mdash;can you let me have some pocket-money,
+please, to go back with?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude looked as if his son had petitioned for a latch-key.</p>
+
+<p>"Pocket-money!" he repeated, "why, you can't want money. Didn't your
+grandmother give you a sovereign as a Christmas-box? And I gave you ten
+shillings myself!"</p>
+
+<p>"I do want it, though," said Dick; "that's all spent. And you know you
+always <i>have</i> given me money to take back."</p>
+
+<p>"If I do give you some, you'll only go and spend it," grumbled Mr.
+Bultitude, as if he considered money an object of art.</p>
+
+<p>"I shan't spend it all at once, and I shall want some to put in the
+plate on Sundays. We always have to put in the plate when it's a
+collection. And there's the cab to pay."</p>
+
+<p>"Boaler has orders to pay your cab&mdash;as you know well enough," said his
+father, "but I suppose you must have some, though you cost me enough,
+Heaven knows, without this additional expense."</p>
+
+<p>And at this he brought up a fistful of loose silver and gold from one of
+his trouser-pockets, and spread it deliberately out on the table in
+front of him in shining rows.</p>
+
+<p>Dick's eyes sparkled at the sight of so much wealth; for a moment or two
+he almost forgot the pangs of approaching exile in the thought of the
+dignity and credit which a single one of those bright new sovereigns
+would procure for him.</p>
+
+<p>It would ensure him surreptitious luxuries and open friendships as long
+as it lasted. Even Tipping, the head boy of the school, who had gone
+into tails, brought back no more, and besides, the money would bring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+him handsomely out of certain pecuniary difficulties to which an
+unexpected act of parental authority had exposed him; he could easily
+dispose of all claims with such a sum at command, and then his father
+could so easily spare it out of so much!</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Mr. Bultitude, with great care and precision, selected from
+the coins before him a florin, two shillings, and two sixpences, which
+he pushed across to his son, who looked at them with a disappointment he
+did not care to conceal.</p>
+
+<p>"An uncommonly liberal allowance for a young fellow like you," he
+observed. "Don't buy any foolishness with it, and if, towards the end of
+the term you want a little more, and write an intelligible letter asking
+for it, and I think proper to let you have it&mdash;why, you'll get it, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>Dick had not the courage to ask for more, much as he longed to do so, so
+he put the money in his purse with very qualified expressions of
+gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>In his purse he seemed to find something which had escaped his memory,
+for he took out a small parcel and unfolded it with some hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>"I nearly forgot," he said, speaking with more animation than he had yet
+done, "I didn't like to take it without asking you, but is this any use?
+May I have it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eh?" said Mr. Bultitude, sharply, "what's that? Something else&mdash;what is
+it you want now?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's only that stone Uncle Duke brought mamma from India; the thing, he
+said, they called a 'Pagoda stone,' or something, out there."</p>
+
+<p>"Pagoda stone? The boy means Garud&acirc; Stone. I should like to know how you
+got hold of that; you've been meddling in my drawers, now, a thing I
+will not put up with, as I've told you over and over again."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I haven't, then," said Dick, "I found it in a tray in the
+drawing-room, and Barbara said, perhaps, if I asked you, you might let
+me have it, as she didn't think it was any use to you."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p><p>"Then Barbara had no right to say anything of the sort."</p>
+
+<p>"But may I have it? I may, mayn't I?" persisted Dick.</p>
+
+<p>"Have it? certainly not. What could you possibly want with a thing like
+that? It's ridiculous. Give it to me."</p>
+
+<p>Dick handed it over reluctantly enough. It was not much to look at,
+quite an insignificant-looking little square tablet of greyish green
+stone, pierced at one angle, and having on two of its faces faint traces
+of mysterious letters or symbols, which time had made very difficult to
+distinguish.</p>
+
+<p>It looked harmless enough as Mr. Bultitude took it in his hand; there
+was no kindly hand to hold him back, no warning voice to hint that there
+might possibly be sleeping within that small marble block the pent-up
+energy of long-forgotten Eastern necromancy, just as ready as ever to
+awake into action at the first words which had power to evoke it.</p>
+
+<p>There was no one; but even if there had been such a person, Paul
+Bultitude was a sober prosaic individual, who would probably have
+treated the warning as a piece of ridiculous superstition.</p>
+
+<p>As it was, no man could have put himself in a position of extreme peril
+with a more perfect unconsciousness of his danger.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="A_Grand_Transformation_Scene" id="A_Grand_Transformation_Scene"></a>2. <i>A Grand Transformation Scene</i></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center">"Magnaque numinibus vota exaudita malignis."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Paul Bultitude put on his glasses to examine the stone more carefully,
+for it was some time since he had last seen or thought about it. Then he
+looked up and said once more, "What use would a thing like this be to
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>Dick would have considered it a very valuable prize<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> indeed; he could
+have exhibited it to admiring friends&mdash;during lessons, of course, when
+it would prove a most agreeable distraction; he could have played with
+and fingered it incessantly, invented astonishing legends of its powers
+and virtues; and, at last, when he had grown tired of it, have bartered
+it for any more desirable article that might take his fancy. All these
+advantages were present to his mind in a vague shifting form, but he
+could not find either courage or words to explain them.</p>
+
+<p>Consequently he only said awkwardly, "Oh, I don't know, I should like
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, any way," said Paul, "you certainly won't have it. It's worth
+keeping, whatever it is, as the only thing your uncle Marmaduke was ever
+known to give to anybody."</p>
+
+<p>Marmaduke Paradine, his brother-in-law, was not a connection of whom he
+had much reason to feel particularly proud. One of those persons endowed
+with what are known as "insinuating manners and address," he had, after
+some futile attempts to enter the army, been sent out to Bombay as agent
+for a Manchester firm, and in that capacity had contrived to be mixed up
+in some more than shady transactions with rival exporters and native
+dealers up the country, which led to an unceremonious dismissal by his
+employers.</p>
+
+<p>He had brought home the stone from India as a propitiatory token of
+remembrance, more portable and less expensive than the lacquered
+cabinets, brasses, stuffs and carved work which are expected from
+friends at such a distance, and he had been received with pardon and
+started once more, until certain other proceedings of his, shadier
+still, had obliged Paul to forbid him the house at Westbourne Terrace.</p>
+
+<p>Since then little had been heard of him, and the reports which reached
+Mr. Bultitude of his disreputable relative's connection with the
+promotion of a series of companies of the kind affected by the widow and
+curate,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> and exposed in money articles and law courts, gave him no
+desire to renew his acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it a talisman, though?" said Dick, rather unfortunately for any
+hopes he might have of persuading his father to entrust him with the
+coveted treasure.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure I can't tell you," yawned Paul, "how do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, only Uncle Duke once said something about it. Barbara
+heard him tell mamma. I say, perhaps it's like the one in Scott, and
+cures people of things, though I don't think it's that sort of talisman
+either, because I tried it once on my chilblains, and it wasn't a bit of
+good. If you would only let me have it, perhaps I might find out, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"You might," said his father drily, apparently not much influenced by
+this inducement, "but you won't have the chance. If it has a secret, I
+will find it out for myself" (he little knew how literally he was to be
+taken at his word), "and, by the way, there's your cab&mdash;at last."</p>
+
+<p>There was a sound of wheels outside, and, as Dick heard them, he grew
+desperate in his extremity; a wish he had long secretly cherished
+unspoken, without ever hoping for courage to give it words, rose to his
+lips now; he got up and moved timidly towards his father.</p>
+
+<p>"Father," he said, "there's something I want to say to you so much
+before I go. Do let me ask you now."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is it?" said Paul. "Make haste, you haven't much time."</p>
+
+<p>"It's this. I want you to&mdash;to let me leave Grimstone's at the end of the
+term."</p>
+
+<p>Paul stared at him, angry and incredulous, "Let you leave Dr.
+Grimstone's (oblige me by giving him his full title when you speak of
+him)," he said slowly. "Why, what do you mean? It's an excellent
+school&mdash;never saw a better expressed prospectus in my life. And my old
+friend Bangle, Sir Benjamin Bangle, who's a member of the School Board,
+and ought to know <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>something about schools, strongly recommended
+it&mdash;would have sent his own son there, if he hadn't entered him at Eton.
+And when I pay for most of the extras for you too. Dancing, by Gad, and
+meat for breakfast. I'm sure I don't know what you would have."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to go to Marlborough, or Harrow, or somewhere," whimpered
+Dick. "Jolland's going to Harrow at Easter. (Jolland's one of the
+fellows at Grimstone's&mdash;Dr. Grimstone's I mean.) And what does old
+Bangle know about it? He hasn't got to go there himself! And&mdash;and
+Grimstone's jolly enough to fellows he likes, but he doesn't like
+<i>me</i>&mdash;he's always sitting on me for something&mdash;and I hate some of the
+fellows there, and altogether it's beastly. Do let me leave! If you
+don't want me to go to a public school, I&mdash;I could stop at home and have
+a private tutor&mdash;like Joe Twitterley!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's all ridiculous nonsense, I tell you," said Paul angrily,
+"ridiculous nonsense! And, once for all, I'll put a stop to it. I don't
+approve of public schools for boys like you, and, what's more, I can't
+afford it. As for private tutors, that's absurd! So you will just make
+up your mind to stay at Crichton House as long as I think proper to keep
+you there, and there's an end of that!"</p>
+
+<p>At this final blow to all his hopes, Dick began to sob in a subdued
+hopeless kind of way, which was more than his father could bear. To do
+Paul justice, he had not meant to be quite so harsh when the boy was
+about to set out for school, and, a little ashamed of his irritation, he
+sought to justify his decision.</p>
+
+<p>He chose to do this by delivering a short homily on the advantages of
+school, by which he might lead Dick to look on the matter in the calm
+light of reason and common sense, and commonplaces on the subject began
+to rise to the surface of his mind, from the rather muddy depths to
+which they had long since sunk.</p>
+
+<p>He began to give Dick the benefit of all this stagnant wisdom, with a
+feeling of surprise as he went on, at his own powerful and original way
+of putting things.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p><p>"Now, you know, it's no use to cry like that," he began. "It's&mdash;ah&mdash;the
+usual thing for boys at school, I'm quite aware, to go about fancying
+they're very ill-used, and miserable, and all the rest of it, just as if
+people in my position had their sons educated out of spite! It's one of
+those petty troubles all boys have to go through. And you mark my words,
+my boy, when they go out into the world and have real trials to put up
+with, and grow middle-aged men, like me, why, they see what fools
+they've been, Dick; they see what fools they've been. All the&mdash;hum, the
+innocent games and delights of boyhood, and that sort of thing, you
+know&mdash;come back to them&mdash;and then they look back to those hours passed
+at school as the happiest, aye, the very happiest time of their life!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Dick, "then I hope it won't be the happiest time in mine,
+that's all! And you may have been happy at the school you went to,
+perhaps, but I don't believe you would very much care about being a boy
+again like me, and going back to Grimstone's, you know you wouldn't!"</p>
+
+<p>This put Paul on his mettle; he had warmed well to his subject, and
+could not let this open challenge pass unnoticed&mdash;it gave him such an
+opening for a cheap and easy effect.</p>
+
+<p>He still had the stone in his hand as he sank back into his chair,
+smiling with a tolerant superiority.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you will believe me," he said, impressively, "when I tell you,
+old as I am and much as you envy me, I only wish, at this very moment, I
+could be a boy again, like you. Going back to school wouldn't make me
+unhappy, I can tell you."</p>
+
+<p>It is so fatally easy to say more than we mean in the desire to make as
+strong an impression as possible. Well for most of us that&mdash;more
+fortunate than Mr. Bultitude&mdash;we can generally do so without fear of
+being taken too strictly at our word.</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke these unlucky words, he felt a slight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> shiver, followed by a
+curious shrinking sensation all over him. It was odd, too, but the
+arm-chair in which he sat seemed to have grown so much bigger all at
+once. He felt a passing surprise, but concluded it must be fancy, and
+went on as comfortably as before.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like it, my boy, but what's the good of wishing? I only
+mention it to prove that I was not speaking at random. I'm an old man
+and you're a young boy, and, that being so, why, of course&mdash;What the
+dooce are you giggling about?"</p>
+
+<p>For Dick, after some seconds of half-frightened open-mouthed staring,
+had suddenly burst into a violent fit of almost hysterical giggling,
+which he seemed trying vainly to suppress.</p>
+
+<p>This naturally annoyed Mr. Bultitude, and he went on with immense
+dignity, "I&mdash;ah&mdash;I'm not aware that I've been saying anything
+particularly ridiculous. You seem to be amused?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't!" gasped Dick. "It, it isn't anything you're saying&mdash;it's,
+it's&mdash;oh, can't you feel any difference?"</p>
+
+<p>"The sooner you go back to school the better!" said Paul angrily. "I
+wash my hands of you. When I do take the trouble to give you any advice,
+it's received with ridicule. You always were an ill-mannered little cub.
+I've had quite enough of this. Leave the room, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>The wheels must have belonged to some other cab, for none had stopped at
+the pavement as yet; but Mr. Bultitude was justly indignant, and could
+stand the interview no longer. Dick, however, made no attempt to move;
+he remained there, choking and shaking with laughter, while his father
+sat stiffly on his chair, trying to ignore his son's unmannerly conduct,
+but only partially succeeding.</p>
+
+<p>No one can calmly endure watching other people laughing at him like
+idiots, while he is left perfectly incapable of guessing what he has
+said or done to amuse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> them. Even when this is known, it requires a
+peculiarly keen sense of humour to see the point of a joke against
+oneself.</p>
+
+<p>At last his patience gave out, and he said coldly, "Now, perhaps, if you
+are quite yourself again, you will be good enough to let me know what
+the joke is?"</p>
+
+<p>Dick, looking flushed and half-ashamed, tried again and again to speak,
+but each time the attempt was too much for him. After a time he did
+succeed, but his voice was hoarse and shaken with laughter as he spoke.
+"Haven't you found it out yet? Go and look at yourself in the glass&mdash;it
+will make you roar!"</p>
+
+<p>There was the usual narrow sheet of plate glass at the back of the
+sideboard, and to this Mr. Bultitude walked, almost under protest, and
+with a cold dignity. It occurred to him that he might have a smudge on
+his face or something wrong with his collar and tie&mdash;something to
+account to some extent for his son's frivolous and insulting behaviour.
+No suspicion of the terrible truth crossed his mind as yet.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Dick was looking on eagerly with a chuckle of anticipation, as
+one who watches the dawning appreciation of an excellent joke.</p>
+
+<p>But no sooner had Paul met the reflection in the glass than he started
+back in incredulous horror&mdash;then returned and stared again and again.</p>
+
+<p>Surely, surely, this could not be he!</p>
+
+<p>He had expected to see his own familiar portly bow-windowed presence
+there&mdash;but somehow, look as he would, the mirror insisted upon
+reflecting the figure of his son Dick. Could he possibly have become
+invisible and have lost the power of casting a reflection&mdash;or how was it
+that Dick, and only Dick, was to be seen there?</p>
+
+<p>How was it, too, when he looked round, there was the boy still sitting
+there? It could not be Dick, evidently, that he saw in the glass.
+Besides, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> reflection opposite him moved when he moved, returned when
+he returned, copied his every gesture!</p>
+
+<p>He turned round upon his son with angry and yet hopeful suspicion. "You,
+you've been playing some of your infernal tricks with this mirror, sir,"
+he cried fiercely. "What have you done to it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Done! how could I do anything to it? As if you didn't know that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then," stammered Paul, determined to know the worst, "then do you, do
+you mean to tell me you can see any&mdash;alteration in me? Tell me the truth
+now!"</p>
+
+<p>"I should just think I could!" said Dick emphatically. "It's very queer,
+but just look here," and he came up to the sideboard and placed himself
+by the side of his horrified father. "Why," he said, with another
+giggle, "we're&mdash;he-he&mdash;as like as two peas!"</p>
+
+<p>They were indeed; the glass reflected now two small boys, each with
+chubby cheeks and auburn hair, both dressed, too, exactly alike, in Eton
+jackets and broad white collars; the only difference to be seen between
+them was that, while one face wore an expression of intense glee and
+satisfaction, the other&mdash;the one which Mr. Bultitude was beginning to
+fear must belong to him&mdash;was lengthened and drawn with dismay and
+bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick," said Paul faintly, "what is all this? Who has been, been taking
+these liberties with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure I don't know," protested Dick. "It wasn't me. I believe you
+did it all yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Did it all myself!" repeated Paul indignantly. "Is it likely I should?
+It's some trickery, I tell you, some villainous plot. The worst of it
+is," he added plaintively, "I don't understand who I'm supposed to be
+now. Dick, who am I?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't be me," said Dick, "because here I am, you know. And you're
+not yourself, that's very plain. You must be <i>somebody</i>, I suppose," he
+added dubiously.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p><p>"Of course I am. What do you mean?" said Paul angrily. "Never mind who
+I am. I feel just the same as I always did. Tell me when you first began
+to notice any change. Could you see it coming on at all, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was all at once, just as you were talking about school and all that.
+You said you only wished&mdash;&mdash; Why of course; look here, it must be the
+stone that did it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Stone! what stone?" said Paul. "I don't know what you're talking
+about."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you do&mdash;the Garud&acirc; Stone! You've got it in your hand still. Don't
+you see? It's a real talisman after all! How jolly!"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't do anything to set it off; and besides, oh, it's perfectly
+absurd! How can there be such things as talismans nowadays, eh? Tell me
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, something's happened to you, hasn't it? And it must have been
+done somehow," argued Dick.</p>
+
+<p>"I was holding the confounded thing, certainly," said Paul, "here it is.
+But what could I have said to start it? What has it done this to me
+for?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know!" cried Dick. "Don't you remember? You said you wished you were
+a boy again, like me. So you are, you see, exactly like me! What a lark
+it is, isn't it? But, I say, you can't go up to business like that, you
+know, can you? I tell you what, you'd better come to Grimstone's with me
+now, and see how you like it. I shouldn't mind so much if you came too.
+Grimstone's face would be splendid when he saw two of us. Do come!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's ridiculous nonsense you're talking," said Paul, "and you know
+it. What should I do at school at my age? I tell you I'm the same as
+ever inside, though I may have shrunk into a little rascally boy to look
+at. And it's simply an abominable nuisance, Dick, that's what it is! Why
+on earth couldn't you let the stone alone? Just see what mischief
+you've<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> done by meddling now&mdash;put me to all this inconvenience!"</p>
+
+<p>"You shouldn't have wished," said Dick.</p>
+
+<p>"Wished!" echoed Mr. Bultitude. "Why, to be sure," he said, with a gleam
+of returning hopefulness, "of course&mdash;I never thought of that. The
+thing's a wishing stone; it must be! You have to hold it, I suppose, and
+then say what you wish aloud, and there you are. If that's the case, I
+can soon put it all right by simply wishing myself back again. I&mdash;I
+shall have a good laugh at all this by and by&mdash;I know I shall!"</p>
+
+<p>He took the stone, and got into a corner by himself where he began
+repeating the words, "I wish I was back again," "I wish I was the man I
+was five minutes ago," "I wish all this had not happened," and so on,
+until he was very exhausted and red in the face. He tried with the stone
+held in his left hand, as well as his right, sitting and standing, under
+all the various conditions he could think of, but absolutely nothing
+came of it; he was just as exasperatingly boyish and youthful as ever at
+the end of it.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like this," he said at last, giving it up with a rather
+crestfallen air. "It seems to me that this diabolical invention has got
+out of order somehow; I can't make it work any more!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," suggested Dick, who had shown throughout the most
+unsympathetic cheerfulness, "perhaps it's one of those talismans that
+only give you one wish, and you've had it, you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's all over!" groaned Paul. "What the dooce am I to do? What
+shall I do? Suggest something, for Heaven's sake; don't stand cackling
+there in that unfeeling manner. Can't you see what a terrible, mess I've
+got into? Suppose&mdash;only suppose your sister or one of the servants were
+to come in, and see me like this!"</p>
+
+<p>This suggestion simply enchanted Dick. "Let's have 'em all up," he
+laughed; "it would be such fun! How<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> they will laugh when we tell them!"
+And he rushed to the bell.</p>
+
+<p>"Touch that bell if you dare!" screamed Paul. "I won't be seen in this
+condition by anybody! What on earth could have induced that scoundrelly
+uncle of yours to bring such a horrible thing as this over I can't
+imagine! I never heard of such a situation as this in my life. I can't
+stay like this, you know&mdash;it's not to be thought of! I&mdash;I wonder whether
+it would be any use to send over to Dr. Bustard and ask him to step in;
+he might give me something to bring me round. But then the whole
+neighbourhood would hear about it! If I don't see my way out of this
+soon, I shall go raving mad!"</p>
+
+<p>And he paced restlessly up and down the room with his brain on fire.</p>
+
+<p>All at once, as he became able to think more coherently, there occurred
+to him a chance, slender and desperate enough, but still a chance, of
+escaping even yet the consequences of his folly.</p>
+
+<p>He was forced to conclude that, however improbable and fantastic it
+might appear in this rationalistic age, there must be some hidden power
+in this Garud&acirc; Stone which had put him in his present very unpleasant
+position. It was plain too that the virtues of the talisman refused to
+exert themselves any more at his bidding.</p>
+
+<p>But it did not follow that in another's hands the spell would remain as
+powerless. At all events, it was an experiment well worth the trial, and
+he lost no time in explaining the notion to Dick, who, by the sparkle in
+his eyes and suppressed excitement in his manner, seemed to think there
+might be something in it.</p>
+
+<p>"I may as well try," he said, "give it to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Take it, my dear boy," said Paul, with a paternal air that sorely tried
+Dick's recovered gravity, it contrasted so absurdly with his altered
+appearance. "Take it, and wish your poor old father himself again!"</p>
+
+<p>Dick took it, and held it thoughtfully for some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> moments, while Paul
+waited in nervous impatience. "Isn't it any use?" he said dolefully at
+last, as nothing happened.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Dick calmly, "I haven't wished yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Then do so at once," said Paul fussily, "do so at once. There's no time
+to waste, every moment is of importance&mdash;your cab will be here directly.
+Although, although I'm altered in this ridiculous way, I hope I still
+retain my authority as a father, and as a father, by Gad, I expect you
+to obey me, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, all right," said Dick indifferently, "you may keep the authority if
+you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Then do what I tell you. Can't you see how urgent it is that a scandal
+like this shouldn't get about? I should be the laughing-stock of the
+city. Not a soul must ever guess that such a thing has happened. You
+must see that yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Dick, who all this time was sitting on a corner of the
+table, swinging his legs, "I see that. It will be all right. I'm going
+to wish in a minute, and no one will guess there has been anything the
+matter."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a good boy!" said Paul, much relieved, "I know your heart is in
+the right place&mdash;only do make haste."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," Dick asked, "when you are yourself again, things would go
+on just as usual?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I hope so."</p>
+
+<p>"I mean you will go on sitting here, and I shall go off to Grimstone's?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course," said Paul; "don't ask so many questions. I'm
+sure you quite understand what has to be done, so get on. We might be
+found like this any minute."</p>
+
+<p>"That settles it," said Dick, "any fellow would do it after that."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, but you're so slow about it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be in a hurry," said Dick, "you mayn't like it after all when
+I've done it."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p><p>"Done what?" asked Mr. Bultitude sharply, struck by something sinister
+and peculiar in the boy's manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't mind telling you," said Dick, "it's fairer. You see, you
+wished to be a boy just like me, didn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mean it," protested Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you couldn't expect a stone to know that; at any rate, it made you
+into a boy like me directly. Now, if I wish myself a man just like you
+were ten minutes ago, before you took the stone, that will put things
+all right again, won't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is the boy mad?" cried Paul, horrified at this proposal. "Why, why,
+that would be worse than ever!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see that," objected Dick, stubbornly. "No one would know
+anything about it then."</p>
+
+<p>"But, you little blockhead, can't I make you understand? It wouldn't do
+at all. We should both of us be wrong then&mdash;each with the other's
+personal appearance."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Dick blandly, "I shouldn't mind that."</p>
+
+<p>"But I should&mdash;I mind very much. I object strongly to such a&mdash;such a
+preposterous arrangement. And what's more, I won't have it. Do you hear,
+I forbid you to think of any such thing. Give me back that stone. I
+can't trust you with it after this."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help it," said Dick doggedly. "You've had your wish, and I
+don't see why I shouldn't have mine. I mean to have it, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you unnatural little rascal!" cried the justly-enraged father, "do
+you mean to defy me? I tell you I will have that stone! Give it up this
+instant!" and he made a movement towards his son, as if he meant to
+recover the talisman by main force.</p>
+
+<p>But Dick was too quick for him. Slipping off the table with great
+agility, he planted himself firmly on the hearth-rug, with the hand that
+held the stone clenched behind his back, and the other raised in
+self-defence.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd much rather you wouldn't make me hit you, you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> know," he said,
+"because, in spite of what's happened, you're still my father, I
+suppose. But if you interfere with me before I've done with this stone,
+I'm afraid I shall have to punch your head."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude retreated a few steps apprehensively, feeling himself no
+match for his son, except in size and general appearance; and for some
+moments of really frightful intensity they stood panting on the
+hearth-rug, each cautiously watching the other, on his guard against
+stratagem and surprise.</p>
+
+<p>It was one of those painful domestic scenes which are fortunately rare
+between father and son.</p>
+
+<p>Overhead, the latest rollicking French polka was being rattled out, with
+a savage irony of which pianos, even by the best makers, can at times be
+capable.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Dick drew himself up. "Stand out of my way!" he cried
+excitedly, "I am going to do it. I wish I was a man like you were just
+now!"</p>
+
+<p>And as he spoke, Mr. Bultitude had the bitterness of seeing his
+unscrupulous son swell out like the frog in the fable, till he stood
+there before him the exact duplicate of what Paul had so lately been!</p>
+
+<p>The transformed Dick began to skip and dance round the room in high
+glee, with as much agility as his increased bulk would allow. "It's all
+right, you see," he said. "The old stone's as good as ever. You can't
+say anyone would ever know, to look at us."</p>
+
+<p>And then he threw himself panting into a chair, and began to laugh
+excitedly at the success of his unprincipled man&oelig;uvres.</p>
+
+<p>As for Paul, he was perfectly furious at having been so outwitted and
+overreached. It was a long time before he could command his voice
+sufficiently to say, savagely: "Well, you've had your way, and a pretty
+mess you've made of it. We're both of us in false positions now. I hope
+you're satisfied, I'm sure. Do you think you'll care about going back to
+Crichton House in that state?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p><p>"No," said Dick, very decidedly: "I'm quite sure I shouldn't."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can't help it. You've brought it on yourself; and, provided the
+Doctor sees no objection to take you back as you are and receive you as
+one of his pupils, I shall most certainly send you there."</p>
+
+<p>Paul did not really mean this, he only meant to frighten him; for he
+still trusted that, by letting Boaler into the secret, the charm might
+be set in motion once more, and the difficulty comfortably overcome. But
+his threat had a most unfortunate effect upon Dick; it hardened him to
+take a course he might otherwise have shrunk from.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," he said, "you're going to do that? But doesn't it strike you that
+things are rather altered with us now?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are, to a certain extent, of course," said Paul, "through my folly
+and your wicked cunning; but a word or two of explanation from me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find it will take more explanation than you think," said Dick;
+"but, of course, you can try, if you think it worth while&mdash;when you get
+to Grimstone's."</p>
+
+<p>"When I,&mdash;I don't understand. When I,&mdash;what did you say?" gasped Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you see," exclaimed Dick, "it would never have done for us both to
+go back; the chaps would have humbugged us so, and as I hate the place
+and you seem so fond of being a boy and going back to school and that, I
+thought perhaps it would be best for you to go and see how you liked
+it!"</p>
+
+<p>"I never will! I'll not stir from this room! I dare you to try to move
+me!" cried Paul. And just then there was the sound of wheels outside
+once more. They stopped before the house, the bell rang sharply&mdash;the
+long-expected cab had come at last.</p>
+
+<p>"You've no time to lose," said Dick, "get your coat on."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude tried to treat the affair as a joke. He laughed a ghastly
+little laugh.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p><p>"Ha! ha! you've fairly caught your poor father this time; you've proved
+him in the wrong. I admit I said more than I exactly meant. But that's
+enough. Don't drive a good joke too far; shake hands, and let us see if
+we can't find a way out of this!"</p>
+
+<p>But Dick only warmed his coat tails at the fire as he said, with a very
+ungenerous reminiscence of his father's manner: "You are going back to
+an excellent establishment, where you will enjoy all the comforts of
+home&mdash;I can specially recommend the stickjaw; look out for it on
+Tuesdays and Fridays. You will once more take part in the games and
+lessons of happy boyhood. (Did you ever play 'chevy' when you were a boy
+before? You'll enjoy chevy.) And you will find your companions easy
+enough to get on with, if you don't go giving yourself airs; they won't
+stand airs. Now good-bye, my boy, and bless you!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul stood staring stupidly at this outrageous assumption; he could
+scarcely believe yet that it was meant in cruel earnest. Before he could
+answer, the door opened and Boaler appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Had a deal of trouble to find a keb, sir, on a night like this," he
+said to the false Dick, "but the luggage is all on top, and the man says
+there's plenty of time still."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye then, my boy," said Dick, with well-assumed tenderness, but a
+rather dangerous light in his eye. "My compliments to the Doctor,
+remember."</p>
+
+<p>Paul turned indignantly from him to the butler; he, at least, would
+stand by him. Boaler would not see a master who had always been fair, if
+not indulgent, to him driven from his home in this cold-blooded manner!</p>
+
+<p>He made two or three attempts to speak, for his brain whirled so with
+scathing, burning things to say. He would expose the fraud then and
+there, and defy the impudent usurper; he would warn every one against
+this spurious pinchbeck imitation of himself. The whole household should
+be summoned and called upon to judge between the two!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p><p>No doubt, if he had had enough self-command to do all this effectually,
+while Dick had as yet not had the time thoroughly to adapt himself to
+his altered circumstances, he might have turned the situation at the
+outset, and spared himself some very painful experiences.</p>
+
+<p>But it is very often precisely those words which are the most vitally
+important to be said that refuse to pass our lips on a sudden emergency.
+We feel all the necessity of saying something at once, but the necessary
+words unaccountably desert us at the critical moment.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude felt himself in this unfortunate position. He made more
+wild efforts to explain, but the sense of his danger only petrified his
+mind instead of stimulating it. Then he was spared further conflict. A
+dark mist rose before his eyes; the walls of the room receded into
+infinite space; and, with a loud singing in his ears, he fell, and
+seemed to himself to be sinking down, down, through the earth to the
+very crust of the antipodes. Then the blackness closed over him&mdash;and he
+knew no more.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="In_the_Toils" id="In_the_Toils"></a>3. <i>In the Toils</i></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I beseech you let his lack of years be no impediment to let him
+lack a reverend estimation, for I never knew so young a body with
+so old a head."&mdash;<i>Merchant of Venice</i>, Act iv.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>When Mr. Bultitude recovered his senses, which was not for a
+considerable time, he found that he was being jolted along through a
+broad well-lit thoroughfare, in a musty four-wheeler.</p>
+
+<p>His head was by no means clear yet, and for some minutes he could hardly
+be said to think at all; he merely lay back dreamily listening to the
+hard grinding jar of the cab windows vibrating in their grooves.</p>
+
+<p>His first distinct sensation was a vague wonder what Barbara might be
+intending to give him for dinner,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> for, oddly enough, he felt far from
+hungry, and was conscious that his palate would require the adroitest
+witching.</p>
+
+<p>With the thought of dinner his dining-room was almost inseparably
+associated, and then, with an instant rush of recollection, the whole
+scene there with the Garud&acirc; Stone surged into his brain. He shuddered as
+he did so; it had all been so real, so hideously vivid and coherent
+throughout. But all unpleasant impressions soon yielded to the delicious
+luxury of his present security.</p>
+
+<p>As his last conscious moment had been passed in his own dining-room, the
+fact that he opened his eyes in a cab, instead of confirming his worst
+fears, actually helped to restore the unfortunate gentleman's serenity;
+for he frequently drove home from the city in this manner, and believed
+himself now, instead of being, as was actually the case, in that
+marvellous region of cheap photography, rocking-horses, mild stone
+lions, and wheels and ladders&mdash;the Euston Road&mdash;to be bowling along
+Holborn.</p>
+
+<p>Now that he was thoroughly awake he found positive amusement in going
+over each successive incident of his nightmare experience with the
+talisman, and smiling at the tricks his imagination had played him.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder now how the dickens I came to dream such outrageous nonsense!"
+he said to himself, for even his dreams were, as a rule, within the
+bounds of probability. But he was not long in tracing it to the devilled
+kidneys he had had at the club for lunch, and some curious old brown
+sherry Robinson had given him afterwards at his office.</p>
+
+<p>"Gad, what a shock the thing has given me!" he thought. "I can hardly
+shake off the feeling even now."</p>
+
+<p>As a rule, after waking up on the verge of a fearful crisis, the effect
+of the horror fades swiftly away, as one detail after another evades a
+memory which is never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> too anxious to retain them, and each moment
+brings a deeper sense of relief and self-congratulation.</p>
+
+<p>But in Paul's case, curiously enough, as he could not help thinking, the
+more completely roused he became, the greater grew his uneasiness.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the first indication of the truth was suggested to him by a
+lurking suspicion&mdash;which he tried to dismiss as mere fancy&mdash;that he
+filled rather less of the cab than he had always been accustomed to do.</p>
+
+<p>To reassure himself he set his thoughts to review all the proceedings of
+that day, feeling that if he could satisfactorily account for the time
+up to his taking the cab, that would be conclusive as to the unreality
+of any thing that appeared to have happened later in his own house. He
+got on well enough till he came to the hour at which he had left the
+office, and then, search his memory as he would, he could not remember
+hailing any cab!</p>
+
+<p>Could it be another delusion, too, or was it the fact that he had found
+himself much pressed for time and had come home by the Underground to
+Praed Street? It must have been the day before, but that was Sunday.
+Saturday, then? But the recollection seemed too recent and fresh; and
+besides, on Saturday, he had left at two, and had taken Barbara to see
+Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke's performance.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly, insidiously, but with irresistible force, the conviction crept
+upon him that he had dined, and dined well.</p>
+
+<p>"If I have dined already," he told himself, "I can't be going home to
+dinner; and if I am not going home to dinner, what&mdash;what am I doing in
+this cab?"</p>
+
+<p>The bare idea that something might be wrong with him after all made him
+impatient to put an end to all suspense. He must knock this scotched
+nightmare once for all on the head by a deliberate appeal to his senses.</p>
+
+<p>The cab had passed the lighted shops now, and was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> driving between
+squares and private houses, so that Mr. Bultitude had to wait until the
+sickly rays of a street lamp glanced into the cab for a moment, and, as
+they did so, he put his feet up on the opposite seat and examined his
+boots and trousers with breathless eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>It was not to be denied; they were not his ordinary boots, nor did he
+ever wear such trousers as he saw above them! Always a careful and
+punctiliously neat person, he was more than commonly exacting concerning
+the make and polish of his boots and the set of his trousers.</p>
+
+<p>These boots were clumsy, square-toed, and thick-soled; one was even
+patched on the side. The trousers were heavy and rough, of the kind
+advertised as "wear-resisting fabrics, suitable for youths at school,"
+frayed at the ends, and shiny&mdash;shamefully shiny&mdash;about the knees!</p>
+
+<p>In hot despair he rapidly passed his hands over his body. It felt
+unusually small and slim, Mr. Bultitude being endowed with what is
+euphemistically termed a "presence," and it was with an agony rarely
+felt at such a discovery that he realised that, for the first time for
+more than twenty years, he actually had a waist.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as a last resource, he took off his hat and felt for the broad,
+smooth, egg-like surface, garnished by scanty side patches of thin hair,
+which he knew he ought to find.</p>
+
+<p>It was gone&mdash;hidden under a crop of thick close curling locks!</p>
+
+<p>This last disappointment completely overcame him; he had a kind of short
+fit in the cab as the bitter truth was brought home to him unmistakably.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, this was no dream of a distempered digestion, but sober reality.
+The whole of that horrible scene in the dining-room had really taken
+place; and now he, Paul Bultitude, the widely-respected merchant of
+Mincing Lane, a man of means and position, was being ignominiously
+packed off to school as if he were actually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> the schoolboy some hideous
+juggle had made him appear!</p>
+
+<p>It was only with a violent effort that he could succeed in commanding
+his thoughts sufficiently to decide on some immediate action. "I must be
+cool," he kept muttering to himself, with shaking lips, "quite cool and
+collected. Everything will depend on that now!"</p>
+
+<p>It was some comfort to him in this extremity to recognise on the box the
+well-known broad back of Clegg, a cabman who stabled his two horses in
+some mews near Praed Street, and whom he had been accustomed to
+patronise in bad weather for several years.</p>
+
+<p>Clegg would know him, in spite of his ridiculous transformation.</p>
+
+<p>His idea was to stop the cab, and turn round and drive home again, when
+they would find that he was not to be got rid of again quite so easily.
+If Dick imagined he meant to put up tamely with this kind of treatment,
+he was vastly mistaken; he would return home boldly and claim his
+rights!</p>
+
+<p>No reasonable person could be perverse enough to doubt his identity when
+once matters came to the proof; though at first, of course, he might
+find a difficulty in establishing it. His children, his clerks, and his
+servants would soon get used to his appearance, and would learn to look
+below the mere surface, and then there was always the possibility of
+putting everything right by means of the magic stone.</p>
+
+<p>"I won't lose a minute!" he said aloud; and letting down the window,
+leaned out and shouted "Stop!" till he was hoarse.</p>
+
+<p>But Clegg either could not or would not hear; he drove on at full speed,
+a faster rate of progress than that adopted by most drivers of
+four-wheeled cabs being one of his chief recommendations.</p>
+
+<p>They were now passing Euston. It was a muggy, slushy night, with a thin
+brown fog wreathing the houses and fading away above their tops into a
+dull,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> slate-blue sky. The wet street looked like a black canal; the
+blurred forms, less like vehicles than nondescript boats, moving over
+its inky surface, were indistinctly reflected therein; the gas-lights
+flared redly through the murky haze. It was not a pleasant evening in
+which to be out-of-doors.</p>
+
+<p>Paul would have opened the cab-door and jumped out had he dared, but his
+nerve failed him, and, indeed, considering the speed of the cab, the
+leap would have been dangerous to a far more active person. So he was
+forced to wait resignedly until the station should be reached, when he
+determined to make Clegg understand his purpose with as little loss of
+time as possible.</p>
+
+<p>"I must pay him something extra," he thought; "I'll give him a sovereign
+to take me back." And he searched his pockets for the loose coin he
+usually carried about with him in such abundance; there was no gold in
+any of them.</p>
+
+<p>He found, however, a variety of minor and less negotiable articles,
+which he fished out one by one from unknown depths&mdash;a curious
+collection. There was a stumpy German-silver pencil case, a broken prism
+from a crystal chandelier, a gilded Jew's harp, a little book in which
+the leaves on being turned briskly, gave a semblance of motion to the
+sails of a black windmill drawn therein, a broken tin soldier, some
+Hong-Kong coppers with holes in them, and a quantity of little cogged
+wheels from the inside of a watch; while a further search was rewarded
+by an irregular lump of toffee imperfectly enfolded in sticky brown
+paper.</p>
+
+<p>He threw the whole of these treasures out of the window with
+indescribable disgust, and, feeling something like a purse in a side
+pocket, opened it eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>It held five shillings exactly, the coins corresponding to those he had
+pushed across to his son such a little while ago! It did not seem to him
+quite such a magnificent sum now as it had done then; he had shifted his
+point of view.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p><p>It was too clear that the stone must have carried out his thoughtless
+wish with scrupulous and conscientious exactness in every detail. He had
+wanted, or said he wanted, to be a boy again like Dick, and accordingly
+he had become a perfect duplicate, even to the contents of the pockets.
+Evidently nothing on the face of things showed the slightest difference.
+Yet&mdash;and here lay the sting of the metamorphosis&mdash;he was conscious under
+it all of being his old original self, in utter discordance with the
+youthful form in which he was an unwilling prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the cab had driven up the sharp incline, and under the high
+pointed archway of St. Pancras terminus, and now drew up with a jerk
+against the steps leading to the booking office.</p>
+
+<p>Paul sprang out at once in a violent passion. "Here, you, Clegg!" he
+said, "why the devil didn't you pull up when I told you? eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Clegg was a burly, red-faced man, with a husky voice and a general
+manner which conveyed the impression that he regarded teetotalism, as a
+principle, with something more than disapproval.</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't I pull up?" he said, bending stiffly down from his box.
+"'Cause I didn't want to lose a good customer, that's why I didn't pull
+up!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say you don't know me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Know yer?" said Clegg, with an approach to sentiment: "I've knowed yer
+when you was a babby in frocks. I've knowed yer fust nuss (and a fine
+young woman she were till she took to drinking, as has been the ruin of
+many). I've knowed yer in Infancy's hour and in yer byhood's bloom! I've
+druv yer to this 'ere werry station twice afore. Know yer!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul saw the uselessness of arguing with him. "Then, ah&mdash;drive me back
+at once. Let those boxes alone. I&mdash;I've important business at home which
+I'd forgotten."</p>
+
+<p>Clegg gave a vinous wink. "Lor, yer at it agin," he said with
+admiration. "What a artful young limb it is!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> But it ain't what yer may
+call good enough, so to speak, it ain't. Clegg don't do that no more!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't do what?" asked Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't drive no young gents as is a-bein' sent to school back agin into
+their family's bosims," said Clegg sententiously. "You was took ill
+sudden in my cab the larst time. Offal bad you was, to be sure&mdash;to hear
+ye, and I druv' yer back; and I never got no return fare, I didn't, and
+yer par he made hisself downright nasty over it, said as if it occurred
+agin he shouldn't employ me no more. I durstn't go and offend yer par;
+he's a good customer to me, he is."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll give you a sovereign to do it," said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"If yer wouldn't tell no tales, I might put yer down at the corner
+p'raps," said Clegg, hesitating, to Paul's joy; "not as it ain't cheap
+at that, but let's see yer suffering fust. Why," he cried with lofty
+contempt as he saw from Paul's face that the coin was not producible,
+"y'ain't got no suffering! Garn away, and don't try to tempt a pore
+cabby as has his livin' to make. What d'ye think of this, porter, now?
+'Ere's a young gent a tryin' to back out o' going to school when he
+ought to be glad and thankful as he's receivin' the blessin's of a good
+eddication. Look at me. I'm a 'ard-workin' man. I am. I ain't 'ad no
+eddication. The kids, they're a learnin' French, and free'and drorin,
+and the bones on a skellington at the Board School, and I pays my
+coppers down every week cheerful. And why, porter? Why, young master?
+'Cause I knows the vally on it! But when I sees a real young gent a
+despisin' of the oppertoonities as a bountiful Providence and a
+excellent par has 'eaped on his 'ed, it&mdash;it makes me sick, it inspires
+Clegg with a pity and a contemp' for such ingratitood, which he cares
+not for to 'ide from public voo!"</p>
+
+<p>Clegg delivered this harangue with much gesture and in a loud tone,
+which greatly edified the porters and disgusted Mr. Bultitude.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p><p>"Go away," said the latter, "that's enough. You're drunk!"</p>
+
+<p>"Drunk!" bellowed the outraged Clegg, rising on the box in his wrath.
+"'Ear that. 'Ark at this 'ere young cock sparrer as tells a fam'ly man
+like Clegg as he's drunk! Drunk, after drivin' his par in this 'ere
+werry cab through frost and fine fifteen year and more! I wonder yer
+don't say the old 'orse is drunk; you'll be sayin' that next! Drunk! oh,
+cert'nly, by all means. Never you darken my cab doors no more. I shall
+take and tell your par, I shall. Drunk, indeed! A ill-conditioned young
+wiper as ever I see. Drunk! yah!"</p>
+
+<p>And with much cursing and growling, Clegg gathered up his reins and
+drove off into the fog, Boaler having apparently pre-paid the fare.</p>
+
+<p>"Where for, sir, please?" said a porter, who had been putting the
+playbox and portmanteau on a truck during the altercation.</p>
+
+<p>"Nowhere," said Mr. Bultitude. "I&mdash;I'm not going by this train; find me
+a cab with a sober driver."</p>
+
+<p>The porter looked round. A moment before there had been several cabs
+discharging their loads at the steps; now the last had rolled away
+empty.</p>
+
+<p>"You might find one inside the station by the arrival platform," he
+suggested; "but there'll be sure to be one comin' up here in another
+minute, sir, if you like to wait."</p>
+
+<p>Paul thought the other course might be the longer one, and decided to
+stay where he was. So he walked into the lofty hall in which the booking
+offices are placed and waited there by the huge fire that blazed in the
+stove until he should hear the cab arrive which could take him back to
+Westbourne Terrace.</p>
+
+<p>One or two trains were about to start, and the place was full. There
+were several Cambridge men "going up" after the Christmas vacation, in
+every variety of ulster; some tugging at refractory white terriers, one
+or two entrusting bicycles to dubious porters with many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> cautions and
+directions. There were burly old farmers going back to their quiet
+countryside, flushed with the prestige of a successful stand under
+cross-examination in some witness-box at the Law Courts; to tell and
+retell the story over hill and dale, in the market-place and
+bar-parlour, every week for the rest of their honest lives. There was
+the usual pantomime "rally" on a mild scale, with real frantic
+passengers, and porters, and trucks, and trays of lighted lamps.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, out of the crowd and confusion, a small boy in a thick pilot
+jacket and an immensely tall hat, whom Paul had observed looking at him
+intently for some time, walked up to the stove and greeted him
+familiarly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Bultitude!" he said, "I thought it was you. Here we are again,
+eh? Ugh!" and he giggled dismally.</p>
+
+<p>He was a pale-faced boy with freckles, very light green eyes, long,
+rather ragged black hair, a slouching walk, and a smile half-simpering,
+half-impudent.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude was greatly staggered by the presumption of so small a boy
+venturing to address him in this way. He could only stare haughtily.</p>
+
+<p>"You might find a word to say to a fellow!" said the boy in an aggrieved
+tone. "Look here; come and get your luggage labelled."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want it labelled," said Paul stiffly, feeling bound to say
+something. "I'm waiting for a cab to take me home again."</p>
+
+<p>The other gave a loud whistle. "That'll make it rather a short term,
+won't it, if you're going home for the holidays already? You're a cool
+chap, Bultitude! If I were to go back to my governor now, he wouldn't
+see it. It would put him in no end of a bait. But you're chaffing&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Paul walked away from him with marked coolness. He was not going to
+trouble himself to talk to his son's schoolfellows.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p><p>"Aren't you well?" said the boy, not at all discouraged by his
+reception, following him and taking his arm. "Down in the mouth? It is
+beastly, isn't it, having to go back to old Grimstone's! The snow gave
+us an extra week, though&mdash;we've that much to be thankful for. I wish it
+was the first day of the holidays again, don't you? What's the matter
+with you? What have I done to put you in a wax?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at present," said Paul. "I don't speak to you merely because I
+don't happen to have the&mdash;ah&mdash;pleasure of your acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well, then; I daresay you know best," said the other huffily.
+"Only I thought&mdash;considering we came the same half, and have been chums,
+and always sat next one another ever since&mdash;you might perhaps just
+recollect having met me before, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't," said Mr. Bultitude. "I tell you I haven't the least
+idea what your name is. The fact is there has been a slight mistake,
+which I can't stop to talk about now. There's a cab just driven up
+outside now. You must excuse me, really, my boy, I want to go."</p>
+
+<p>He tried to work his arm free from the close and affectionate grip of
+his unwelcome companion, who was regarding him with a sort of admiring
+leer.</p>
+
+<p>"What a fellow you are, Bultitude!" he said; "always up to something or
+other. You know me well enough. What is the use of keeping it up any
+longer? Let's talk, and stop humbugging. How much grub have you brought
+back this time?"</p>
+
+<p>To be advised to stop humbugging, and be persecuted with such idle
+questions as these, maddened the poor gentleman. A hansom really had
+rolled up to the steps outside. He must put an end to this waste of
+precious time, and escape from this highly inconvenient small boy.</p>
+
+<p>He forced his way to the door, the boy still keeping fast hold of his
+arm. Fortunately the cab was still there, and its late occupant, a tall,
+broad man, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> standing with his back to them paying the driver. Paul
+was only just in time.</p>
+
+<p>"Porter!" he cried. "Where's that porter? I want my box put on that cab.
+No, I don't care about the luggage; engage the cab. Now, you little
+ruffian, are you going to let me go? Can't you see I'm anxious to get
+away?"</p>
+
+<p>Jolland giggled more impishly than ever. "Well, you <i>have</i> got cheek!"
+he said. "Go on, I wish you may get that cab, I'm sure!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul, thus released, was just hurrying towards the cab, when the
+stranger who had got out of it settled the fare with satisfaction to
+himself and turned sharply round.</p>
+
+<p>The gas-light fell full on his face, and Mr. Bultitude recognised that
+the form and features were those of no stranger&mdash;he had stumbled upon
+the very last person he had expected or desired to meet just then&mdash;his
+flight was intercepted by his son's schoolmaster, Dr. Grimstone himself!</p>
+
+<p>The suddenness of the shock threw him completely off his balance. In an
+ordinary way the encounter would not of course have discomposed him, but
+now he would have given worlds for presence of mind enough either to
+rush past to the cab and secure his only chance of freedom before the
+Doctor had fully realised his intention, or else greet him affably and
+calmly, and, taking him quietly aside, explain his awkward position with
+an easy man-of-the-world air, which would ensure instant conviction.</p>
+
+<p>But both courses were equally impossible. He stood there, right in Dr.
+Grimstone's path, with terrified starting eyes and quivering limbs, more
+like an unhappy guinea-pig expecting the advances of a boa, than a
+British merchant in the presence of his son's schoolmaster! He was sick
+and faint with alarm, and the consciousness that appearances were all
+against him.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing in the least extraordinary in the fact of the Doctor's
+presence at the station. Mr. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>Bultitude might easily have taken this
+into account as a very likely contingency and have provided accordingly,
+had he troubled to think, for it was Dr. Grimstone's custom, upon the
+first day of the term, to come up to town and meet as many of his pupils
+upon the platform as intended to return by a train previously specified
+at the foot of the school-bills; and Paul had even expressly insisted
+upon Dick's travelling under surveillance in this manner, thinking it
+necessary to keep him out of premature mischief.</p>
+
+<p>It makes a calamity doubly hard to bear when one looks back and sees by
+what a trivial chance it has come upon us, and how slight an effort
+would have averted it altogether; and Mr. Bultitude cursed his own
+stupidity as he stood there, rooted to the ground, and saw the hansom (a
+"patent safety" to him in sober earnest) drive off and abandon him to
+his fate.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grimstone bore down heavily upon him and Jolland, who had by this
+time come up. He was a tall and imposing personage, with a strong black
+beard and small angry grey eyes, slightly blood-tinged; he wore garments
+of a semi-clerical cut and colour, though he was not in orders. He held
+out a hand to each with elaborate geniality.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, Bultitude, my boy, how are you? How are you, Jolland? Come back
+braced in body and mind by your vacation, eh? That's as it should be.
+Have you tickets? No? follow me then. You're both over age, I believe.
+There you are; take care of them."</p>
+
+<p>And before Paul could protest, he had purchased tickets for all three,
+after which he laid an authoritative hand upon Mr. Bultitude's shoulder
+and walked him out through the booking hall upon the platform.</p>
+
+<p>"This is awful," thought Paul, shrinking involuntarily; "simply awful.
+He evidently has no idea who I really am. Unless I'm very careful I
+shall be dragged off to Crichton House before I can put him right. If I
+could only get him away alone somewhere."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p><p>As if in answer to the wish, the Doctor guided him by a slight pressure
+straight along by the end of the station, saying to Jolland as he did
+so, "I wish to have a little serious conversation with Richard in
+private. Suppose you go to the bookstall and see if you can find out any
+of our young friends. Tell them to wait for me there."</p>
+
+<p>When they were alone the Doctor paced solemnly along in silence for some
+moments, while Paul, who had always been used to consider himself a
+fairly prominent object, whatever might be his surroundings, began to
+feel an altogether novel sensation of utter insignificance upon that
+immense brown plain of platform and under the huge span of the arches
+whose girders were lost in wreaths of mingled fog and smoke.</p>
+
+<p>Still he had some hope. Was it not possible, after all, that the Doctor
+had divined his secret and was searching for words delicate enough to
+convey his condolences?</p>
+
+<p>"I wished to tell you, Bultitude," said the Doctor presently, and his
+first words dashed all Paul's rising hopes, "that I hope you are
+returning this term with the resolve to do better things. You have
+caused your excellent father much pain in the past. You little know the
+grief a wilful boy can inflict on his parent."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I have a very fair idea of it," thought Paul, but he said
+nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you left him in good health? Such a devoted parent,
+Richard&mdash;such a noble heart!"</p>
+
+<p>At any other time Mr. Bultitude might have felt gratified by these
+eulogies, but just then he was conscious that he could lay no claim to
+them. It was Dick who had the noble heart now, and he himself felt even
+less of a devoted parent than he looked.</p>
+
+<p>"I had a letter from him during the vacation," continued Dr. Grimstone,
+"a sweet letter, Richard, breathing in every line a father's anxiety and
+concern for your welfare."</p>
+
+<p>Paul was a little staggered. He remembered having written, but he would
+scarcely perhaps have described<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> his letter as "sweet," as he had not
+done much more than enclose a cheque for his son's account and object to
+the items for pew-rent and scientific lectures with the diorama as
+excessive.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;and this is what I wanted to say to you, Bultitude&mdash;his is no
+blind doting affection. He has implored me, for your own sake, if I see
+you diverging ever so slightly from the path of duty, not to stay my
+hand. And I shall not forget his injunctions."</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes ago, and it would have seemed to Paul so simple and easy a
+matter to point out to the Doctor the very excusable error into which he
+had fallen. It was no more than he would have to do repeatedly upon his
+return, and here was an excellent opportunity for an explanation.</p>
+
+<p>But, somehow the words would not come. The schoolmaster's form seemed so
+tremendous and towering, and he so feeble and powerless before him, that
+he soon persuaded himself that a public place, like a station platform,
+was no scene for domestic revelations of so painful a character.</p>
+
+<p>He gave up all idea of resistance at present. "Perhaps I had better
+leave him in his error till we get into the train," he thought; "then we
+will get rid of that other boy, and I can break it to him gradually in
+the railway carriage as I get more accustomed to him."</p>
+
+<p>But in spite of his determination to unbosom himself without further
+delay, he knew that a kind of fascinated resignation was growing upon
+him and gaining firmer hold each minute.</p>
+
+<p>Something must be done to break the spell and burst the toils which were
+being woven round him before all effort became impossible.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," said the Doctor, glancing up at the great clock-face on which
+a reflector cast a patch of dim yellow light, "we must be thinking of
+starting. But don't forget what I have said."</p>
+
+<p>And they walked back towards the book-stalls with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> their cheery warmth
+of colour, past the glittering buffet, and on up the platform, to a part
+where six boys of various sizes were standing huddled forlornly together
+under a gaslight.</p>
+
+<p>"Aha!" said Dr. Grimstone, with a slight touch of the ogre in his tone,
+"more of my fellows, eh? We shall be quite a party. How do you do, boys?
+Welcome back to your studies."</p>
+
+<p>And the six boys came forward, all evidently in the lowest spirits, and
+raised their tall hats with a studied politeness.</p>
+
+<p>"Some old friends here, Bultitude," said the Doctor, impelling the
+unwilling Paul towards the group. "You know Tipping, of course; Coker,
+too, you've met before&mdash;and Coggs. How are you, Siggers? You're looking
+well. Ah, by the way, I see a new face&mdash;Kiffin, I think? Kiffin, this is
+Bultitude, who will make himself your mentor, I hope, and initiate you
+into our various manners and customs."</p>
+
+<p>And, with a horrible dream-like sense of unreality, Mr. Bultitude found
+himself being greeted by several entire strangers with a degree of
+warmth embarrassing in the extreme.</p>
+
+<p>He would have liked to protest and declare himself there and then in his
+true colours, but if this had been difficult alone with the Doctor under
+the clock, it was impossible now, and he submitted ruefully enough to
+their unwelcome advances.</p>
+
+<p>Tipping, a tall, red-haired, raw-boned boy, with sleeves and trousers he
+had outgrown, and immense boots, wrung Paul's hand with misdirected
+energy, saying "how-de-do?" with a gruff superiority, mercifully
+tempered by a touch of sheepishness.</p>
+
+<p>Coggs and Coker welcomed him with open arms as an equal, while Siggers,
+a short, slight, sharp-featured boy, with a very fashionable hat and
+shirt-collars, and a horse-shoe pin, drawled, "How are you, old boy?"
+with the languor of a confirmed man about town.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p><p>The other two were Biddlecomb, a boy with a blooming complexion and a
+singularly sweet voice, and the new-comer, Kiffin, who did not seem much
+more at home in the society of other boys than Mr. Bultitude himself,
+for he kept nervously away from them, shivering with the piteous
+self-abandonment of an Italian greyhound.</p>
+
+<p>Paul was now convinced that unless he exerted himself considerably, his
+identity with his son would never even be questioned, and the danger
+roused him to a sudden determination.</p>
+
+<p>However his face and figure might belie him, nothing in his speech or
+conduct should encourage the mistake. Whatever it might cost him to
+overcome his fear of the Doctor, he would force himself to act and talk
+ostentatiously, as much like his own ordinary self as possible, during
+the journey down to Market Rodwell, so as to prepare the Doctor's mind
+for the disclosures he meant to make at the earliest opportunity. He was
+beginning to see that the railway carriage, with all those boys sitting
+by and staring, would be an inconvenient place for so delicate and
+difficult a confession.</p>
+
+<p>The guard having warned intending passengers to take their seats, and
+Jolland, who had been unaccountably missing all this time, having
+appeared from the direction of the refreshment buffet, furtively
+brushing away some suspicious-looking flakes and crumbs from his coat,
+and contrived to join the party unperceived, they all got into a
+first-class compartment&mdash;Paul with the rest.</p>
+
+<p>He longed for moral courage to stand out boldly and refuse to leave
+town, but, as we have seen, it was beyond his powers, and he temporised.
+Very soon the whistle had sounded and the train had begun to glide
+slowly out beyond the platform and arch, past the signal boxes and long
+low sheds and offices which are the suburbs of a large terminus&mdash;and
+then it was too late.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="A_Minnow_amongst_Tritons" id="A_Minnow_amongst_Tritons"></a>4. <i>A Minnow amongst Tritons</i></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Boys are capital fellows in their own way among their mates; but
+they are unwholesome companions for grown people."&mdash;<i>Essays of
+Elia.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>For some time after they were fairly started the Doctor read his evening
+paper with an air of impartial but severe criticism, and Mr. Bultitude
+as he sat opposite him next to the window, found himself overwhelmed
+with a new and very unpleasant timidity.</p>
+
+<p>He knew that, if he would free himself, this utterly unreasonable
+feeling must be wrestled with and overcome; that now, if ever, was the
+time to assert himself, and prove that he was anything but the raw youth
+he was conscious of appearing. He had merely to speak and act, too, in
+his ordinary everyday manner; to forget as far as possible the change
+that had affected his outer man, which was not so very difficult to do
+after all&mdash;and yet his heart sank lower and lower as each fresh
+telegraph post flitted past.</p>
+
+<p>"I will let him speak first," he thought; "then I shall be able to feel
+my way." But there was more fear than caution in the resolve.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, the Doctor laid down his paper, and, looking round
+with the glance of proprietorship on his pupils, who had relapsed into a
+decorous and gloomy silence, observed: "Well, boys, you have had an
+unusually protracted vacation this time&mdash;owing to the unprecedented
+severity of the weather. We must try to make up for it by the zest and
+ardour with which we pursue our studies during the term. I intend to
+reduce the Easter holidays by a week by way of compensation."</p>
+
+<p>This announcement (which by no means relieved the general
+depression&mdash;the boys receiving it with a sickly interest) was good news
+to Paul, and even had the effect of making him forget his position for
+the time.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm uncommonly glad to hear it, Dr. Grimstone," he said heartily, "an
+excellent arrangement. Boys have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> too many holidays as it is. There's no
+reason, to my mind, why parents should be the sufferers by every
+snowstorm. It's no joke, I can assure you, to have a great idle boy
+hanging about the place eating his empty head off!"</p>
+
+<p>A burglar enlarging upon the sanctity of the law of property, or a sheep
+exposing the fallacies of vegetarianism, could hardly have produced a
+greater sensation.</p>
+
+<p>Every boy was roused from his languor to stare and wonder at these
+traitorous sentiments, which, from the mouth of any but a known and
+tried companion, would have roused bitter hostility and contempt. As it
+was, their wonder became a rapturous admiration, and they waited for the
+situation to develop with a fearful and secret joy.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before the Doctor quite recovered himself; then he said
+with a grim smile, "This is indeed finding Saul amongst the prophets;
+your sentiments, if sincere, Bultitude&mdash;I repeat, if sincere&mdash;are very
+creditable. But I am obliged to look upon them with suspicion!" Then, as
+if to dismiss a doubtful subject, he inquired generally, "And how have
+you all been spending your holidays, eh!"</p>
+
+<p>There was no attempt to answer this question, it being felt probably
+that it was, like the conventional "How do you do?" one to which an
+answer is neither desired nor expected, especially as he continued
+almost immediately, "I took my boy Tom up to town the week before
+Christmas to see the representation of the 'Agamemnon' at St. George's
+Hall. The 'Agamemnon,' as most of you are doubtless aware, is a drama by
+&AElig;schylus, a Greek poet of established reputation. I was much pleased by
+the intelligent appreciation Tom showed during the performance. He
+distinctly recognised several words from his Greek Grammar in the course
+of the dialogue."</p>
+
+<p>No one seemed capable of responding except Mr. Bultitude, who dashed
+into the breach with an almost pathetic effort to maintain his
+accustomed stiffness.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p><p>"I may be old-fashioned," he said, "very likely I am; but
+I&mdash;ah&mdash;decidedly disapprove of taking children to dramatic exhibitions
+of any kind. It unsettles them, sir&mdash;unsettles them!"</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grimstone made no answer, but he put a hand on each knee, and glared
+with pursed lips and a leonine bristle of the beard at his youthful
+critic for some moments, after which he returned to his <i>Globe</i> with a
+short ominous cough.</p>
+
+<p>"I've offended him now," thought Paul. "I must be more careful what I
+say. But I'll get him into conversation again presently."</p>
+
+<p>So he began at the first opportunity: "You have this evening's paper, I
+see. No telegrams of importance, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said the Doctor shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw a report in to-day's <i>Times</i>," said poor Mr. Bultitude, with a
+desperate attempt at his most conversational and instructive manner, "I
+saw a report that the camphor crop was likely to be a failure this
+season. Now, it's a very singular thing about camphor, that the
+Japanese&mdash;&mdash;" (he hoped to lead the conversation round to colonial
+produce, and thus open the Doctor's eyes by the extent of his
+acquaintance with the subject).</p>
+
+<p>"I am already acquainted with the method of obtaining camphor, thank
+you, Bultitude," said the Doctor, with dangerous politeness.</p>
+
+<p>"I was about to observe, when you interrupted me," said Paul, "(and this
+is really a fact that I doubt if you are aware of), that the Japanese
+never&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," said the Doctor, with some impatience, "probably they
+never do, sir, but I shall have other opportunities of finding out what
+you have read about the Japanese."</p>
+
+<p>But he glanced over the top of the paper at the indignant Paul, who was
+not accustomed to have his information received in this manner, with
+less suspicion and a growing conviction that some influence during the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+holidays had changed the boy from a graceless young scapegrace into a
+prig of the first water.</p>
+
+<p>"He's most uncivil"&mdash;Mr. Bultitude told himself&mdash;"almost insulting, but
+I'll go on. I'm rousing his curiosity. I'm making way with him; he sees
+a difference already." And so he applied himself once more.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a smoker, of course, Dr. Grimstone?" he began. "We don't stop
+anywhere, I think, on the way, and I must confess myself, after dinner,
+a whiff or two&mdash;I think I can give you a cigar you'll appreciate."</p>
+
+<p>And he felt for his cigar-case, really forgetting that it was gone, like
+all other incidents of his old self; while Jolland giggled with
+unrestrained delight at such charming effrontery.</p>
+
+<p>"If I did not know, sir," said the Doctor, now effectually roused, "that
+this was ill-timed buffoonery, and not an intentional insult, I should
+be seriously angry. As it is, I can overlook any exuberance of mirth
+which is, perhaps, pardonable when the mind is elated by the return to
+the cheerful bustle and activity of school-life. But be very careful."</p>
+
+<p>"He needn't be so angry," thought Paul, "how could I know he doesn't
+smoke? But I'm afraid he doesn't quite know me, even now."</p>
+
+<p>So he began again: "Did I hear you mention the name of Kiffin amongst
+those of your pupils here, Doctor? I thought so. Not the son of Jordan
+Kiffin, of College Hill, surely? Yes? Why, bless my soul, your father
+and I, my little fellow, were old friends in days before you were born
+or thought of&mdash;born or thought of. He was in a very small way then, a
+very small&mdash;&mdash; Eh, Dr. Grimstone, don't you feel well?"</p>
+
+<p>"I see what you're aiming at, sir. You wish to prove to me that I'm
+making a mistake in my treatment of you."</p>
+
+<p>"That was my idea, certainly," said Paul, much pleased. "I'm very glad
+you take me, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall take you in a way you won't appreciate soon, if this goes on,"
+said the Doctor under his breath.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p><p>"When the time comes I shall know how to deal with you. Till then
+you'll have the goodness to hold your tongue," he said aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not a very polite way of putting it," Paul said to himself, "but,
+at any rate, he sees how the case stands now, and after all, perhaps, he
+only speaks like that to put the boys off the scent. If so, it's
+uncommonly considerate and thoughtful of him, by Gad. I won't say any
+more."</p>
+
+<p>But by-and-by, the open window made him break his resolution. "I'm sorry
+to inconvenience you, Dr. Grimstone," he said, with the air of one used
+to having his way in these matters, "but I positively must ask you
+either to allow me to have this window up or to change places with you.
+The night air, sir, at this time of the year is fatal, my doctor tells
+me, simply fatal to a man of my constitution."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor pulled up the window with a frown, and yet a somewhat puzzled
+expression. "I warn you, Bultitude," he said, "you are acting very
+imprudently."</p>
+
+<p>"So I am," thought Paul, "so I am. Good of him to remind me. I must keep
+it up before all these boys. This unpleasant business mustn't get about.
+I'll hold my tongue till we get in. Then, I daresay, Grimstone will see
+me off by the next train up, if there is one, and lend me enough for a
+bed at an hotel for the night. I couldn't get to St. Pancras till very
+late, of course. Or he might offer to put me up at the school. If he
+does, I think I shall very possibly accept. It might be better."</p>
+
+<p>And he leant back in his seat in a much easier frame of mind; it was
+annoying, of course, to have been turned out of his warm dining-room,
+and sent all the way down to Market Rodwell on a fool's errand like
+this; but still, if nothing worse came of it, he could put up with the
+temporary inconvenience, and it was a great relief to be spared the
+necessity of an explanation.</p>
+
+<p>The other boys watched him furtively with growing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> admiration, which
+expressed itself in subdued whispers, varied by little gurgles and
+"squirks" of laughter; they tried to catch his eye and stimulate him to
+further feats of audacity, but Mr. Bultitude, of course, repulsed all
+such overtures with a coldness and severity which at once baffled and
+piqued them.</p>
+
+<p>At last his eccentricity took a shape which considerably lessened their
+enthusiasm. Kiffin, the new boy, occupied the seat next to Paul; he was
+a nervous-looking little fellow, with a pale face and big pathetic brown
+eyes like a seal's, and his dress bore plain evidence of a mother's
+careful supervision, having all the uncreased trimness and specklessness
+rarely to be observed except in the toilettes of the waxen prodigies in
+a shop-window.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that, as he lay back in the padded seat between the
+sheltering partitions, watching the sickly yellow dregs of oil surging
+dismally to and fro with the motion in the lamp overhead, or the black
+indistinct forms flitting past through the misty blue outside, the
+pathos of his situation became all at once too much for him.</p>
+
+<p>He was a home-bred boy, without any of that taste for the companionship
+and pursuits of his fellows, or capacity for adapting himself to their
+prejudices and requirements, which give some home-bred boys a ready
+passport into the roughest communities.</p>
+
+<p>His heart throbbed with no excited curiosity, no conscious pride, at
+this his first important step in life; he was a forlorn little stranger,
+in an unsympathetic strange land, and was only too well aware of his
+position.</p>
+
+<p>So that it is not surprising that as he thought of the home he had left
+an hour or two ago which now seemed so shadowy, so inaccessible and
+remote, his eyes began to smart and sting, and his chest to heave
+ominously, until he felt it necessary to do something to give a partial
+vent to his emotions and prevent a public and disgraceful exhibition of
+grief.</p>
+
+<p>Unhappily for him he found this safety-valve in a series of suppressed
+but distinctly audible sniffs.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p><p>Mr. Bultitude bore this for some time with no other protest than an
+occasional indignant bounce or a lowering frown in the offender's
+direction, but at last his nerves, strung already to a high pitch by all
+he had undergone, could stand it no longer.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Grimstone," he said with polite determination, "I'm not a man to
+complain without good reason, but really I must ask you to interfere.
+Will you tell this boy here, on my right, either to control his feelings
+or to cry into his pocket-handkerchief, like an ordinary human being? A
+good honest bellow I can understand, but this infernal whiffling and
+sniffing, sir, I will not put up with. It's nothing less than unnatural
+in a boy of that size."</p>
+
+<p>"Kiffin," said the Doctor, "are you crying?"</p>
+
+<p>"N&mdash;no, sir," faltered Kiffin; "I&mdash;I think I must have caught cold,
+sir."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you are telling me the truth, because I should be sorry to
+believe you were beginning your new life in a spirit of captiousness and
+rebellion. I'll have no mutineers in my camp. I'll establish a spirit of
+trustful happiness and unmurmuring content in this school, if I have to
+flog every boy in it as long as I can stand over him! As for you,
+Richard Bultitude, I have no words to express my pain and disgust at the
+heartless irreverence with which you persist in mimicking and
+burlesquing a fond and excellent parent. Unless I perceive, sir, in a
+very short time a due sense of your error and a lively repentance, my
+disapproval will take a very practical form."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude fell back into his seat with a gasp. It was hard to be
+accused of caricaturing one's own self, particularly when conscious of
+entire innocence in that respect, but even this was slight in comparison
+with the discovery that he had been so blindly deceiving himself!</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor evidently had failed to penetrate his disguise, and the
+dreaded scene of elaborate explanation must be gone through after all.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p><p>The boys (with the exception of Kiffin) still found exquisite enjoyment
+in this extraordinary and original exhibition, and waited eagerly for
+further experiment on the Doctor's patience.</p>
+
+<p>They were soon gratified. If there was one thing Paul detested more than
+another, it was the smell of peppermint&mdash;no less than three office boys
+had been discharged by him because, as he alleged, they made the clerks'
+room reek with it,&mdash;and now the subtle searching odour of the hated
+confection was gradually stealing into the compartment and influencing
+its atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at Coggs, who sat on the seat opposite to him, and saw his
+cheeks and lips moving in slow and appreciative absorption of something.
+Coggs was clearly the culprit.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you encourage your boys to make common nuisances of themselves in a
+public place, may I ask, Dr. Grimstone?" he inquired, fuming.</p>
+
+<p>"Some scarcely seem to require encouragement, Bultitude," said the
+Doctor pointedly: "what is the matter now?"</p>
+
+<p>"If he takes it medicinally," said Paul, "he should choose some other
+time and place to treat his complaint. If he has a depraved liking for
+the abominable stuff, for Heaven's sake make him refrain from it on
+occasions when it is a serious annoyance to others!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you explain? Who and what are you talking about?"</p>
+
+<p>"That boy opposite," said Paul, pointing the finger of denunciation at
+the astonished Coggs; "he's sucking an infernal peppermint lozenge
+strong enough to throw the train off the rails!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is what Bultitude tells me true, Coggs?" demanded the Doctor in an
+awful voice.</p>
+
+<p>Coggs, after making several attempts to bolt the offending lozenge, and
+turning scarlet meanwhile with confusion and coughing, stammered huskily
+something to the effect that he had "bought the lozenges at a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+chemist's," which he seemed to consider, for some reason, a mitigating
+circumstance.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any more of this pernicious stuff about you?" said the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>Very slowly and reluctantly Coggs brought out of one pocket after
+another three or four neat little white packets, made up with that
+lavish expenditure of time, string, and sealing-wax, by which the
+struggling chemist seeks to reconcile the public mind to a charge of two
+hundred and fifty per cent. on cost price, and handed them to Dr.
+Grimstone, who solemnly unfastened them one by one, glanced at their
+contents with infinite disgust, and flung them out of window.</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned to Paul with a look of more favour than he had yet shown
+him. "Bultitude," he said, "I am obliged to you. A severe cold in the
+head has rendered me incapable of detecting this insidious act of
+insubordination and self-indulgence, on which I shall have more to say
+on another occasion. Your moral courage and promptness in denouncing the
+evil thing are much to your credit."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," said Paul, "not at all, my dear sir. I mentioned it
+because I&mdash;ah&mdash;happen to be peculiarly sensitive on the subject and&mdash;&mdash;"
+Here he broke off with a sharp yell, and began to rub his ankle. "One of
+these young savages has just given me a severe kick; it's that fellow
+over there, with the blue necktie. I have given him no provocation, and
+he attacks me in this brutal manner, sir; I appeal to you for
+protection!"</p>
+
+<p>"So, Coker" (Coker wore a blue necktie), said the Doctor, "you emulate
+the wild ass in more qualities than those of stupidity and stubbornness,
+do you? You lash out with your hind legs at an inoffensive
+school-fellow, with all the viciousness of a kangaroo, eh? Write out all
+you find in Buffon's Natural History upon those two animals a dozen
+times, and bring it to me by to-morrow evening. If I am to stable wild
+asses, sir, they shall be broken in!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p><p>Six pairs of sulky glowering eyes were fixed upon the unconscious Paul
+for the rest of the journey; indignant protests and dark vows of
+vengeance were muttered under cover of the friendly roar and rattle of
+tunnels. But the object of them heard nothing; his composure was
+returning once more in the sunshine of Dr. Grimstone's approbation, and
+he almost decided on declaring himself in the station fly.</p>
+
+<p>And now at last the train was grinding along discordantly with the
+brakes on, and, after a little preliminary jolting and banging over the
+points, drew up at a long lighted platform, where melancholy porters
+paced up and down, croaking "Market Rodwell!" like so many Solomon
+Eagles predicting woe.</p>
+
+<p>Paul got out with the others, and walked forward to the guard's van,
+where he stood shivering in the raw night air by a small heap of
+portmanteaux and white clamped boxes.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to tell him all about it now," he thought, "if he wasn't
+so busy. I'll get him to go in a cab alone with me, and get it over
+before we reach the house."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grimstone certainly did not seem in a very receptive mood for
+confidences just then. No flys were to be seen, which he took as a
+personal outrage, and visited upon the station-master in hot
+indignation.</p>
+
+<p>"It's scandalous, I tell you," he was saying: "scandalous! No cabs to
+meet the train. My school reassembles to-day, and here I find no
+arrangements made for their accommodation! Not even an omnibus! I shall
+write to the manager and report this. Let some one go for a fly
+immediately. Boys, go into the waiting room till I come to you.
+Stay&mdash;there are too many for one fly. Coker, Coggs, and, let me see,
+yes, Bultitude, you all know your way. Walk on and tell Mrs. Grimstone
+we are coming."</p>
+
+<p>Paul Bultitude was perhaps more relieved than disappointed by this
+postponement of a disagreeable interview, though, if he had seen Coker
+dig Coggs in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> side with a chuckle of exultant triumph, he might have
+had misgivings as to the prudence of trusting himself alone with them.</p>
+
+<p>As it was he almost determined to trust the pair with his secret. "They
+will be valuable witnesses," he said to himself, "that, whoever else I
+may be, I am not Dick."</p>
+
+<p>So he went on briskly ahead over a covered bridge and down some
+break-neck wooden steps, and passed through the wicket out upon the
+railed-in space, where the cabs and omnibuses should have been, but
+which was now a blank spectral waste with a white ground-fog lurking
+round its borders.</p>
+
+<p>Here he was joined by his companions, who, after a little whispering,
+came up one on either side and put an arm through each of his.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Paul, thinking to banter them agreeably; "here you are,
+young men, eh? Holidays all over now! Work while you're young, and
+then&mdash;&mdash; Gad, you're walking me off my legs. Stop; I'm not as young as I
+used to be&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Grim can't see us here, can he, Coker?" said Coggs when they had
+cleared the gates and palings.</p>
+
+<p>"Not he!" said Coker.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then. Now then, young Bultitude, you used to be a decent
+fellow enough last term, though you <i>were</i> coxy. So, before we go any
+further&mdash;what do you mean by this sort of thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because," put in Coker, "if you aren't quite right in your head,
+through your old governor acting like a brute all the holidays, as you
+said he does, just say so, and we won't be hard on you."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;he&mdash;always an excellent father," stammered Paul. "What am I to
+explain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what did you go and sneak of <i>him</i> for bringing tuck back to
+school for, eh?" demanded Coker.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and sing out when he hacked your shin?" added Coggs; "and tell
+Grimstone that new fellow was blubbing? Where's the joke in all that,
+eh? Where's the joke?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p><p>"You don't suppose I was bound to sit calmly down and allow you to suck
+your villainous peppermints under my very nose, do you?" said Mr.
+Bultitude. "Why shouldn't I complain if a boy annoys me by sniffing, or
+kicks me on the ankle? Just tell me that? Suppose my neighbour has a
+noisy dog or a smoky chimney, am I not to venture to tell him of it? Is
+he to&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But his arguments, convincing as they promised to be, were brought to a
+sudden and premature close by Coker, who slipped behind him and
+administered a sharp jog below his back, which jarred his spine and
+caused him infinite agony.</p>
+
+<p>"You little brute!" cried Paul, "I could have you up for assault for
+that!"</p>
+
+<p>But upon this Coggs did the very same thing only harder. "Last term
+you'd have shown fight for much less, Bultitude," they both observed
+severely, as some justification for repeating the process.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, perhaps, you'll drop it for the future," said Coker. "Look here!
+we'll give you one more chance. This sneaking dodge is all very well for
+Chawner. Chawner could do that sort of thing without getting sat upon,
+because he's a big fellow; but we're not going to stand it from you.
+Will you promise on your sacred word of honour, now, to be a decent sort
+of chap again, as you were last term?"</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Bultitude, though he longed for peace and quietness, dreaded
+doing or saying anything to favour the impression that he was the
+schoolboy he unluckily appeared to be, and he had not skill and tact
+enough to dissemble and assume a familiar genial tone of equality with
+these rough boys.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't understand," he protested feebly. "If I could only tell
+you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We don't want any fine language, you know," said the relentless Coggs.
+"Yes or no. Will you promise to be your old self again?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p><p>"I only wish I could," said poor Mr. Bultitude&mdash;"but I can't!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then," said Coggs firmly, "we must try the torture. Coker,
+will you screw the back of his hand, while I show him how they make
+barley-sugar?"</p>
+
+<p>And he gave Paul an interesting illustration of the latter branch of
+industry by twisting his right arm round and round till he nearly
+wrenched it out of the socket, while Coker seized his left hand and
+pounded it vigorously with the first joint of his forefinger, causing
+the unfortunate Paul to yell for mercy.</p>
+
+<p>At last he could bear no more, and breaking away from his tormentors
+with a violent effort, he ran frantically down the silent road towards a
+house which he knew from former visits to be Dr. Grimstone's.</p>
+
+<p>He was but languidly pursued, and, as the distance was short, he soon
+gained a gate on the stuccoed posts of which he could read "Crichton
+House" by the light of a neighbouring gas-lamp.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a nice way," he thought, as he reached it breathless and
+trembling, "for a father to visit his son's school!"</p>
+
+<p>He had hoped to reach sanctuary before the other two could overtake him;
+but he soon discovered that the gate was shut fast, and all his efforts
+would not bring him within reach of the bell-handle&mdash;he was too short.</p>
+
+<p>So he sat down on the doorstep in resigned despair, and waited for his
+enemies. Behind the gate was a large many-windowed house, with steps
+leading up to a portico. In the playground to his right the school
+gymnasium, a great gallows-like erection, loomed black and grim through
+the mist, the night wind favouring the ghastliness of its appearance by
+swaying the ropes till they creaked and moaned weirdly on the hooks, and
+the metal stirrups clinked and clashed against one another in irregular
+cadence.</p>
+
+<p>He had no time to observe more, as Coker and Coggs joined him, and, on
+finding he had not rung the bell,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> seized the occasion to pummel him at
+their leisure before announcing their arrival.</p>
+
+<p>Then the gate was opened, and the three&mdash;the revengeful pair assuming an
+air of lamb-like inoffensiveness&mdash;entered the hall and were met by Mrs.
+Grimstone.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, here you are!" she said, with an air of surprise, and kissing them
+with real kindness. "How cold you look! So you actually had to walk. No
+cabs as usual. You poor boys! come in and warm yourselves. You'll find
+all your old friends in the schoolroom."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude submitted to be kissed with some reluctance, inwardly
+hoping that Dr. Grimstone might never hear of it.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Grimstone, it may be said here, was a stout, fair woman, not in the
+least intellectual or imposing, but with a warm heart, and a way of
+talking to and about boys that secured her the confidence of mothers
+more effectually, perhaps, than the most polished conversation and
+irreproachable deportment could have done.</p>
+
+<p>She did not reserve her motherliness for the reception room either, as
+some schoolmasters' wives have a tendency to do, and the smallest boy
+felt less homesick when he saw her.</p>
+
+<p>She opened a green baize outer door, and the door beyond it, and led
+them into a long high room, with desks and forms placed against the
+walls, and a writing table, and line of brown-stained tables down the
+middle. Opposite the windows there was a curious structure of shelves
+partitioned into lockers, and filled with rows of shabby schoolbooks.</p>
+
+<p>The room had been originally intended for a drawing-room, as was evident
+from the inevitable white and gold wall-paper and the tarnished gilt
+beading round the doors and window shutters; the mantelpiece, too, was
+of white marble, and the gaselier fitted with dingy crystal lustres.</p>
+
+<p>But sad-coloured maps hung on the ink-splashed walls, and a clock with a
+blank idiotic face (it is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> every clock that possesses a decently
+intelligent expression) ticked over the gilt pier-glass. The boards were
+uncarpeted, and stained with patches of ink of all sizes and ages; while
+the atmosphere, in spite of the blazing fire, had a scholastic blending
+of soap and water, ink and slate-pencil in its composition, which
+produced a chill and depressing effect.</p>
+
+<p>On the forms opposite the fire some ten or twelve boys were sitting, a
+few comparing notes as to their holiday experiences with some approach
+to vivacity. The rest, with hands in pockets and feet stretched towards
+the blaze, seemed lost in melancholy abstraction.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" said Mrs. Grimstone cheerfully, "you'll have plenty to talk to
+one another about. I'll send Tom in to see you presently!" And she left
+them with a reassuring nod, though the prospect of Tom's company did not
+perhaps elate them as much as it was intended to do.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude felt much as if he had suddenly been dropped down a
+bear-pit, and, avoiding welcome and observation as well as he could, got
+away into a corner, from which he observed his new companions with
+uneasy apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>"I say," said one boy, resuming the interrupted conversation, "did you
+go to Drury Lane? Wasn't it stunning! That goose, you know, and the lion
+in the forest, and all the wooden animals lumbering in out of the toy
+Noah's Ark!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why couldn't you come to our party on Twelfth-night?" asked another.
+"We had great larks. I wish you'd been there!"</p>
+
+<p>"I had to go to young Skidmore's instead," said a pale, spiteful-looking
+boy, with fair hair carefully parted in the middle. "It was like his
+cheek to ask me, but I thought I'd go, you know, just to see what it was
+like."</p>
+
+<p>"What was it like?" asked one or two near him languidly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, awfully slow! They've a poky little house in Brompton somewhere,
+and there was no dancing, only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> boshy games and a conjurer, without any
+presents. And, oh! I say, at supper there was a big cake on the table,
+and no one was allowed to cut it, because it was hired. They're so poor,
+you know. Skidmore's pater is only a clerk, and you should see his
+sisters!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, are they pretty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty! they're just like young Skidmore&mdash;only uglier; and just fancy,
+his mother asked me 'if I was Skidmore's favourite companion, and if he
+helped me in my studies?'"</p>
+
+<p>The unfortunate Skidmore, when he returned, soon found reason to regret
+his rash hospitality, for he never heard the last of the cake (which
+had, as it happened, been paid for in the usual manner) during the rest
+of the term.</p>
+
+<p>There was a slight laugh at the enormity of Mrs. Skidmore's presumption,
+and then a long pause, after which some one asked suddenly, "Does any
+one know whether Chawner really has left this time?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," said a big, heavy boy, and his hope seemed echoed with a
+general fervour. "He's been going to leave every term for the last year,
+but I believe he really has done it this time. He wrote and told me he
+wasn't coming back."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank goodness!" said several, with an evident relief, and some one was
+just observing that they had had enough of the sneaking business, when a
+fly was heard to drive up, and the bell rang, whereupon everyone
+abandoned his easy attitude, and seemed to brace himself up for a trying
+encounter.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out&mdash;here's Grimstone!" they whispered under their breaths, as
+voices and footsteps were heard in the hall outside.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the door of the schoolroom opened, and another boy entered the
+room. Dr. Grimstone, it appeared, had not been the occupant of the fly,
+after all. The new-comer was a tall, narrow-shouldered, stooping fellow,
+with a sallow, unwholesome complexion, thin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> lips, and small sunken
+brown eyes. His cheeks were creased with a dimpling subsmile, half
+uneasy, half malicious, and his tread was mincing and catlike.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you fellows?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>All rose at once, and shook hands effusively. "Why, Chawner!" they
+cried, "how are you, old fellow? We thought you weren't coming back!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a heartiness in their manner somewhat at variance with their
+recent expressions of opinion; but they had doubtless excellent reasons
+for any inconsistency.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Chawner, in a low, soft voice, which had a suggestion of
+feminine spitefulness, "I was going to leave, but I thought you'd be
+getting into mischief here without me to watch over you. Appleton, and
+Lench, and Coker want looking after badly, I know. So, you see, I've
+come back after all."</p>
+
+<p>He laughed with a little malevolent cackle as he spoke, and the three
+boys named laughed too, though with no great heartiness, and shifting
+the while uneasily on their seats.</p>
+
+<p>After this sally the conversation languished until Tom Grimstone's
+appearance. He strolled in with a semi-professional air, and shook hands
+with affability.</p>
+
+<p>Tom was a short, flabby, sandy-haired youth, not particularly beloved of
+his comrades, and his first remark was, "I say, you chaps, have you done
+your holiday task? Pa says he shall keep everyone in who hasn't. I've
+done mine;" which, as a contribution to the general liveliness, was a
+distinct failure.</p>
+
+<p>Needless to say, the work imposed as a holiday occupation had been first
+deferred, then forgotten, then remembered too late, and recklessly
+defied with the confidence begotten in a home atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>Amidst a general silence Chawner happened to see Mr. Bultitude in his
+corner, and crossed over to him. "Why, there's Dicky Bultitude there all
+the time, and he never came to shake hands! Aren't you going to speak to
+me?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p><p>Paul growled something indistinctly, feeling strangely uncomfortable
+and confused.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with him?" asked Chawner. "Does anyone know? Has he
+lost his tongue?"</p>
+
+<p>"He hadn't lost it coming down in the train," said Coker: "I wish he
+had. I tell you what, you fellows&mdash;He&mdash;here's Grim at last! I'll tell
+you all about it up in the bedroom."</p>
+
+<p>And Dr. Grimstone really did arrive at this point, much to Paul's
+relief, and looked in to give a grip of the hand and a few words to
+those of the boys he had not seen.</p>
+
+<p>Biddlecomb, Tipping, and the rest, came in with him, and the schoolroom
+soon filled with others arriving by later trains, amongst the later
+comers being the two house-masters, Mr. Blinkhorn and Mr. Tinkler; and
+there followed a season of bustle and conversation, which lasted until
+the Doctor touched a small hand-bell, and ordered them to sit down round
+the tables while supper was brought in.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude was not sorry to hear the word "supper." He was faint and
+dispirited, and although he had dined not very long since, thought that
+perhaps a little cold beef and beer, or some warmed-up trifle, might
+give him courage to tell his misfortunes before bedtime.</p>
+
+<p>Of one thing he felt certain. Nothing should induce him to trust his
+person in a bedroom with any of those violent and vindictive boys;
+whether he succeeded in declaring himself that night or not, he would at
+least insist on a separate bedroom. Meantime he looked forward to supper
+as likely to restore geniality and confidence.</p>
+
+<p>But the supper announced so imposingly proved to consist of nothing more
+than two plates piled with small pieces of thinly-buttered bread, which
+a page handed round together with tumblers of water; and Paul, in his
+disappointment, refused this refreshment with more firmness than
+politeness, as Dr. Grimstone observed.</p>
+
+<p>"You got into trouble last term, Bultitude," he said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> sternly, "on
+account of this same fastidious daintiness. Your excellent father has
+informed me of your waste and gluttony at his own bountifully spread
+table. Don't let me have occasion to reprove you for this again."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude, feeling the necessity of propitiating him, hastened to
+take the two largest squares of bread and butter on the plate. They were
+moist and thick, and he had considerable difficulty in disposing of
+them, besides the gratification of hearing himself described as a "pig"
+by his neighbours, who reproved him with a refreshing candour.</p>
+
+<p>"I must get away from here," he thought, ruefully. "Dick seems very
+unpopular. I wish I didn't feel so low-spirited and unwell. Why can't I
+carry it off easily as&mdash;as a kind of joke? How hard these forms are, and
+how those infernal boys did jog my back!"</p>
+
+<p>Bedtime came at length. The boys filed, one by one, out of the room, and
+the Doctor stood by the door to shake hands with them as they passed.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude lingered until the others had gone, for he had made up his
+mind to seize this opportunity to open the Doctor's eyes to the mistake
+he was making. But he felt unaccountably nervous; the diplomatic and
+well-chosen introduction he had carefully prepared had left him at the
+critical moment; all power of thought was gone with it, and he went
+tremblingly up to the schoolmaster, feeling hopelessly at the mercy of
+anything that chose to come out of his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Grimstone," he began; "before retiring I&mdash;I must insist&mdash;I mean I
+must request&mdash;&mdash; What I wish to say is&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said the Doctor, catching him up sharply. "You wish to
+apologise for your extraordinary behaviour in the railway carriage?
+Well, though you made some amends afterwards, an apology is very right
+and proper. Say no more about it."</p>
+
+<p>"It's not that," said Paul hopelessly; "I wanted to explain&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p><p>"Your conduct with regard to the bread and butter? If it was simply
+want of appetite, of course there is no more to be said. But I have an
+abhorrence of&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right," said Paul, recovering himself; "I hate waste myself, but
+there is something I must tell you before&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If it concerns that disgraceful conduct of Coker's," said the Doctor,
+"you may speak on. I shall have to consider his case to-morrow. Has any
+similar case of disobedience come to your knowledge? If so, I expect you
+to disclose it to me. You have found some other boy with sweetmeats in
+his possession?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens, sir!" said Mr. Bultitude, losing his temper; "I haven't
+been searching the whole school for sweetmeats! I have other things to
+occupy my mind, sir. And, once for all, I demand to be heard! Dr.
+Grimstone, there are, ahem, domestic secrets that can only be alluded to
+in the strictest privacy. I see that one of your assistants is writing
+at his table there. Cannot we go where there will be less risk of
+interruption? You have a study, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," said the Doctor with terrible grimness, "I have a study&mdash;and
+I have a cane. I can convince you of both facts, if you wish it. If you
+insult me again by this brazen buffoonery, I will! Be off to your
+dormitory, sir, before you provoke me to punish you. Not another word!
+Go!"</p>
+
+<p>And, incredible as it may appear to all who have never been in his
+position, Mr. Bultitude went. It was almost an abdication, it was
+treachery to his true self; he knew the vital importance of firmness at
+this crisis. But nevertheless his courage gave way all at once, and he
+crawled up the bare, uncarpeted stairs without any further protest!</p>
+
+<p>"Good night, Master Bultitude," said a housemaid, meeting him on the
+staircase: "you know your bedroom. No. 6, with Master Coker, and Master
+Biddlecomb, and the others."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p><p>Paul dragged himself up to the highest landing-stage, and, with a sick
+foreboding, opened the door on which the figure 6 was painted.</p>
+
+<p>It was a large bare plainly papered room, with several curtainless
+windows, the blinds of which were drawn, a long deal stand of wash-hand
+basins, and eight little white beds against the walls.</p>
+
+<p>A fire was lighted in consideration of its being the first night, and
+several boys were talking excitedly round it. "Here he is! He's stayed
+behind to tell more tales!" they cried, as Paul entered nervously. "Now
+then, Bultitude, what have you got to say for yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude felt powerless among all these young wolves. He had no
+knowledge of boys, nor any notion of acquiring an influence over them,
+having hitherto regarded them as necessary nuisances, to be rather
+repressed than studied. He could only stare hopelessly at them in
+fascinated silence.</p>
+
+<p>"You see he hasn't a word to say for himself!" said Tipping. "Look here,
+what shall we do to him? Shall we try tossing in a blanket? I've never
+tried tossing a fellow in one myself, but as long as you don't jerk him
+too high, or out on the floor, you can't hurt him dangerously."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I say, don't toss him in a blanket," pleaded Biddlecomb, and Paul
+felt gratefully towards him at the words; "anyone coming up would see
+what was going on. I vote we flick at him with towels."</p>
+
+<p>"Now just you understand this clearly," said Paul, thinking, not without
+reason, that this course of treatment was likely to prove painful; "I
+refuse to allow myself to be flicked at with towels. No one has ever
+offered me such an indignity in my life! Oh, do you think I've not
+enough on my mind as it is without the barbarities of a set of young
+brutes like you!"</p>
+
+<p>As this appeal was not of a very conciliatory nature they at once
+proceeded to form a circle round him and, judging their distance with
+great accuracy, jerked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> towels at his person with such diabolical
+dexterity that the wet corners cut him at all points like so many fine
+thongs, and he span round like a top, dancing, and, I regret to add,
+swearing violently, at the pain.</p>
+
+<p>When he was worked up almost to frenzy pitch Biddlecomb's sweet low
+voice cried, "<i>Cave</i>, you fellows! I hear Grim. Let him undress now, and
+we can lam it into him afterwards with slippers!"</p>
+
+<p>At this they all cast off such of their clothes as they still wore, and
+slipped modestly and peacefully into bed, just as Dr. Grimstone's large
+form appeared at the doorway. Mr. Bultitude made as much haste as he
+could, but did not escape a reprimand from the Doctor as he turned the
+gas out; and as soon as he had made the round of the bedrooms and his
+heavy tread had died away down the staircase, the light-hearted
+occupants of No. 6 "lammed" it into the unhappy Paul until they were
+tired of the exercise and left him to creep sore and trembling with rage
+and fright into his cold hard bed.</p>
+
+<p>Then, after a little desultory conversation, one by one sank from
+incoherence into silence, and rose from silence to snores, while Paul
+alone lay sleepless, listening to the creeping tinkle of the dying fire,
+drearily wondering at the marvellous change that had come over his life
+and fortunes in the last few hours, and feverishly composing impassioned
+appeals which were to touch the Doctor's heart and convince his reason.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="Disgrace" id="Disgrace"></a>5. <i>Disgrace</i></h2>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace</div>
+<div>The day's disasters in his morning's face."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Sleep came at last, and brought too brief forgetfulness. It was not till
+the dull grey light of morning was glimmering through the blinds that
+Mr. Bultitude awoke to his troubles.</p>
+
+<p>The room was bitterly cold, and he remained <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>shivering in bed for some
+time, trying to realise and prepare for his altered condition.</p>
+
+<p>He was the only one awake. Now and then from one of the beds around a
+boy would be heard talking in his sleep, or laughing with holiday
+glee&mdash;at the drolleries possibly of some pantomime performed for his
+amusement in the Theatre Royal, Dreamland&mdash;a theatre mercifully open to
+all boys free of charge, long after the holidays have come to an end,
+the only drawbacks being a certain want of definiteness in the plot and
+scenery, and a liability to premature termination of the vaguely
+splendid performance.</p>
+
+<p>Once Kiffin, the new boy, awoke with a start and a heavy sigh, but he
+cried himself to sleep again almost immediately.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude could bear being inactive no longer. He thought, if he got
+up, he might perhaps see his misfortunes shrink to a more bearable, less
+hopeless scale, and besides, he judged it prudent, for many reasons, to
+finish his toilet before the sleepers began theirs.</p>
+
+<p>Very stealthily, dreading to rouse anyone and attract attention in the
+form of slippers, he broke the clinking crust of ice in one of the
+basins and, shuddering from the shock, bathed face and hands in the
+biting water. He parted his hair, which from natural causes he had been
+unable to accomplish for some years, and now found an awkwardness in
+accomplishing neatly, and then stole down the dark creaking staircase
+just as the butler in the hall began to swing the big railway bell which
+was to din stern reality into the sleepy ears above.</p>
+
+<p>In the schoolroom a yawning maid had just lighted the fire, from which
+turbid yellow clouds of sulphurous smoke were pouring into the room,
+making it necessary to open the windows and lower a temperature that was
+far from high originally.</p>
+
+<p>Paul stood shaking by the mantelpiece in a very bad temper for some
+minutes. If the Doctor had come in then, he might have been spurred by
+indignation to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> utter his woes, and even claim and obtain his freedom.
+But that was not to be.</p>
+
+<p>The door did open presently, however, and a little girl appeared; a very
+charming little maiden indeed, in a neat dark costume relieved by a
+fresh white pinafore. She had deep grey eyes and glossy brown hair
+falling over her forehead and down her back in soft straight masses, her
+face was oval rather than round, and slightly serious, though her smile
+was pretty and gay.</p>
+
+<p>She ran towards Mr. Bultitude with a glad little cry, stretching out her
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick! dear Dick!" she said, "I am so glad! I thought you'd be down
+early; as you used to be. I wanted to sit up last night so very much,
+but mamma wouldn't let me."</p>
+
+<p>Some might have been very glad to be welcomed in this way, even
+vicariously. As for boys, it must have been a very bad school indeed
+which Dulcie Grimstone could not have robbed of much of its terrors.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude, however, as has been explained, did not appreciate
+children&mdash;being a family man himself. When one sees their petty
+squabbles and jealousies, hears their cruel din, and pays for their
+monkeyish mischief, perhaps the daintiest children seem but an earthly
+order of cherubim. He was only annoyed and embarrassed by the
+interruption, though he endured it.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he said with condescension, "and so you're Dr. Grimstone's little
+girl, are you? How d'ye do, my dear?"</p>
+
+<p>Dulcie stopped and looked at him, with drawn eyebrows and her soft mouth
+quivering. "What makes you talk like that?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"How ought I to talk?" said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't talk like that before," said Dulcie plaintively. "I&mdash;I
+thought perhaps you'd be glad to see me. You were once. And&mdash;and&mdash;when
+you went away last you asked me to&mdash;to&mdash;kiss you, and I did, and I wish
+I hadn't. And you gave me a ginger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> lozenge with your name written on it
+in lead pencil, and I gave you a cough-lozenge with mine; and you said
+it was to show that you were my sweetheart and I was yours. But I
+suppose you've eaten the one I gave you?"</p>
+
+<p>"This is dreadful!" thought Mr. Bultitude. "What shall I do now? The
+child evidently takes me for that little scoundrel Dick." "Tut-tut," he
+said aloud, "little girls like you are too young for such nonsense. You
+ought to think about&mdash;about your dolls, and&mdash;ah, your needlework&mdash;not
+sweethearts!"</p>
+
+<p>"You say that now!" cried Dulcie indignantly. "You know I'm not a little
+girl, and I've left off playing with dolls&mdash;almost. Oh, Dick, don't be
+unkind! You haven't changed your mind, have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Paul dismally, "I've changed my body. But there&mdash;you wouldn't
+understand. Run away and play somewhere, like a good little girl!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know what it is!" said Dulcie. "You've been out to parties, or
+somewhere, and seen some horrid girl ... you like ... better than me!"</p>
+
+<p>"This is absurd, you know," said Mr. Bultitude. "You can't think how
+absurd it is! Now, you'll be a very foolish little girl if you cry.
+You're making a mistake. I'm not the Dick you used to know!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know you're not!" sobbed Dulcie. "But oh, Dick, you will be. Promise
+me you will be!" And, to Paul's horror and alarm, she put her arms round
+his neck, and cried piteously on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Good gracious!" he cried, "let me go. Don't do that, for Heaven's sake!
+I can hear some one coming. If it's your father, it will ruin me!"</p>
+
+<p>But it was too late. Over her head he saw Tipping enter the room, and
+stand glaring at them menacingly. Dulcie saw him too, and sprang away to
+the window, where she tried to dry her eyes unperceived, and then ran
+past him with a hurried good morning, and escaped, leaving Paul alone
+with the formidable Tipping.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p><p>There was an awkward silence at first, which Tipping broke by saying,
+"What have you been saying to make her cry, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"What's that to you, sir?" said Paul, trying to keep his voice firm.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it's just this to me," said Tipping, "that I've been spoons on
+Dulcie myself ever since I came, and she never would have a word to say
+to me. I never could think why, and now it turns out to be you! What do
+you mean by cutting me out like this? I heard her call you 'dear Dick.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be an ass, sir!" said Paul angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, none of your cheek, you know!" said Tipping, edging up against him
+with a dangerous inclination first to jostle aggressively, and then maul
+his unconscious rival. "You just mind what I say. I'm not going to have
+Dulcie bothered by a young beggar in the second form; she deserves
+something better than that, anyway, and I tell you that if I once catch
+you talking to her in the way you did just now, or if I hear of her
+favouring you more than any other fellows, I'll give you the very
+juiciest licking you ever had in your life. So look out!"</p>
+
+<p>At this point the other boys began to straggle down and cluster round
+the fire, and Paul withdrew from the aggrieved Tipping, and looked
+drearily out of the window on the hard road and bare black trees
+outside.</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>must</i> tell the Doctor how I'm situated!" he thought; "and yet
+directly I open my mouth, he threatens to flog me. If I stay here, that
+little girl will be always trying to speak to me, and I shall be
+thrashed by the red-haired boy. If I could only manage to speak out
+after breakfast!"</p>
+
+<p>It was not without satisfaction that he remembered that he paid extra
+for "meat for breakfast" in his son's school-bills, for he was beginning
+to look forward to meal-time with the natural desire of a young and
+healthy frame for nourishment.</p>
+
+<p>At eight o'clock the Doctor came in and announced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> breakfast, leading
+the way himself to what was known in the school as the "Dining Hall." It
+scarcely deserved so high-sounding a name perhaps, being a long low room
+on the basement floor, with a big fireplace, fitted with taps, and
+baking ovens, which provoked the suspicion that it had begun existence
+as a back kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor took his seat alone at a cross table forming the top of one
+of the two rows of tables, set with white cups and saucers, and plates
+well heaped with the square pieces of bread and butter, while Mrs.
+Grimstone with Dulcie and Tom, sat at the foot of the same row, behind
+two ugly urns of dull block-tin.</p>
+
+<p>But when Mr. Bultitude, more hungry than he had felt for years, found
+his place at one of the tables, he was disgusted to find upon his
+plate&mdash;not, as he had confidently expected, a couple of plump poached
+eggs, with their appetising contrast of ruddy gold and silvery white,
+not a crisp and crackling sausage or a mottled omelette, not even the
+homely but luscious rasher, but a brace of chill forbidding sardines,
+lying grim and headless in bilious green oil!</p>
+
+<p>It was a fish he positively loathed, nor could it be reasonably expected
+that the confidence necessary for a declaration was to be forgotten by
+so sepulchral a form of nutriment.</p>
+
+<p>He roused himself, however, to swallow them, together with some of the
+thin and tin-flavoured coffee. But the meal as a whole was so different
+from the plentiful well-cooked breakfasts he had sat down before for
+years as a matter of course, that it made him feel extremely unwell.</p>
+
+<p>No talking was allowed during the meal. The Doctor now and then looked
+up from his dish of kidneys on toast (at which envious glances were
+occasionally cast) to address a casual remark to his wife across the
+long row of plates and cups, but, as a rule, the dull champing sound of
+boys solemnly and steadily munching was all that broke the silence.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p><p>Towards the end, when the plates had been generally cleared, and the
+boys sat staring with the stolidity of repletion at one another across
+the tables, the junior house-master, Mr. Tinkler, made his appearance.
+He had lately left a small and little-known college at Cambridge, where
+he had contrived, contrary to expectation, to evade the uncoveted wooden
+spoon by just two places, which enabled the Doctor to announce himself
+as being "assisted by a graduate of the University of Cambridge who has
+taken honours in the Mathematical Tripos."</p>
+
+<p>For the rest, he was a small insignificant-looking person, who evidently
+disliked the notice his late appearance drew upon himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Tinkler," said the Doctor in his most awful voice, "if it were my
+custom to rebuke my assistants before the school (which it is not), I
+should feel forced to remind you that this tardiness in rising is a bad
+beginning of the day's work, and sets a bad example to those under your
+authority."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tinkler made no articulate reply, but sat down with a crushed
+expression, and set himself to devour bread and butter with an energy
+which he hoped would divert attention from his blushes; and almost
+immediately the Doctor looked at his watch and said, "Now, boys, you
+have half-an-hour for 'chevy'&mdash;make the most of it. When you come in I
+shall have something to say to you all. Don't rise, Mr. Tinkler, unless
+you have quite finished."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tinkler preferred leaving his breakfast to continuing it under the
+trying ordeal of his principal's inspection. So, hastily murmuring that
+he had "made an excellent breakfast"&mdash;which he had not&mdash;he followed the
+others, who clattered upstairs to put on their boots and go out into the
+playground.</p>
+
+<p>It was noticeable that they did so without much of the enthusiasm which
+might be looked for from boys dismissed to their sports. But the fact
+was that this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> particular sport, "chevy," commonly known as "prisoners'
+base," was by no means a popular amusement, being of a somewhat
+monotonous nature, and calling for no special skill on the part of the
+performers. Besides this, moreover, it had the additional disadvantage
+(which would have been fatal to a far more fascinating diversion) of
+being in a great measure compulsory.</p>
+
+<p>Football and cricket were of course reserved for half-holidays, and
+played in a neighbouring field rented by the Doctor, and in the
+playground he restricted them to "chevy," which he considered, rightly
+enough, both gave them abundant exercise and kept them out of mischief.
+Accordingly, if any adventurous spirit started a rival game, it was
+usually abandoned sooner or later in deference to suggestions from
+headquarters which were not intended to be disregarded.</p>
+
+<p>This, though undoubtedly well meant, did not serve to stimulate their
+affection for the game, an excellent one in moderation, but one which,
+if played "by special desire" two or three hours a day for weeks in
+succession is apt to lose its freshness and pall upon the youthful mind.</p>
+
+<p>It was a bright morning. There had been a hard frost during the night,
+and the ground was hard, sparkling with rime and ringing to the foot.
+The air was keen and invigorating, and the bare black branches of the
+trees were outlined clear and sharp against the pale pure blue of the
+morning sky.</p>
+
+<p>Just the weather for a long day's skating over the dark green glassy
+ice, or a bracing tramp on country roads into cheery red-roofed market
+towns. But now it had lost all power to charm. It was almost depressing
+by the contrast between the boundless liberty suggested, and the dull
+reality of a round of uninteresting work which was all it heralded.</p>
+
+<p>So they lounged listlessly about, gravitating finally towards the end of
+the playground, where a deep furrow marked the line of the base. There
+was no attempt to play. They stood gossiping in knots, grumbling and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
+stamping their feet to keep warm. By-and-by the day-boarders began to
+drop in one by one, several of them, from a want of tact in adapting
+themselves to the general tone, earning decided unpopularity at once by
+a cheerful briskness and an undisguised satisfaction at having something
+definite to do once more.</p>
+
+<p>If Mr. Tinkler, who had joined one of the groups, had not particularly
+distinguished himself at breakfast, he made ample amends now, and by the
+grandeur and manliness of his conversation succeeded in producing a
+decided impression upon some of the smaller boys.</p>
+
+<p>"The bore of a place like this, you know," he was saying with
+magnificent disdain, "is that a fellow can't have his pipe of a morning.
+I've been used to it, and so, of course, I miss it. If I chose to insist
+on it Grimstone couldn't say anything; but with a lot of young fellows
+like you, you see, it wouldn't look well!"</p>
+
+<p>It could hardly have looked worse than little Mr. Tinkler himself would
+have done, if he had ventured upon more than the mildest of cigarettes,
+for he was a poor but pertinacious smoker, and his love for the weed was
+chastened by wholesome fear. There, however, he was in no danger of
+betraying this, and indeed it would have been injudicious to admit it.</p>
+
+<p>"Talking of smoking," he went on, with a soft chuckle, as at
+recollections of unspeakable devilry, "did I ever tell you chaps of a
+tremendous scrape I very nearly got into up at the 'Varsity? Well, you
+must know there's a foolish rule there against smoking in the streets.
+Not that that made any difference to some of us! Well, one night about
+nine, I was strolling down Petty Cury with two other men, smoking
+(Bosher of "Pothouse," and Peebles of "Cats," both pretty well known up
+there for general rowdiness, you know&mdash;great pals of mine!) and, just as
+we turned the corner, who should we see coming straight down on us but a
+Proctor with his bull-dogs (not dogs, you know, but the strongest 'gyps'
+in college). Bosher said, 'Let's cut it!' and he and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> Peebles bolted.
+(They were neither of them funks, of course, but they lost their heads.)
+I went calmly on, smoking my cigar as if nothing was the matter. That
+put the Proctor in a bait, I can tell you! He came fuming up to me.
+'What do you mean, sir,' says he, quite pale with anger (he was a great
+bull-headed fellow, one of the strongest dons of his year, that's why
+they made him a Proctor)&mdash;'what do you mean by breaking the University
+Statutes in this way?' 'It <i>is</i> a fine evening,' said I (I was
+determined to keep cool). 'Do you mean to insult me?' said he. 'No, old
+boy,' said I, 'I don't; have a cigar?' He couldn't stand that, so he
+called up his bull-dogs. 'I give him in charge!' he screamed out. 'I'll
+have him sent down!' 'I'll send you down first,' said I, and I just gave
+him a push&mdash;I never meant to hurt the fellow&mdash;and over he went. I rolled
+over a bull-dog to keep him company, and, as the other fellow didn't
+want any more and stood aside to let me pass, I finished my stroll and
+my cigar."</p>
+
+<p>"Was the Proctor hurt, sir?" inquired a small boy with great respect.</p>
+
+<p>"More frightened than hurt, I always said," said Mr. Tinkler lightly,
+"but somehow he never would proctorise any more&mdash;it spoilt his nerve. He
+was a good deal chaffed about it, but of course no one ever knew I'd had
+anything to do with it!"</p>
+
+<p>With such tales of Homeric exploit did Mr. Tinkler inculcate a spirit of
+discipline and respect for authority. But although he had indeed once
+encountered a Proctor, and at night, he did himself great injustice by
+this version of the proceedings, which were, as a matter of fact, of a
+most peaceable and law-abiding character, and though followed by a
+pecuniary transaction the next day in which six-and-eightpence changed
+pockets, the Proctors continued their duties much as before, while Mr.
+Tinkler's feelings towards them, which had ever been reverential in the
+extreme, were, if anything, intensified by the experience.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p><p>Upon this incident, however, he had gradually embroidered the above
+exciting episode, until he grew to believe at intervals that he really
+had been a devil of a fellow in his time, which, to do him justice, was
+far from the case.</p>
+
+<p>He might have gone on still further to calumniate himself, and excite
+general envy and admiration thereby, if at that moment Dr. Grimstone had
+not happened to appear at the head of the cast-iron staircase that led
+down into the playground; whereupon Mr. Tinkler affected to be intensely
+interested in the game, which, as a kind of involuntary compliment to
+the principal, about this time was galvanised into a sort of vigour.</p>
+
+<p>But the Doctor, after frowning gloomily down upon them for a minute or
+so, suddenly called "All in!"</p>
+
+<p>He had several ways of saying this. Sometimes he would do so in a
+half-regretful tone, as one himself obeying the call of duty; sometimes
+he would appear for some minutes, a benignant spectator, upon the
+balcony, and summon them to work at length with a lenient pity&mdash;for he
+was by no means a hard-hearted man; but at other times he would step
+sharply and suddenly out and shout the word of command with a grim and
+ominous expression. On these last occasions the school generally
+prepared itself for a rather formidable quarter of an hour.</p>
+
+<p>This was the case now and, as a further portent, Mr. Blinkhorn was
+observed to come down and, after a few words with Mr. Tinkler, withdrew
+with him through the school gate.</p>
+
+<p>"He's sent them out for a walk," said Siggers, who was skilled in omens.
+"It's a row!"</p>
+
+<p>Rows at Crichton House, although periodical, and therefore things to be
+forearmed against in some degree, were serious matters. Dr. Grimstone
+was a quick-tempered man, with a copious flow of words and a taste for
+indulging it. He was also strongly prejudiced against many breaches of
+discipline which others might have considered trifling, and whenever he
+had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>discovered any such breach he could not rest until by all the means
+in his power he had ascertained exactly how many were implicated in the
+offence, and to what extent.</p>
+
+<p>His usual method of doing this was to summon the school formally
+together and deliver an elaborate harangue, during which he worked
+himself by degrees into such a state of indignation that his hearers
+were most of them terrified out of their senses, and very often
+conscience-stricken offenders would give themselves up as hopelessly
+detected and reveal transgressions altogether unsuspected by him&mdash;much
+as a net brings up fish of all degrees of merit, or as heavy firing will
+raise drowned corpses to the surface.</p>
+
+<p>Paul naturally knew nothing of this peculiarity; he had kept himself as
+usual apart from the others, and was now trying to compel himself to
+brave the terrors of an avowal at the first opportunity. He followed the
+others up the steps with an uneasy wonder whether, after all, he would
+not find himself ignominiously set down to learn lessons.</p>
+
+<p>The boys filed into the schoolroom in solemn silence, and took their
+seats at the desks and along the brown tables. The Doctor was there
+before them, standing up with one elbow resting upon a reading-stand,
+and with a suggestion of coming thunder in his look and attitude that,
+combined with the oppressive silence, made some of the boys feel
+positively ill.</p>
+
+<p>Presently he began. He said that, since they had come together again, he
+had made a discovery concerning one among them which, astounding as it
+was to him, and painful as he felt it to be compelled to make it known,
+concerned them all to be aware of.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude could scarcely believe his ears. His secret was
+discovered, then; the injury done him by Dick about to be repaired, and
+open restitution and apology offered him! It was not perhaps precisely
+delicate on the Doctor's part to make so public an affair of it, but so
+long as it ended well, he could afford to overlook that.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p><p>So he settled himself comfortably on a form with his back against a
+desk and his legs crossed, his expression indicating plainly that he
+knew what was coming and, on the whole, approved of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Ever since I have devoted myself to the cause of tuition," continued
+the Doctor, "I have made it my object to provide boys under my roof with
+fare so abundant and so palatable that they should have no excuse for
+obtaining extraneous luxuries. I have presided myself at their meals, I
+have superintended their very sports with a fatherly eye&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Here he paused, and fixed one or two of those nearest him with the
+fatherly eye in such a manner that they writhed with confusion.</p>
+
+<p>"He's wandering from the point," thought Paul, a little puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"I have done all this on one understanding&mdash;that the robustness of your
+constitutions, acquired by the plain, simple, but abundant regimen of my
+table, shall not be tampered with by the indulgence in any of the
+pampering products of confectionery. They are absolutely and
+unconditionally prohibited&mdash;as every boy who hears me now knows
+perfectly well!</p>
+
+<p>"And yet" (here he began gradually to relax his self-restraint and lash
+himself into a frenzy of indignation), "what do I find? There are some
+natures so essentially base, so incapable of being affected by kindness,
+so dead to honour and generosity, that they will not scruple to conspire
+or set themselves individually to escape and baffle the wise precautions
+undertaken for their benefit. I will not name the dastards at
+present&mdash;they themselves can look into their hearts and see their guilt
+reflected there&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At this every boy, beginning to see the tendency of his denunciations,
+tried hard to assume an air of conscious innocence and grieved interest,
+the majority achieving conspicuous failure.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not like to think," said Dr. Grimstone, "that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> evil has a
+wider existence than I yet know of. It may be so; nothing will surprise
+me now. There may be some before me trembling with the consciousness of
+secret guilt. If so, let those boys make the only reparation in their
+power, and give themselves up in an honourable and straightforward
+manner!"</p>
+
+<p>To this invitation, which indeed resembled that of the duck-destroying
+Mrs. Bond, no one made any response. They had grown too wary, and now
+preferred to play a waiting game.</p>
+
+<p>"Then let the being&mdash;for I will not call him boy&mdash;who is known to me,
+step forth and confess his fault publicly, and sue for pardon!"
+thundered the Doctor, now warmed to his theme.</p>
+
+<p>But the being declined from a feeling of modesty, and a faint hope that
+somebody else might, after all, be the person aimed at.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I name him!" stormed Dr. Grimstone; "Cornelius Coggs&mdash;stand up!"</p>
+
+<p>Coggs half rose in a limp manner, whimpering feebly, "Me, sir? Oh,
+please sir&mdash;no, not me, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you, sir, and let your companions regard you with the contempt and
+abhorrence you so richly merit!" Here, needless to say, the whole school
+glared at poor Coggs with as much virtuous indignation as they could
+summon up at such short notice; for contempt is very infectious when
+communicated from high quarters.</p>
+
+<p>"So, Coggs," said the Doctor, with a slow and withering scorn, "so you
+thought to defy me; to smuggle compressed illness and concentrated
+unhealthiness into this school with impunity? You flattered yourself
+that after I had once confiscated your contraband poisons, you would
+hear no more of it! You deceived yourself, sir! I tell you, once for
+all, that I will not allow you to contaminate your innocent schoolmates
+with your gifts of surreptitious sweetmeats; they shall not be perverted
+with your pernicious peppermints, sir; you shall not deprave them by
+jujubes, or enervate them with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>Turkish Delight! I will not expose
+myself or them to the inroads of disease invited here by a hypocritical
+inmate of my walls. The traitor shall have his reward!"</p>
+
+<p>All of which simply meant that the Doctor, having once had a small boy
+taken seriously ill from the effects of overeating himself, was
+naturally anxious to avoid such an inconvenience for the future. "Thanks
+to the fearless honesty of a youth," continued the Doctor, "who, in an
+eccentric manner, certainly, but with, I do not doubt, the best of
+motives, opened my eyes to the fell evil, I am enabled to cope with it
+at its birth. Richard Bultitude, I take this occasion of publicly
+thanking and commending you; your conduct was noble!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude was too angry and disappointed to speak. He had thought
+his path was going to be made smooth, and now all this ridiculous fuss
+was being made about a few peppermint lozenges. He wished he had never
+mentioned them. It was not the last time he breathed that wish. "As for
+you, Coggs," said the Doctor, suddenly producing a lithe brown cane, "I
+shall make a public example of you."</p>
+
+<p>Coggs stared idiotically and protested, but after a short and painful
+scene, was sent off up to his bedroom, yelping like a kicked puppy.</p>
+
+<p>"One word more," said the Doctor, now almost calm again. "I know that
+you all think with me in your horror of the treachery I have just
+exposed. I know that you would scorn to participate in it." (A thrill
+and murmur, expressive of intense horror and scorn, went round the
+benches.) "You are anxious to prove that you do so beyond a doubt."
+(Again a murmur of assent.) "I give you all that opportunity. I have
+implicit trust and confidence in you&mdash;let every boarder go down into the
+box-room and fetch up his playbox, just as it is, and open it here
+before me."</p>
+
+<p>There was a general fall of jaws at this very unexpected conclusion; but
+contriving to overcome their dismay, they went outside and down through
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>playground into the box-room, Paul amongst the rest, and amidst
+universal confusion, everyone opened his box, and, with a consideration
+especially laudable in heedless boyhood, thoughtfully and carefully
+removed from it all such dainties as might be calculated to shock or
+pain their preceptor.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude found a key which was labelled "playbox," and began to
+open a box which bore Dick's initials cut upon the lid; without any
+apprehensions, however, for he had given too strict orders to his
+daughter, to fear that any luxuries would be concealed there.</p>
+
+<p>But no sooner had he raised the lid than he staggered back with disgust.
+It was crammed with cakes, butterscotch, hardbake, pots of jam, and even
+a bottle of ginger wine&mdash;enough to compromise a chameleon!</p>
+
+<p>He set himself to pitch them all out as soon as possible with feverish
+haste, but Tipping was too quick for him. "Hallo!" he cried: "oh, I say,
+you fellows, come here! Just look at this! Here's this impudent young
+beggar, who sneaked of poor old Coggs for sucking jujubes, and very
+nearly got us all into a jolly good row, with his own box full all the
+time; butterscotch, if you please, and jam, and ginger wine! You'll just
+put 'em all back again, will you, you young humbug!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you use those words to me, sir?" said Paul angrily, for he did not
+like to be called a humbug.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, please, sir," jeered Tipping; "I did venture to take such a
+liberty, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it was like your infernal impudence," growled Paul. "You be kind
+enough to leave my affairs alone. Upon my word, what boys are coming to
+nowadays!"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to put that tuck back?" said Tipping impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, I'm not. Don't interfere with what you're not expected to
+understand!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you won't," said Tipping easily, "I suppose we must.
+Biddlecomb, kindly knock him down, and sit on his head while I fill his
+playbox for him."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p><p>This was neatly and quickly done. Biddlecomb tripped Mr. Bultitude up,
+and sat firmly on him, while Tipping carefully replaced the good things
+in Dick's box, after which he locked it, and courteously returned the
+key. "As the box is heavy," he said, with a wicked wink, "I'll carry it
+up for you myself," which he did, Paul following, more dead than alive,
+and too shaken even to expostulate.</p>
+
+<p>"Bultitude's box was rather too heavy for him, sir," he explained as he
+came in; and Dr. Grimstone, who had quite recovered his equanimity,
+smiled indulgently, and remarked that he "liked to see the strong
+assisting the weak."</p>
+
+<p>All the boxes had by this time been brought up, and were ranged upon the
+tables, while the Doctor went round, making an almost formal inspection,
+like a Custom House officer searching compatriots, and becoming milder
+and milder as box after box opened to reveal a fair and innocent
+interior.</p>
+
+<p>Paul's turn was coming very near, and his heart seemed to shrivel like a
+burst bladder. He fumbled with his key, and tried hard to lose it. It
+was terrible to have oneself to apply the match which is to blow one to
+the winds. If&mdash;if&mdash;the idea was almost too horrible&mdash;but if he, a
+blameless and respectable city merchant, were actually to find himself
+served like the miserable Coggs!</p>
+
+<p>At last the Doctor actually stood by him. "Well, my boy," he said, not
+unkindly, "I'm not afraid of anything wrong here, at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude, who had the best reasons for not sharing his confidence,
+made some inarticulate sounds, and pretended to have a difficulty in
+turning the key.</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? Come, open the box," said the Doctor with an altered manner. "What
+are you fumbling at it for in this&mdash;this highly suspicious manner? I'll
+open it myself."</p>
+
+<p>He took the key and opened the lid, when the cakes and wine stood
+revealed in all their damning profusion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> The Doctor stepped back
+dramatically. "Hardbake!" he gasped; "wine, pots of strawberry jam! Oh,
+Bultitude, this is a revelation indeed! So I have nourished one more
+viper in my bosom, have I? A crawling reptile which curries favour by
+denouncing the very crime it conceals in its playbox! Bultitude, I was
+not prepared for such duplicity as this!"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I swear I never put them in!" protested the unhappy Paul. "I&mdash;I
+never touch such things: they would bring on my gout in half-an-hour.
+It's ridiculous to punish me. I never knew they were there!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then why were you so anxious to avoid opening the box?" rejoined the
+Doctor. "No, sir, you're too ingenious; your guilt is clear. Go to your
+dormitory, and wait there till I come to you!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul went upstairs, feeling utterly abandoned and helpless. Though a
+word as to his real character might have saved him, he could not have
+said it, and, worse still, knew now that he could not.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be caned," he told himself, and the thought nearly drove him
+mad. "I know I shall be caned! What on earth shall I do?"</p>
+
+<p>He opened the door of his bedroom. Coggs was rocking and moaning on his
+bed in one corner of the room, but looked up with red furious eyes as
+Paul came in.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want up here?" he said savagely. "Go away, can't you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I <i>could</i> go away," said Paul dolefully; "but I'm&mdash;hum&mdash;I'm sent
+up here too," he explained, with some natural embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" cried Coggs, slipping off his bed and staring wildly: "you don't
+mean to say you're going to catch it too?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've&mdash;ah&mdash;every reason to fear," said Mr. Bultitude stiffly, "that I am
+indeed going to 'catch it,' as you call it."</p>
+
+<p>"Hooray!" shouted Coggs hysterically: "I don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> care now. And I'll have
+some revenge on my own account as well. I don't mind an extra licking,
+and you're in for one as it is. Will you stand up to me or not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand you," said Paul. "Don't come so near. Keep off, you
+young demon, will you!" he cried presently, as Coggs, exasperated by all
+his wrongs, was rushing at him with an evidently hostile intent. "There,
+don't be annoyed, my good boy," he pleaded, catching up a chair as a
+bulwark. "It was a misunderstanding. I wish you no harm. There, my dear
+young friend! Don't!"</p>
+
+<p>The "dear young friend" was grappling with him and attempting to wrest
+the chair away by brute force. "When I get at you," he said, his hot
+breath hissing through the chair rungs, "I'll jolly well teach you to
+sneak of me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Murder!" Paul gasped, feeling his hold on the chair relaxing. "Unless
+help comes this young fiend will have my blood!"</p>
+
+<p>They were revolving slowly round the chair, watching each other's eyes
+like gladiators, when Paul noticed a sudden blankness and fixity in his
+antagonist's expression, and, looking round, saw Dr. Grimstone's awful
+form framed in the doorway, and gave himself up for lost.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="Learning_and_Accomplishments" id="Learning_and_Accomplishments"></a>6. <i>Learning and Accomplishments</i></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I subscribe to Lucian: 'tis an elegant thing which cheareth up the
+mind, exerciseth the body, delights the spectators, which teacheth
+many comely gestures, equally affecting the ears, eyes and soul
+itself."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Burton</span>, <i>on Dancing</i>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"What is this?" asked Dr. Grimstone in his most blood-curdling tone,
+after a most impressive pause at the dormitory door.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude held his tongue, but kept fast hold of his chair, which he
+held before him as a defence against either party, while Coggs remained
+motionless in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> centre of the room, with crooked knees and hands
+dangling impotently.</p>
+
+<p>"Will one of you be good enough to explain how you come to be found
+struggling in this unseemly manner? I sent you up here to meditate on
+your past behaviour."</p>
+
+<p>"I should be most happy to meditate, sir," protested Paul, lowering his
+chair on discovering that there was no immediate danger, "if that&mdash;that
+bloodthirsty young ruffian there would allow me to do so. I am going
+about in bodily fear of him, Dr. Grimstone. I want him bound over to
+keep the peace. I decline to be left alone with him&mdash;he's not safe!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so, Coggs? Are you mean and base enough to take this cowardly
+revenge on a boy who has had the moral courage to expose your
+deceit&mdash;for your ultimate good&mdash;a boy who is unable to defend himself
+against you?"</p>
+
+<p>"He can fight when he chooses, sir," said Coggs; "he blacked my eye last
+term, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"I assure you," said Paul, with the convincing earnestness of truth,
+"that I never blacked anybody's eye in the whole course of my life. I am
+not&mdash;ah&mdash;a pugnacious man. My age, and&mdash;hum&mdash;my position, ought to
+protect me from these scandals&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You've come back this year, sir," said Dr. Grimstone, "with a very odd
+way of talking of yourself&mdash;an exceedingly odd way. Unless I see you
+abandoning it, and behaving like a reasonable boy again, I shall be
+forced to conclude you intend some disrespect and open defiance by it."</p>
+
+<p>"If you would allow me an opportunity of explaining my position, sir,"
+said Paul, "I would undertake to clear your mind directly of such a
+monstrous idea. I am trying to assert my rights, Dr. Grimstone&mdash;my
+rights as a citizen, as a householder! This is no place for me, and I
+appeal to you to set me free. If you only knew one tenth&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Let us understand one another, Bultitude," <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>interrupted the Doctor.
+"You may think it an excellent joke to talk nonsense to me like this.
+But let me tell you there is a point where a jest becomes an insult.
+I've spared you hitherto out of consideration for the feelings of your
+excellent father, who is so anxious that you should become an object of
+pride and credit to him; but if you dare to treat me to any more of this
+bombast about 'explaining your rights,' you will force me to exercise
+one of mine&mdash;the right to inflict corporal punishment, sir&mdash;which you
+have just seen in operation upon another."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Mr. Bultitude faintly, feeling utterly crestfallen&mdash;and he
+could say nothing more.</p>
+
+<p>"As for those illicit luxuries in your playbox," continued the Doctor,
+"the fact that you brought the box up as it was is in your favour; and I
+am inclined on reflection to overlook the affair, if you can assure me
+that you were no party to their being put there?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," said Paul, "I gave the strictest orders that there
+was to be no such useless extravagance. I objected to have the kitchen
+and housekeeper's room ransacked to make a set of rascally boys ill for
+a fortnight at my expense!"</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor stared slightly at this creditable but unnatural view of the
+subject. However, as he could not quarrel with the sentiment, he let the
+manner of expressing it pass unrebuked for the present, and, after
+sentencing Coggs to two days' detention and the copying of innumerable
+French verbs, he sent the ill-matched pair down to the schoolroom to
+join their respective classes.</p>
+
+<p>Paul went resignedly downstairs and into the room, where he found Mr.
+Blinkhorn at the head of one of the long tables, taking a class of about
+a dozen boys.</p>
+
+<p>"Take your Livy and Latin Primer, Bultitude," said Mr. Blinkhorn mildly,
+"and sit down."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Blinkhorn was a tall angular man, with a long neck and slightly
+drooping head. He had thin wiry brown hair, and a plain face, with
+shortsighted kind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> brown eyes. In character he was mild and reserved,
+too conscientious to allow himself the luxury of either favourites or
+aversions among the boys, all of whom in his secret soul he probably
+disliked about equally, though he neither said nor did anything to show
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Paul took a book&mdash;any book, for he did not know or care to know one from
+another&mdash;and sat down at the end furthest from the master, inwardly
+rebelling at having education thus forced upon him at his advanced
+years, but seeing no escape.</p>
+
+<p>"At dinner time," he resolved desperately, "I will insist on speaking
+out, but just now it is simply prudent to humour them."</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the class drew away from him with marked coldness and
+occasionally saluted him (when Mr. Blinkhorn's attention was called
+away) with terms and grimaces which Paul, although he failed thoroughly
+to understand them, felt instinctively were not intended as compliments.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Blinkhorn's notions of discipline were qualified by a sportsmanlike
+instinct which forbade him to harass a boy already in trouble, as he
+understood young Bultitude had been, and so he forbore from pressing him
+to take any share in the class work.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude therefore was saved from any necessity of betraying his
+total ignorance of his author, and sat gloomily on the hard form,
+impatiently watching the minute-hand skulk round the mean dull face of
+the clock above the chimney-piece, while around him one boy after
+another droned out a listless translation of the work before him,
+interrupted by mild corrections and comments from the master.</p>
+
+<p>What a preposterous change from all his ordinary habits! At this very
+time, only twenty-four hours since, he was stepping slowly and
+majestically towards his accustomed omnibus, which was waiting with
+deference for him to overtake it; he was taking his seat, saluted
+respectfully by the conductor and cheerily by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> his fellow-passengers, as
+a man of recognised mark and position.</p>
+
+<p>Now that omnibus would halt at the corner of Westbourne Terrace in vain,
+and go on its way Bankwards without him. He was many miles away&mdash;in the
+very last place where anyone would be likely to look for him, occupying
+the post of "whipping-boy" to his miserable son!</p>
+
+<p>Was ever an inoffensive and respectable gentleman placed in a more false
+and ridiculous position?</p>
+
+<p>If he had only kept his drawer locked, and hidden the abominable Garud&acirc;
+Stone away from Dick's prying eyes; if he had let the moralising alone;
+if Boaler had not been so long fetching that cab, or if he had not
+happened to faint at the critical moment&mdash;what an immense difference any
+one of these apparent trifles would have made.</p>
+
+<p>And now what was he to do to get out of this incongruous and distasteful
+place? It was all very well to say that he had only to insist upon a
+hearing from the Doctor, but what if, as he had very grave reason to
+fear, the Doctor should absolutely refuse to listen, should even proceed
+to carry out his horrible threat? Must he remain there till the holidays
+came to release him? Suppose Dick&mdash;as he certainly would unless he was
+quite a fool&mdash;declined to receive him during the holidays? It was
+absolutely necessary to return home at once; every additional hour he
+passed in imprisonment made it harder to regain his lost self.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then he roused himself from all these gloomy thoughts to observe
+his companions. The boys at the upper end, near Mr. Blinkhorn, were
+fairly attentive, and he noticed one small smug-faced boy about half-way
+up, who, while a class-mate was faltering and blundering over some
+question, would cry "I know, sir. Let me tell him. Ask me, sir!" in a
+restless agony of superior information.</p>
+
+<p>Down by Paul, however, the discipline was relaxed enough, as perhaps
+could only be expected on the first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> day of term. One wild-eyed
+long-haired boy had brought out a small china figure with which, and the
+assistance of his right hand draped in a pocket handkerchief, and
+wielding a penholder, he was busy enacting a drama based on the lines of
+Punch and Judy, to the breathless amusement of his neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude might have hoped to escape notice by a policy of judicious
+self-effacement, but unhappily his long, blank, uninterested face was
+held by his companions to bear an implied reproach; and being delicately
+sensitive on this point, they kicked his legs viciously, which made him
+extremely glad when dinnertime came, although he felt too faint and
+bilious to be tempted by anything but the lightest and daintiest
+luncheon.</p>
+
+<p>But at dinner he found, with a shudder, that he was expected to swallow
+a thick ragged section of boiled mutton which had been carved and helped
+so long before he sat down to it, that the stagnant gravy was chilled
+and congealed into patches of greasy white. He managed to swallow it
+with many pauses of invincible disgust&mdash;only to find it replaced by a
+solid slab of pale brown suet pudding, sparsely bedewed with unctuous
+black treacle.</p>
+
+<p>This, though a plentiful, and by no means unwholesome fare for growing
+boys, was not what he had been accustomed to, and feeling far too heavy
+and unwell after it to venture upon an encounter with the Doctor, he
+wandered slow and melancholy round the bare gravelled playground during
+the half-hour after dinner devoted to the inevitable "chevy," until the
+Doctor appeared at the head of the staircase.</p>
+
+<p>It is always sad for the historian to have to record a departure from
+principle, and I have to confess with shame on Mr. Bultitude's account
+that, feeling the Doctor's eye upon him, and striving to propitiate him,
+he humiliated himself so far as to run about with an elaborate affection
+of zest, and his exertions were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> rewarded by hearing himself cordially
+encouraged to further efforts.</p>
+
+<p>It cheered and emboldened him. "I've put him in a good temper," he told
+himself; "if I can only keep him in one till the evening, I really think
+I might be able to go up and tell him what a ridiculous mess I've got
+into. Why should I care, after all? At least I've done nothing to be
+ashamed of. It's an accident that might have happened to any man!"</p>
+
+<p>It is a curious and unpleasant thing that, however reassuring and
+convincing the arguments may be with which we succeed in bracing
+ourselves to meet or disregard unpleasantness, the force of those
+arguments seldom or never outlasts the frame of mind in which they are
+composed, and when the unpleasantness is at hand, there we are, just as
+unreasonably alarmed at it as ever.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude's confidence faded away almost as soon as he found himself
+in the schoolroom again. He found himself assigned to a class at one end
+of the room, where Mr. Tinkler presently introduced a new rule in
+Algebra to them, in such a manner as to procure for it a lasting
+unpopularity with all those who were not too much engaged in drawing
+duels and railway trains upon their slates to attend.</p>
+
+<p>Although Paul did not draw upon his slate, his utter ignorance of
+Algebra prevented him from being much edified by the cabalistic signs on
+the blackboard, which Mr. Tinkler seemed to chalk up dubiously, and rub
+out again as soon as possible, with an air of being ashamed of them. So
+he tried to nerve himself for the coming ordeal by furtively watching
+and studying the Doctor, who was taking a Xenophon class at the upper
+end of the room, and, being in fairly good humour, was combining
+instruction with amusement in a manner peculiarly his own.</p>
+
+<p>He stopped the construing occasionally to illustrate some word or
+passage by an anecdote; he condescended to enliven the translation here
+and there by a familiar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> and colloquial paraphrase; he magnanimously
+refrained from pressing any obviously inconvenient questions; and his
+manner generally was marked by a geniality which was additionally
+piquant from its extreme uncertainty.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude could not help thinking it a rather ghastly form of
+gaiety, but he hoped it might last.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, however, some one brought him a blue envelope on a tray. He
+read it, and a frown gathered on his face. The boy who was translating
+at the time went on again in his former slipshod manner (which had
+hitherto provoked only jovial criticism and correction) with complete
+self-complacency, but found himself sternly brought to book, and
+burdened by a heavy imposition, before he quite realised that his
+blunders had ceased to amuse.</p>
+
+<p>Then began a season of sore trial and tribulation for the class. The
+Doctor suddenly withdrew the light of his countenance from them, and
+sunshine was succeeded by blackest thunderclouds. The wind was no longer
+tempered to the more closely shorn of the flock; the weakest vessels
+were put on unexpectedly at crucial passages, and, coming hopelessly to
+grief, were denounced as impostors and idlers, till half the class was
+dissolved in tears.</p>
+
+<p>A few of the better grounded stood the fire, like a remnant of the Old
+Guard. With faces pale from alarm, and trembling voices, but perfect
+accuracy, they answered all the Doctor's searching inquiries after the
+paradigms of Greek verbs that seemed irregular to the verge of
+impropriety.</p>
+
+<p>Paul saw it all with renewed misgiving. "If I were there," he thought,
+"I should have been run out and flogged long ago! How angry those stupid
+young idiots are making him! How can I go up and speak to him when he's
+like that? And yet I must. I'm sitting on dynamite as it is. The very
+first time they want me to answer any questions from some of their
+books, I shall be ruined! Why wasn't I better educated when I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> was a
+boy, or why didn't I make a better use of my opportunities! It will be a
+bitter thing if they thrash me for not knowing as much as Dick.
+Grimstone's coming this way now; it's all over with me!"</p>
+
+<p>The Greek class had managed to repel the enemy, with some loss to
+themselves, and the Doctor now left his place for a moment, and came
+down towards the bench on which Paul sat trembling.</p>
+
+<p>The storm, however, had passed over for the present, and he only said
+with restored calmness, "Who were the boys who learnt dancing last
+term?"</p>
+
+<p>One or two of them said they had done so, and Dr. Grimstone continued:
+"Mr. Burdekin was unable to give you the last lesson of his course last
+term, and has arranged to take you to-day, as he will be in the
+neighbourhood. So be off at once to Mrs. Grimstone and change your
+shoes. Bultitude, you learnt last term, too. Go with the others."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude was too overcome by this unexpected attack to contradict
+it, though of course he was quite able to do so; but then, if he had, he
+must have explained all, and he felt strongly that just then was neither
+the time nor the place for particulars.</p>
+
+<p>It would have been wiser perhaps, it would certainly have brought
+matters to a crisis, if he could have forced himself to tell
+everything&mdash;the whole truth in all its outrageous improbability&mdash;but he
+could not.</p>
+
+<p>Let those who feel inclined to blame him for lack of firmness consider
+how difficult and delicate a business it must almost of necessity be for
+anyone to declare openly, in the teeth of common sense and plain facts,
+that there has been a mistake, and, in point of fact, he is not his own
+son, but his own father.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I must go," he thought. "I needn't dance. Haven't danced
+since I was a young man. But I can't afford to offend him just now."</p>
+
+<p>And so he followed the rest into a sort of cloak-room, where the tall
+hats which the boys wore on Sundays<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> were all kept on shelves in white
+bandboxes; and there his hair was brushed, his feet were thrust into
+very shiny patent leather shoes, and a pair of kid gloves was given out
+to him to put on.</p>
+
+<p>The dancing lesson was to be held in the "Dining Hall," from which the
+savour of mutton had not altogether departed. When Paul came in he found
+the floor cleared and the tables and forms piled up on one side of the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>Biddlecomb and Tipping and some of the smaller boys were there already,
+their gloves and shiny shoes giving them a feeling of ceremony and
+constraint which they tried to carry off by an uncouth parody of
+politeness.</p>
+
+<p>Siggers was telling stories of the dances he had been to in town, and
+the fine girls whose step had exactly suited his own, and Tipping was
+leaning gloomily against the wall listening to something Chawner was
+whispering in his ear.</p>
+
+<p>There was a rustle of dresses down the stairs outside, and two thin
+little girls, looking excessively proper and prim, came in with an
+elderly gentlewoman who was their governess and wore a <i>pince-nez</i> to
+impart the necessary suggestion of a superior intellect. They were the
+Miss Mutlows, sisters of one of the day-boarders, and attended the
+course by special favour as friends of Dulcie's, who followed them in
+with a little gleam of shy anticipation in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The Miss Mutlows sat stiffly down on a form, one on each side of her
+governess, and all three stared solemnly at the boys, who began to blush
+vividly under the inspection, to unbutton and rebutton their gloves with
+great care, and to shift from leg to leg in an embarrassed manner.</p>
+
+<p>Dulcie soon singled out poor Mr. Bultitude, who, mindful of Tipping's
+warning, was doing his very best to avoid her.</p>
+
+<p>She ran straight to him, laid her hand on his arm and looked into his
+face pleadingly. "Dick," she said, "you're not sulky still, are you?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p><p>Mr. Bultitude had borne a good deal already, and, not being remarkably
+sweet-natured, he shook the little hand away, half petulant and half
+alarmed. "I do wish you wouldn't do this sort of thing in public. You'll
+compromise me, you know!" he said nervously.</p>
+
+<p>Dulcie opened her grey eyes wide, and then a flush came into her cheeks,
+and she made a little disdainful upward movement of her chin.</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't mind it once," she said. "I thought you might want to dance
+with me. You liked to last term. But I'm sure I don't care if you choose
+to be disagreeable. Go and dance with Mary Mutlow if you want to, though
+you did say she danced like a pair of compasses, and I shall tell her
+you said so, too. And you know you're not a good dancer yourself. <i>Are</i>
+you going to dance with Mary?"</p>
+
+<p>Paul stamped. "I tell you I never dance," he said. "I can't dance any
+more than a lamp-post. You don't seem an ill-natured little girl, but
+why on earth can't you let me alone?"</p>
+
+<p>Dulcie's eyes flashed. "You're a nasty sulky boy," she said in an angry
+undertone (all the conversation had, of course, been carried on in
+whispers). "I'll never speak to you or look at you again. You're the
+most horrid boy in the school&mdash;and the ugliest!"</p>
+
+<p>And she turned proudly away, though anyone who looked might have seen
+the fire in her eyes extinguished as she did so. Perhaps Tipping did see
+it, for he scowled at them from his corner.</p>
+
+<p>There was another sound outside, as of fiddlestrings being twanged by
+the finger, and, as the boys hastily formed up in two lines down the
+centre of the room and the Miss Mutlows and Dulcie prepared themselves
+for the curtsey of state, there came in a little fat man, with
+mutton-chop whiskers and a white face, upon which was written an
+unalterable conviction that his manner and deportment were perfection
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>The two rows of boys bent themselves stiffly from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> back, and Mr.
+Burdekin returned the compliment by an inclusive and stately
+inclination.</p>
+
+<p>"Good afternoon, madam. Young ladies, I trust I find you well. (The
+curtsey just a leetle lower, Miss Mutlow&mdash;the right foot less drawn
+back. Beautiful! Feet closer at the recovery. Perfect!) Young gentlemen,
+good evening. Take your usual places, please, all of you, for our
+preliminary exercises. Now, the <i>chass&eacute;e</i> round the room. Will you lead
+off, please, Dummer; the hands just lightly touching the shoulders, the
+head thrown negligently back to balance the figure; the whole deportment
+easy, but not careless. Now, please!"</p>
+
+<p>And, talking all the time with a metrical fluency, he scraped a little
+jig on the violin, while Dummer led off a procession which solemnly
+capered round the room in sundry stages of conscious awkwardness. Mr.
+Bultitude shuffled along somehow after the rest, with rebellion at his
+heart and a deep sense of degradation. "If my clerks were to see me
+now!" he thought.</p>
+
+<p>After some minutes of this, Mr. Burdekin stopped them and directed sets
+to be formed for "The Lancers."</p>
+
+<p>"Bultitude," said Mr. Burdekin, "you will take Miss Mutlow, please."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Paul, "but&mdash;ah&mdash;I don't dance."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, nonsense, sir, you are one of my most promising pupils. You
+mustn't tell me that. Not another word! Come, select your partners."</p>
+
+<p>Paul had no option. He was paired off with the tall and rather angular
+young lady mentioned, while Dulcie looked on pouting, and snubbed
+Tipping, who humbly asked for the pleasure of dancing with her, by
+declaring that she meant to dance with Tom.</p>
+
+<p>The dance began to a sort of rhythmical accompaniment by Mr. Burdekin,
+who intoned "Tops advance, retire and cross. Balance at corners. (Very
+nice, Miss Grimstone!) More '<i>abandon</i>,' Chawner! Lift the feet more
+from the floor. Not so high as that! Oh, dear me! that last figure over
+again. And slide the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> feet, oh, slide the feet! (Bultitude, you're
+leaving out all the steps!")</p>
+
+<p>Paul was dragged, unwilling but unresisting, through it all by his
+partner, who jerked and pushed him into his place without a word, being
+apparently under strict orders from the governess not on any account to
+speak to the boys.</p>
+
+<p>After the dance the couples promenaded in a stiff but stately manner
+round the room to a dirge-like march scraped upon the violin, the boys
+taking the parts of ladies jibbing away from their partners in a highly
+unlady-like fashion, and the boy burdened with the companionship of the
+younger Miss Mutlow walking along in a very agony of bashfulness.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," thought Paul, as he led the way with Miss Mary Mutlow, "if
+Dick were ever to hear of this, he'd think it <i>funny</i>. Oh, if I ever get
+the upper hand of him again&mdash;&mdash;. How much longer, I wonder, shall I have
+to play the fool to this infernal fiddle!"</p>
+
+<p>But, if this was bad, worse was to come.</p>
+
+<p>There was another pause, in which Mr. Burdekin said blandly, "I wonder
+now if we have forgotten our sailor's hornpipe. Perhaps Bultitude will
+prove the contrary. If I remember right, he used to perform it with
+singular correctness. And, let me tell you, there are a great number of
+spurious hornpipe steps in circulation. Come, sir, oblige me by dancing
+it alone!"</p>
+
+<p>This was the final straw. It was not to be supposed for one moment that
+Mr. Bultitude would lower his dignity in such a preposterous manner.
+Besides, he did not know how to dance the hornpipe.</p>
+
+<p>So he said, "I shall do nothing of the sort. I've had quite enough of
+this&mdash;ah&mdash;tomfoolery!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is a very impolite manner of declining, Bultitude; highly
+discourteous and unpolished. I must insist now&mdash;really, as a personal
+matter&mdash;upon your going through the sailor's hornpipe. Come, you won't
+make a scene, I'm sure. You'll oblige me, as a gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p><p>"I tell you I can't!" said Mr. Bultitude sullenly. "I never did such a
+thing in my life; it would be enough to kill me at my age!"</p>
+
+<p>"This is untrue, sir. Do you mean to say you will not dance the
+hornpipe?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Paul, "I'll be damned if I do!"</p>
+
+<p>There was unfortunately no possible doubt about the nature of the word
+used&mdash;he said it so very distinctly. The governess screamed and called
+her charges to her. Dulcie hid her face, and some of the boys tittered.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burdekin turned pink. "After that disgraceful language, sir, in the
+presence of the fairer sex, I have no more to do with you. You will have
+the goodness to stand in the centre of that form. Gentlemen, select your
+partners for the Highland schottische!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude, by no means sorry to be freed from the irksome necessity
+of dancing with a heart ill-attuned for enjoyment, got up on the form
+and stood looking, sullenly enough, upon the proceedings. The governess
+glowered at him now and then as a monster of youthful depravity; the
+Miss Mutlows glanced up at him as they tripped past, with curiosity not
+unmixed with admiration, but Dulcie steadily avoided looking in his
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>Paul was just congratulating himself upon his escape when the door
+opened wide, and the Doctor marched slowly and imposingly into the room.</p>
+
+<p>He did this occasionally, partly to superintend matters, and partly as
+an encouraging mark of approbation. He looked round the class at first
+with benignant toleration, until his glance took in the bench upon which
+Mr. Bultitude was set up. Then his eye slowly travelled up to the level
+of Paul's head, his expression changing meanwhile to a petrifying glare.</p>
+
+<p>It was not, as Paul instinctively felt, exactly the position in which a
+gentleman who wished to stand well with those in authority over him
+would prefer to be found. He felt his heart turn to water within him,
+and stared limp and helpless at the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p><p>There was an awful silence (Dr. Grimstone was addicted to awful
+silences; and, indeed, if seldom strictly "golden," silence may often be
+called "iron"), but at last he inquired, "And pray what may you be doing
+up there, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my soul I can't say," said Mr. Bultitude feebly. "Ask that
+gentleman there with the fiddle&mdash;he knows."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burdekin was a good-natured, easy-tempered little man, and had
+already forgotten the affront to his dignity. He was anxious not to get
+the boy into more trouble.</p>
+
+<p>"Bultitude was a little inattentive and, I may say, wanting in respect,
+Dr. Grimstone," he said, putting it as mildly as he could with any
+accuracy; "so I ventured to place him there as a punishment."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right, Mr. Burdekin," said the Doctor: "quite right. I am sorry
+that any boy of mine should have caused you to do so. You are again
+beginning your career of disorder and rebellion, are you, sir? Go up
+into the schoolroom at once, and write a dozen copies before tea-time! A
+very little more eccentricity and insubordination from you, Bultitude,
+and you will reap a full reward&mdash;a full reward, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>So Mr. Bultitude was driven out of the dancing class in dire
+disgrace&mdash;which would not have distressed him particularly, being only
+one more drop in his bitter cup&mdash;but that he recognised that now his
+hopes of approaching the Doctor with his burden of woe were fallen like
+a card castle. They were fiddled and danced away for at least
+twenty-four hours&mdash;perhaps for ever!</p>
+
+<p>Bitterly did he brood over this as he slowly and laboriously copied out
+sundry vain repetitions of such axioms as, "Cultivate Habits of Courtesy
+and Self-control," and "True Happiness is to be sought in Contentment."
+He saw the prospect of a tolerably severe flogging growing more and more
+distinct, and felt that he could not present himself to his family with
+the consciousness of having suffered such an indelible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> disgrace. His
+family! What would become of them in his absence? Would he ever see his
+comfortable home in Bayswater again?</p>
+
+<p>Tea-time came, and after it evening preparation, when Mr. Tinkler
+presided in a feeble and ineffective manner, perpetually suspecting that
+the faint sniggers he heard were indulged in at his own expense, and
+calling perfectly innocent victims to account for them.</p>
+
+<p>Paul sat next to Jolland and, in his desperate anxiety to avoid further
+unpleasantness, found himself, as he could not for his life have written
+a Latin or a German composition, reduced to copy down his neighbour's
+exercises. This Jolland (who had looked forward to an arrangement of a
+very opposite kind) nevertheless cheerfully allowed him to do, though he
+expressed doubts as to the wisdom of a servile imitation&mdash;more, perhaps,
+from prudence than conscientiousness.</p>
+
+<p>Jolland, in the intervals of study, was deeply engaged in the production
+of a small illustrated work of fiction, which he was pleased to call
+<i>The Adventures of Ben Buterkin at Scool</i>. It was in a great measure an
+autobiography, and the cuts depicting the hero's flagellations&mdash;which
+were frequent in the course of the narrative&mdash;were executed with much
+vigour and feeling.</p>
+
+<p>He turned out a great number of these works in the course of the term,
+as well as faces in pen and ink with moving tongues and rolling eyes,
+and these he would present to a few favoured friends with a secretive
+and self-depreciatory giggle.</p>
+
+<p>Amidst scenes and companions like these, Paul sat out the evening hours
+on his hard seat, which was just at the junction of two forms&mdash;an
+exquisitely uncomfortable position, as all who have tried it will
+acknowledge&mdash;until the time for going to bed came round again. He
+dreaded the hours of darkness, but there was no help for it&mdash;to protest
+would have been madness just then, and, once more, he was forced to pass
+a night under the roof of Crichton House.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p><p>It was even worse than the first, though this was greatly owing to his
+own obstinacy.</p>
+
+<p>The boys, if less subdued, were in better temper than the evening
+before, and found it troublesome to keep up a feud when the first flush
+of resentment had died out. There was a general disposition to forget
+his departure from the code of schoolboy honour, and give him an
+opportunity of retrieving the past.</p>
+
+<p>But he would not meet them half-way; his repeated repulses by the Doctor
+and all the difficulties that beset his return to freedom had made him
+very sulky and snappish. He had not patience or adaptability enough to
+respond to their advances, and only shrank from their rough good
+nature&mdash;which naturally checked the current of good feeling.</p>
+
+<p>Then, when the lights were put out, some one demanded a story. Most of
+the bedrooms possessed a professional story-teller, and in one there was
+a young romancist who began a stirring history the very first night of
+the term, which always ran on until the night before the holidays, and,
+if his hearers were apt to yawn at the sixth week of it, he himself
+enjoyed and believed in it keenly from beginning to end.</p>
+
+<p>Dick Bultitude had been a valued <i>raconteur</i>, it appeared, and his
+father found accordingly, to his disgust, that he was expected to amuse
+them with a story. When he clearly understood the idea, he rejected it
+with so savage a snarl, that he soon found it necessary to retire under
+the bedclothes to escape the general indignation that followed.</p>
+
+<p>Finding that he did not actively resent it (the real Dick would have had
+the occupant of the nearest bed out by the ears in a minute!), they
+profited by his prudence to come to his bedside, where they pillowed his
+weary head (with their own pillows) till the slight offered them was
+more than avenged.</p>
+
+<p>After that, Mr. Bultitude, with the breath half beaten out of his body,
+lay writhing and spluttering on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> his hard, rough bed till long after
+silence had fallen over the adjoining beds, and the sleepy hum of talk
+in the other bedrooms had died away.</p>
+
+<p>Then he, too, drifted off into wild and troubled dreams, which, at their
+maddest, were scattered into blankness by a sudden and violent shock,
+which jerked him, clutching and grasping at nothing, on to the cold,
+bare boards, where he rolled, shivering.</p>
+
+<p>"An earthquake!" he thought, "an explosion ... gas&mdash;or dynamite! He must
+go and call the children ... Boaler ... the plate!"</p>
+
+<p>But the reality to which he woke was worse still. Tipping and Coker had
+been patiently pinching themselves to keep awake until their enemy
+should be soundly asleep, in order to enjoy the exquisite pleasure of
+letting down the mattress; and, too dazed and frightened even to swear,
+Paul gathered up his bedclothes and tried to draw them about him as well
+as he might, and seek sleep, which had lost its security.</p>
+
+<p>The Garud&acirc; Stone had done one grim and cruel piece of work at least in
+its time.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="Cutting_the_Knot" id="Cutting_the_Knot"></a>7. <i>Cutting the Knot</i></h2>
+
+<div class="block2">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"A Crowd is not Company; And Faces are but a Gallery of Pictures;</div>
+<div>And Talke but a <i>Tinckling Cymball</i>, where there is no <i>Love</i>."</div>
+<div class="right">&mdash;<span class="smcap">Bacon</span>.</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Once more Mr. Bultitude rose betimes, dressed noiselessly, and stole
+down to the cold schoolroom, where one gas-jet was burning palely&mdash;for
+the morning was raw and foggy.</p>
+
+<p>This time, however, he was not alone. Mr. Blinkhorn was sitting at his
+little table in the corner, correcting exercises, with his chilly hands
+cased in worsted mittens. He looked up as Paul came in, and nodded
+kindly.</p>
+
+<p>Paul went straight to the fire, and stood staring into it with
+lack-lustre eye, too apathetic even to be hopeless, for the work of
+enlightening the Doctor seemed more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> terrible and impossible than ever,
+and he began to see that, if the only way of escape lay there, he had
+better make up his mind with what philosophy he could to adapt himself
+to his altered circumstances, and stay on for the rest of the term.</p>
+
+<p>But the prospect was so doleful and so blank, that he drew a heavy sigh
+as he thought of it. Mr. Blinkhorn heard it, and rose awkwardly from the
+rickety little writing-table, knocking over a pile of marble-covered
+copy-books as he did so.</p>
+
+<p>Then he crossed over to Paul and laid a hand gently on his shoulder.
+"Look here," he said: "why don't you confide in me? Do you think I'm
+blind to what has happened to you? I can see the change in you&mdash;if
+others cannot. Why not trust me?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude looked up into his face, which had an honest interest and
+kindliness in it, and his heart warmed with a faint hope. If this young
+man had been shrewd enough to guess at his unhappy secret, might he not
+be willing to intercede with the Doctor for him? He looked
+good-natured&mdash;he would trust him.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say really," he asked, with more cordiality than he had
+spoken for a long time, "that you&mdash;see&mdash;the&mdash;a&mdash;the difference?"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw it almost directly," said Mr. Blinkhorn, with mild triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the most extraordinary thing," said Paul, "and yet it ought to
+be evident enough, to be sure. But no, you can't have guessed the real
+state of things!"</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, and stop me if I'm wrong. Within the last few days a great
+change has been at work within you. You are not the idle, thoughtless,
+mischievous boy who left here for his holidays&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Paul, "I'll swear I'm not!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no occasion for such strong expressions. But, at all events,
+you come back here an altogether different being. Am I right in saying
+so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly," said Paul, overjoyed at being so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> thoroughly understood,
+"perfectly. You're a very intelligent young man, sir. Shake hands. Why,
+I shouldn't be surprised, after that, if you knew how it all happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"That too," said Mr. Blinkhorn smiling, "I can guess. It arose, I doubt
+not, in a wish?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," cried Paul, "you've hit it again. You're a conjurer, sir, by Gad
+you are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say 'by Gad,' Bultitude; it's inconsistent. It began, I was
+saying, in a wish, half unconscious perhaps, to be something other than
+what you had been&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I was a fool," groaned Mr. Bultitude, "yes, that was the way it began!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then insensibly the wish worked a gradual transformation in your nature
+(you are old enough to follow me?)."</p>
+
+<p>"Old enough for him to follow <i>me</i>!" thought Paul; but he was too
+pleased to be annoyed. "Hardly gradual I should say," he said aloud.
+"But go on, sir, pray go on. I see you know all about it."</p>
+
+<p>"At first the other part of you struggled against the new feelings. You
+strove to forget them&mdash;you even tried to resume your old habits, your
+former way of life&mdash;but to no purpose; and when you came here, you found
+no fellowship amongst your companions&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite out of the question!" said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Their pleasures give you no delight&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit!"</p>
+
+<p>"They, on their side, perhaps misunderstand your lack of interest in
+their pursuits. They cannot see&mdash;how should they?&mdash;that you have altered
+your mode of life, and when they catch the difference between you and
+the Richard Bultitude they knew, why, they are apt to resent it."</p>
+
+<p>"They are," agreed Mr. Bultitude: "they resent it in a confounded
+disagreeable way, you know. Why, I assure you, that only last night I
+was&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p><p>"Hush," said Mr. Blinkhorn, holding up one hand, "complaints are
+unmanly. But I see you wonder at my knowing all this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Paul, "I am rather surprised."</p>
+
+<p>"What would you say if I told you I had undergone it myself in my time?"</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mean to tell me there are <i>two</i> Garud&acirc; Stones in this
+miserable world!" cried Paul, thoroughly astonished.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you mean now, but I can say with truth that I too
+have had my experiences&mdash;my trials. Months ago, from certain signs, I
+noticed, I foresaw that this was coming upon you."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said Mr. Bultitude, "I think, in common decency, you might have
+warned me. A post-card would have done it. I should have been better
+prepared to meet this, then!"</p>
+
+<p>"It would have been worse than fruitless to attempt to hurry on the
+crisis. It might have even prevented what I fondly hoped would come to
+pass."</p>
+
+<p>"Fondly hoped!" said Paul, "upon my word you speak plainly, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mr. Blinkhorn. "You see I knew the Dick Bultitude that was,
+so well; he was frolicksome, impulsive, mischievous even, but under it
+all there lay a nature of sterling worth."</p>
+
+<p>"Sterling worth!" cried Paul. "A scoundrel, I tell you, a heartless,
+selfish young scoundrel. Call things by their right names, if you
+please."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "this extreme self-depreciation is morbid,
+very morbid. There was no actual vice."</p>
+
+<p>"No actual vice! Why, God bless my soul, do you call ingratitude&mdash;the
+basest, most unfilial, most treacherous ingratitude&mdash;no vice, sir? You
+may be a very excellent young man, but if you gloss over things in that
+fashion, your moral sense must be perverted, sir&mdash;strangely perverted."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p><p>"There were faults on both sides, I fear," said Mr. Blinkhorn, growing
+a little scandalised by the boy's odd warmth of expression. "I have
+heard something of what you had to bear with. On the one hand, a father,
+undemonstrative, stern, easily provoked; on the other, a son,
+thoughtless, forgetful, and at times it may be even wilful. But you are
+too sensitive; you think too much of what seems to me a not unnatural
+(although of course improper) protest against coldness and injustice. I
+should be the last to encourage a child against a parent, but, to
+comfort your self-reproach, I think it right to assure you that, in my
+judgment, the outburst you refer to was very excusable."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Paul, "you do? You call that comfort? Excusable! Why, what
+the dooce do you mean, sir? You're taking the other side now!"</p>
+
+<p>"This is not the language of penitence, Bultitude," said poor Mr.
+Blinkhorn, disheartened and bewildered. "Remember, you have put off the
+Old Man now!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not likely to forget <i>that</i>," said Paul; "I only wish I could see
+my way to putting him on again!"</p>
+
+<p>"You want to be your old self again?" gasped Mr. Blinkhorn.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course I do," said Paul angrily; "I'm not an idiot!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are weary of the struggle so soon?" said the other with reproach.</p>
+
+<p>"Weary? I tell you I'm sick of it! If I had only known what was in store
+for me before I had made such a fool of myself!"</p>
+
+<p>"This is horrible!" said Mr. Blinkhorn&mdash;"I ought not to listen to you."</p>
+
+<p>"But you must," urged Paul; "I tell you I can't stand it any longer. I'm
+not fit for it at my age. You must see that yourself, and you must make
+Grimstone see it too!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never!" said Mr. Blinkhorn firmly. "Nor do I see how that would help
+you. I will not let you go back in this deplorable way. You must nerve
+yourself to go on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> now in the path you have chosen; you must force your
+schoolfellows to love and respect you in your new character. Come, take
+courage! After all, in spite of your altered life, there is no reason
+why you should not be a frank and happy-hearted boy, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"A frank and happy-hearted fiddlestick!" cried Paul rudely (he was so
+disgusted at the suggestion); "don't talk rubbish, sir! I thought you
+were going to show me some way out of all this, and instead of that,
+knowing the shameful way I've been treated, you can stand there and
+calmly recommend me to stay on here and be happy-hearted and frank!"</p>
+
+<p>"You must be calm, Bultitude, or I shall leave you. Listen to reason.
+You are here for your good. Youth, it has been beautifully said, is the
+springtime of life. Though you may not believe it, you will never be
+happier than you are now. Our schooldays are&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Bultitude could not tamely be mocked with the very platitudes
+that had brought him all his misery&mdash;he cut the master short in a
+violent passion. "This is too much!" he cried&mdash;"you shall not palm off
+that miserable rubbish on me. I see through it. It's a plot to keep me
+here, and you're in it. It's false imprisonment, and I'll write to the
+<i>Times</i>. I'll expose the whole thing!"</p>
+
+<p>"This violence is only ridiculous," said Mr. Blinkhorn. "If I were not
+too pained by it, I should feel it my duty to report your language to
+the Doctor. As it is, you have bitterly disappointed me; I can't
+understand it at all. You seemed so subdued, so softened lately. But
+until you come to me and say you regret this, I must decline to have
+anything more to say to you. Take your book and sit down in your place!"</p>
+
+<p>And he went back to his exercises, looking puzzled and pained. The fact
+was, he was an ardent believer in the Good Boy of a certain order of
+school tales&mdash;the boy who is seized with a sudden conviction of the
+intrinsic baseness of boyhood, and does all in his power to get rid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> of
+the harmful taint; the boy who renounces his old comrades and his
+natural tastes (which after all seldom have any serious harm in them),
+to don a panoply of priggishness which is too often kick-proof.</p>
+
+<p>This kind of boy is rare enough at most English schools, but Mr.
+Blinkhorn had been educated at a large Nonconformist College, where
+"Revivals" and "Awakenings" were periodical, and undoubtedly did produce
+changes of character violent enough, but sadly short in duration.</p>
+
+<p>He was always waiting for some such boy to come to him with his
+confession of moral worthlessness and vows of unnatural perfection, and
+was too simple and earnest and good himself to realise that such states
+of the youthful mind are not unfrequently merely morbid and hysterical,
+and too often degenerate into Pharisaism, or worse still, hypocrisy.</p>
+
+<p>So when he noticed Mr. Bultitude's silence and depression, his studied
+withdrawal from the others and his evident want of sympathy with them,
+he believed he saw the symptoms of a conscience at work, and that he had
+found his reformed boy at last.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very unfortunate misunderstanding, for it separated Paul from,
+perhaps, the only person who would have had the guilelessness to believe
+his incredible story, and the good nature to help him to find escape
+from his misfortunes.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude on his part was more angry and disgusted than ever. He
+began to see that there was a muddle somewhere, and that his identity
+was unsuspected still. This young man, for all his fair speaking and
+pretended shrewdness, was no conjurer after all. He was left to rely on
+his own resources, and he had begun to lose all confidence in their
+power to extricate him.</p>
+
+<p>As he brooded over this, the boys straggled down as before, and looked
+over their lessons for the day in a dull, lifeless manner. The cold,
+unsatisfying breakfast, and the half-hour assigned to "chevy," followed
+in due<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> course, and after that Paul found himself set down with a class
+to await the German master, Herr Stohwasser.</p>
+
+<p>He had again tried to pull himself together and approach the Doctor with
+his protest, but no sooner did he find himself near his presence than
+his heart began to leap wildly and then retired down towards his boots,
+leaving him hoarse, palpitating, and utterly blank of ideas.</p>
+
+<p>It was no use&mdash;and he resigned himself for yet another day of unwelcome
+instruction.</p>
+
+<p>The class was in a little room on the basement floor, with a linen-press
+taking up one side, some bare white deal tables and forms, and, on the
+walls, a few coloured German prints. They sat there talking and
+laughing, taking no notice of Mr. Bultitude, until the German master
+made his appearance.</p>
+
+<p>He was by no means a formidable person, though stout and tall. He wore
+big round owlish spectacles, and his pale broad face and long nose,
+combined with a wild crop of light hair and a fierce beard, gave him the
+incongruous appearance of a sheep looking out of a gun-port.</p>
+
+<p>He took his place with an air of tremendous determination to enforce a
+hard morning's work on the book they were reading&mdash;a play of Schiller's,
+of the plot of which, it is needless to say, no one of his pupils had or
+cared to have the vaguest notion, having long since condemned the whole
+subject, with insular prejudice, as "rot."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, please," said Herr Stohwasser, "where we left off last term. Third
+act, first scene&mdash;Court before Tell's house. Tell is vid the carpenter
+axe, Hedwig vid a domestig labour occupied. Walter and Wilhelm in the
+depth sport with a liddle gross-bow. Biddlegom, you begin. Walter
+(sings)."</p>
+
+<p>But Biddlecomb was in a conversational mood, and willing to postpone the
+task of translation, so he merely inquired, with an air of extreme
+interest, how Herr Stohwasser's German Grammar was getting on.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p><p>This was a subject on which (as he perhaps knew) the German never could
+resist enlarging, for in common with most German masters, he was giving
+birth to a new Grammar, which, from the daring originality of its plan,
+and its extreme simplicity, was destined to supersede all other similar
+works.</p>
+
+<p>"Ach," he said, "it is brogressing. I haf just gompleted a gomprehensive
+table of ze irregular virps, vith ze eggserzizes upon zem. And zere is
+further an appendeeks which in itself gontains a goncise view of all ze
+vort-blays possible in the Charman tong. But, come, let us gontinue vith
+our Tell!"</p>
+
+<p>"What are vort-blays?" persisted Biddlecomb insidiously, having no idea
+of continuing with his Tell just yet.</p>
+
+<p>"A vort-blay," exclaimed Herr Stohwasser; "it is English, nicht so? A
+sporting vid vorts&mdash;a 'galembour'&mdash;a&mdash;Gott pless me, vat you call a
+'pon.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Like the one you made when you were a young man?" Jolland called out
+from the lower end of the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; tell us the one you made when you were a young man," the class
+entreated, with flattering eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Stohwasser began to laugh with slow, deep satisfaction; the
+satisfaction of a successful achievement. "Hah, you remember dat!" he
+said, "ah, yes, I make him when a yong man; but, mind you, he was not a
+pon&mdash;he was a '<i>choke</i>.' I haf told you all about him before."</p>
+
+<p>"We've forgotten it," said Biddlecomb: "tell it us again."</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact this joke, in all its lights, was tolerably familiar
+to most of them by this time, but, either on its individual merits, or
+perhaps because it compared favourably with the sterner alternative of
+translating, it was periodically in request, and always met with
+evergreen appreciation.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Stohwasser beamed with the pride of authorship. Like the celebrated
+Scotchman, he "jocked wi'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> deeficulty," and the outcome of so much
+labour was dear to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I zent him into ze Charman <i>Kladderadatch</i> (it is a paper like your
+<i>Ponch</i>). It&mdash;mein choke&mdash;was upon ze Schleswig-Holstein gomplication;
+ze beginning was in this way&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>And he proceeded to set out in great length all the circumstances which
+had given materials for his "choke," with the successive processes by
+which he had shaped and perfected it, passing on to a recital of the
+masterpiece itself, and ending up by a philosophical analysis of the
+same, which must have placed his pupils in full possession of the point,
+for they laughed consumedly.</p>
+
+<p>"I dell you zis," he said, "not to aggustom your minds vid frivolity and
+lightness, but as a lesson in ze gonstruction of ze langwitch. If you
+can choke in Charman, you will be able also to gonverse in Charman."</p>
+
+<p>"Did the German what's-its-name print your joke?" inquired Coggs.</p>
+
+<p>"It has not appeared yet," Herr Stohwasser confessed; "it takes a long
+time to get an imbortant choke like that out in brint. But I vait&mdash;I
+write to ze editor every week&mdash;and I vait."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you put it in your Grammar?" suggested Tipping.</p>
+
+<p>"I haf&mdash;ze greater part of it&mdash;(it vas a long choke, but I gompressed
+him). If I haf time, some day I will make anozer liddle choke to
+aggompany, begause I vant my Crammar to be a goot Crammar, you
+understandt. And now to our Tell. Really you beople do noding but
+chadder!"</p>
+
+<p>All this, of course, had no interest for Mr. Bultitude, but it left him
+free to pursue his own thoughts in peace, and indeed this lesson would
+never have been recorded here, but for two circumstances which will
+presently appear, both of which had no small effect on his fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>He sat nearest the window, and looked out on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> pinched and drooping
+laurels in the enclosure, which were damp with frost melting in the
+sunshine. Over the wall he could see the tops of passing vehicles, the
+country carrier's cart, the railway parcels van, the fly from the
+station. He envied even the drivers; their lot was happier than his!</p>
+
+<p>His thoughts were busy with Dick. Oddly enough, it had scarcely occurred
+to him before to speculate on what he might be doing in his absence; he
+had thought chiefly about himself. But now he gave his attention to the
+subject, what new horrors it opened up! What might not become of his
+well-conducted household under the rash rule of a foolish schoolboy! The
+office, too&mdash;who could say what mischief Dick might not be doing there,
+under the cover of his own respectable form?</p>
+
+<p>Then it might seem good to him any day to smash the Garud&acirc; Stone, and
+after that there would be no hope of matters being ever set right again!</p>
+
+<p>And yet, miserable coward and fool that he was, with everything
+depending upon his losing no time to escape, he could not screw up his
+courage, and say the words that were to set him free.</p>
+
+<p>All at once&mdash;and this is one of the circumstances that make the German
+lesson an important stage in this story&mdash;an idea suggested itself to him
+quite dazzling by its daring and brilliancy.</p>
+
+<p>Some may wonder, when they hear what it was, why he never thought of it
+before, and it is somewhat surprising, but by no means without
+precedent. Artemus Ward has told us somewhere of a ferocious bandit who
+was confined for sixteen years in solitary captivity, before the notion
+of escape ever occurred to him. When it did, he opened the window and
+got out.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps a similar passiveness on Mr. Bultitude's part was due to a very
+natural and proper desire to do everything without scandal, and in a
+legitimate manner; to march out, as it were, with the honours of war.
+Perhaps it was simple dullness. The fact remains that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> was not till
+then that he saw a way of recovering his lost position, without the
+disagreeable necessity of disclosing his position to anyone at Crichton
+House.</p>
+
+<p>He had still&mdash;thank Heaven&mdash;the five shillings he had given Dick. He had
+not thrown them away with the other articles in his mad passion. Five
+shillings was not much, but it was more than enough to pay for a
+third-class fare to town. He had only to watch his opportunity, slip
+away to the station, and be at home again, defying the usurper, before
+anyone at Crichton House had discovered his absence.</p>
+
+<p>He might go that very day, and the delight of this thought&mdash;the complete
+reaction from blank despair to hope&mdash;was so intense that he could not
+help rubbing his hands stealthily under the table, and chuckling with
+glee at his own readiness of resource.</p>
+
+<p>When we are most elated, however, there is always a counteracting agent
+at hand to bring us down again to our proper level, or below it. The
+Roman general in the triumph never really needed the slave in the
+chariot to dash his spirits&mdash;he had his friends there already; the
+guests at an Egyptian dinner must have brought their own skeletons.</p>
+
+<p>There was a small flaxen-haired little boy sitting next to Mr.
+Bultitude, seemingly a quite inoffensive being, who at this stage served
+to sober him by furnishing another complication.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I say, Bultitude," he piped shrilly in Paul's ear, "I forgot all
+about it. Where's my rabbit?"</p>
+
+<p>The unreasonable absurdity of such a question annoyed him excessively.
+"Is this a time," he said reprovingly, "to talk of rabbits? Mind your
+book, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I daresay," grumbled little Porter, the boy in question: "it's all
+very well, but I want my rabbit."</p>
+
+<p>"Hang it, sir," said Paul angrily, "do you suppose I'm sitting on it?"</p>
+
+<p>"You promised to bring me back a rabbit," persisted Porter doggedly;
+"you know you did, and it's a beastly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> shame. I mean to have that
+rabbit, or know the reason why."</p>
+
+<p>At the other end of the table Biddlecomb had again dexterously allured
+Herr Stohwasser into the meshes of conversation; this time upon the
+question (<i>&agrave; propos de bottes</i>) of street performances. "I vill tell you
+a gurious thing," he was saying, "vat happened to me de oder day ven I
+vas valking down de Strandt. I saw a leedle gommon dirty boy with a tall
+round hat on him, and he stand in a side street right out in de road,
+and he take off his tall round hat, and he put it on de ground, and he
+stand still and look zo at it. So I shtop too, to see vat he vould do
+next. And bresently he take out a large sheet of baper and tear it in
+four pieces very garefully, and stick zem round de tall round hat, and
+put it on his head again, and zen he set it down on de grount and look
+at it vonce more, and all de time he never speak von vort. And I look
+and look and vonder vat he would do next. And a great growd of beoples
+com, and zey look and vonder too. And zen all at once de leedle dirty
+boy he take out all de paper and put on de hat, and he valk avay,
+laughing altogetter foolishly at zomzing I did not understand at all. I
+haf been thinking efer since vat in the vorldt he do all zat nonsence
+for. And zere is von ozer gurious thing I see in your London streets zat
+very same day. Zere vas a poor house cat dat had been by a cab overrun
+as I passed by, and von man vith a kind varm heart valk up and stamp it
+on de head for to end its pain. And anozer man vith anozer kind heart,
+he gom up directly and had not seen de cat overrun, but he see de first
+man stamping and he knock him down for ill-treating animals; it was
+quite gurious to see; till de policeman arrest dem both for fighting.
+Goggs, degline 'Katze,' and gif me ze berfect and bast barticiple of
+'kampfen,' to fight." This last relapse into duty was caused by the
+sudden entrance of the Doctor, who stood at the door looking on for some
+time with a general air of being intimately acquainted with Schiller<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> as
+an author, before suggesting graciously that it was time to dismiss the
+class.</p>
+
+<p>Wednesday was a half-holiday at Crichton House, and so, soon after
+dinner, Paul found himself marshalled with the rest in a procession
+bound for the football field. They marched two and two, Chawner and
+three of the other elder boys leading with the ball and four goal-posts
+ornamented with coloured calico flags, and Mr. Blinkhorn and Mr. Tinkler
+bringing up the rear.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude was paired with Tom Grimstone, who, after eyeing him
+askance for some time, could control his curiosity no longer.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Dick," he began, "what's the matter with you this term?"</p>
+
+<p>"My name is not Dick," said Paul stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if you're so particular then," said Tom: "but, without humbug, what
+is the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"You see a change then," said Paul, "you do see a difference, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rather!" said Tom expressively. "You've come back what I call a beastly
+sneak, you know, this term. The other fellows don't like it; they'll
+send you to Coventry unless you take care."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish they would," said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't talk like the same fellow either," continued Tom; "you use
+such fine language, and you're always in a bait, and yet you don't stick
+up for yourself as you used to. Look here, tell me (we were always
+chums), is it one of your larks?"</p>
+
+<p>"Larks!" said Paul. "I'm in a fine mood for larks. No, it's not one of
+my larks."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps your old governor has been making a cad of himself then, and
+you're out of sorts about it."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll thank you not to speak about him in that way," said Paul, "in my
+presence."</p>
+
+<p>"Why," grumbled Tom, "I'm sure you said enough about him yourself last
+term. It's my belief you're imitating him now."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p><p>"Ah," said Paul, "and what makes you think that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you go about strutting and swelling just like he did when he came
+about sending you here. I say, do you know what Mums said about him
+after he went away?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Paul, "your mother struck me as a very sensible and
+agreeable woman&mdash;if I may say so to her son."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mums said your governor seemed to leave you here just like they
+leave umbrellas at picture galleries, and she believed he had a
+large-sized money-bag inside him instead of a heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Paul, with great disgust, for he had thought Mrs. Grimstone a
+woman of better taste; "your mother said that, did she? Vastly
+entertaining to be sure&mdash;ha, ha! He would be pleased to know she thought
+that, I'm sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him, and see what he says," suggested Tom; "he is an awful brute
+to you though, isn't he?"</p>
+
+<p>"If," growled Mr. Bultitude, "slaving from morning till night to provide
+education and luxury for a thankless brood of unprofitable young vipers
+is 'being a brute,' I suppose he is."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you're sticking up for him now!" said Tom. "I thought he was so
+strict with you. Wouldn't let you have any fun at home, and never took
+you to pantomimes?"</p>
+
+<p>"And why should he, sir, why should he? Tell me that. Tell me why a man
+is to be hunted out of his comfortable chair after a well-earned dinner,
+to go and sit in a hot theatre and a thorough draught, yawning at the
+miserable drivel managers choose to call a pantomime? Now in my young
+days there <i>were</i> pantomimes. I tell you, sir, I've seen&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if you're satisfied, I don't care!" said Tom, astonished at this
+apparent change of front. "If you choose to come back and play the
+corker like this, it's your look-out. Only, if you knew what Sproule
+major said about you just now&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to know," said Paul; "it doesn't concern me."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p><p>"Perhaps it doesn't concern you what pa thinks either? Dad told Mums
+last night that he was altogether at a loss to know how to deal with
+you, you had come back so queer and unruly. And he said, let me see, oh,
+he said that 'if he didn't see an alteration very soon he should resort
+to more drastic measures'&mdash;drastic measures is Latin for a whopping."</p>
+
+<p>"Good gracious!" thought Paul, "I haven't a moment to lose! he might
+'resort to drastic measures' this very evening. I can't change my nature
+at my time of life. I must run for it, and soon."</p>
+
+<p>Then he said aloud to Tom, "Can you tell me, my&mdash;my young friend, if,
+supposing a boy were to ask to leave the field&mdash;saying for instance that
+he was not well and thought he should be better at home&mdash;whether he
+would be allowed to go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course he would," said Tom, "you ought to know that by this time.
+You've only to ask Blinkhorn or Tinkler; they'll let you go right
+enough."</p>
+
+<p>Paul saw his course quite clearly now, and was overcome with relief and
+gratitude. He wrung the astonished Tom's hand warmly; "Thank you," he
+said, briskly and cheerfully, "thank you. I'm really uncommonly obliged
+to you. You're a very intelligent boy. I should like to give you
+sixpence."</p>
+
+<p>But although Tom used no arguments to dissuade him, Mr. Bultitude
+remembered his position in time, and prudently refrained from such
+ill-judged generosity. Sixpences were of vital importance now, when he
+expected to be starting so soon on his perilous journey.</p>
+
+<p>And so they reached the field where the game was to be played, and where
+Paul was resolved to have one desperate throw for liberty and home. He
+was more excited than anxious as he thought of it, and it certainly did
+seem as if all the chances were in his favour, and that fortune must
+have forsaken him indeed, if anything were allowed to prevent his
+escape.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="Unbending_the_Bow" id="Unbending_the_Bow"></a>8. <i>Unbending the Bow</i></h2>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"I pray you, give me leave to go from hence,</div>
+<div>I am not well;"</div>
+<div class="right"><i>Merchant of Venice.</i></div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>"He will not blush, that has a father's heart,</div>
+<div>To take in childish plays a childish part;</div>
+<div>But bends his sturdy back to any toy</div>
+<div>That youth takes pleasure in,&mdash;to please his boy."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>The football field was a large one, bounded on two sides by tall wooden
+palings, and on the other two by a hedge and a new shingled road,
+separated from the field by a post and rails.</p>
+
+<p>Two of the younger boys, proud of their office, raced down to the
+further end to set up the goal-posts. The rest lounged idly about
+without attempting to begin operations, except the new boy Kiffin, who
+was seen walking apart from the rest, diligently studying the "rules of
+the game of football," as laid down in a small <i>Boy's Own Pocket Book
+and Manual of Outdoor Sports</i>, with which he had been careful to provide
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>At last Tipping suggested that they had better begin, and proposed that
+Mr. Blinkhorn and himself should toss up for the choice of sides, and
+this being done, Mr. Bultitude presently, to his great dismay, heard his
+name mentioned. "I'll have young Bultitude," said Tipping; "he used to
+play up decently. Look here, you young beggar, you're on my side, and if
+you don't play up it will be the worse for you!"</p>
+
+<p>It was not worth while, however, to protest, since he would so soon be
+rid of the whole crew for ever, and so Paul followed Tipping and his
+train with dutiful submission, and the game began.</p>
+
+<p>It was not a spirited performance. Mr. Tinkler, who was not an athlete,
+retired at once to the post and rails, on which he settled himself to
+enjoy a railway novel with a highly stimulating cover. Mr. Blinkhorn,
+who had more conscientious views of his office, charged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> about
+vigorously, performing all kinds of wonders with the ball, though
+evidently more from a sense of duty than with any idea of enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>Tipping occasionally took the trouble to oppose him, but as a concession
+merely, and with a parade of being under no necessity to do so; and
+these two, with a very small following of enthusiasts on either side,
+waged a private and confidential kind of warfare in different parts of
+the field, while the others made no pretence of playing for the present,
+but strolled about in knots, exchanging and bartering the treasures
+valuable in the sight of schoolboys, and gossiping generally.</p>
+
+<p>As for Paul, he did not clearly understand what "playing up" might mean.
+He had not indulged in football since he was a genuine boy, and then
+only in a rudimentary and primitive form, and without any particular
+fondness for the exercise. But being now, in spirit at all events, a
+precise elderly person, with a decided notion of taking care of himself,
+he was resolved that not even Tipping should compel him to trust his
+person within range of that dirty brown globe, which whistled past his
+ear or seemed spinning towards his stomach with such a hideous
+suggestion of a cannon-ball about it.</p>
+
+<p>All the ghastly instances, too, of accidents to life and limb in the
+football field came unpleasantly into his memory, and he saw the
+inadvisability of mingling with the crowd and allowing himself to be
+kicked violently on the shins.</p>
+
+<p>So he trotted industriously about at a safe distance in order to allay
+suspicion, while waiting for a good opportunity to put his scheme of
+escape into execution.</p>
+
+<p>At last he could wait no longer, for the fearful thought occurred to
+him, that if he remained there much longer, the Doctor&mdash;who, as he knew
+from Dick, always came to superintend, if not to share the sports of his
+pupils&mdash;might make his appearance, and then his chance would be lost for
+the present, for he knew too well that he should never find courage to
+ask permission from <i>him</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p><p>With a beating heart he went up to Mr. Tinkler, who was still on the
+fence with his novel, and asked as humbly as he could bring himself to
+do:</p>
+
+<p>"If you please, sir, will you allow me to go home? I'm&mdash;I'm not feeling
+at all well."</p>
+
+<p>"Not well! What's the matter with you?" said Mr. Tinkler, without
+looking up.</p>
+
+<p>Paul had not prepared himself for details, and the sudden question
+rather threw him off his guard.</p>
+
+<p>"A slight touch of liver," he said at length. "It takes me after meals
+sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"Liver!" said Mr. Tinkler, "you've no right to such a thing at your age;
+it's all nonsense, you know. Run in and play, that'll set you up again."</p>
+
+<p>"It's fatal, sir," said Paul. "My doctor expressly warned me against
+taking any violent exercise soon after luncheon. If you knew what liver
+is, you wouldn't say so!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tinkler stared, as well he might, but making nothing of it, and
+being chiefly anxious not to be interrupted any longer, only said, "Oh,
+well, don't bother me; I daresay it's all right. Cut along!"</p>
+
+<p>So Mr. Bultitude was free; the path lay open to him now. He knew he
+would have little difficulty in finding his way to the station, and,
+once there, he would have the whole afternoon in which to wait for a
+train to town.</p>
+
+<p>"I've managed that excellently," he thought, as he ran blithely off,
+almost like the boy he seemed. "Not the slightest hitch. I defy the
+fates themselves to stop me now!"</p>
+
+<p>But the fates are ladies, and&mdash;not of course that it
+follows&mdash;occasionally spiteful. It is very rash indeed to be ungallant
+enough to defy them&mdash;they have such an unpleasant habit of accepting the
+challenge.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude had hardly got clear of the groups scattered about the
+field, when he met a small flaxen-haired boy, who was just coming down
+to join the game. It was Porter, his neighbour of the German lesson.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p><p>"There you are, Bultitude, then," he said in his squeaky voice: "I want
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't stop," said Paul, "I'm in a hurry&mdash;another time."</p>
+
+<p>"Another time won't do," said little Porter, laying hold of him by his
+jacket. "I want that rabbit."</p>
+
+<p>This outrageous demand took Mr. Bultitude's breath away. He had no idea
+what rabbit was referred to, or why he should be required to produce
+such an animal at a moment's notice. This was the second time an
+inconvenient small boy had interfered between him and liberty. He would
+not be baffled twice. He tried to shake off his persecutor.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you, my good boy, I haven't such a thing about me. I haven't
+indeed. I don't even know what you're talking about."</p>
+
+<p>This denial enraged Porter.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, you fellows," he called out, "come here! Do make Bultitude give
+me my rabbit. He says he doesn't know anything about it now!"</p>
+
+<p>At this several of the loungers came up, glad of a distraction.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" some of them asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," whined Porter, "he promised to bring me back a rabbit this term,
+and now he pretends he does not know anything about it. Make him say
+what he's done with it!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude was not usually ready of resource, but now he had what
+seemed a happy thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Gad!" he cried, pretending to recollect it, "so I did&mdash;to be sure, a
+rabbit, of course, how could I forget it? It's&mdash;it's a splendid rabbit.
+I'll go and fetch it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you?" cried Porter, half relieved. "Where is it, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where?" said Paul sharply (he was growing positively brilliant). "Why,
+in my playbox to be sure; where should it be?"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't in your playbox, I know," put in Siggers:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> "because I saw it
+turned out yesterday and there was no rabbit then. Besides, how could a
+rabbit live in a playbox? He's telling lies. I can see it by his face.
+He hasn't any rabbit!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I haven't!" said Mr. Bultitude. "How should I? I'm not a
+conjurer. It's not a habit of mine to go about with rabbits concealed on
+my person. What's the use of coming to me like this? It's absurd, you
+know; perfectly absurd!"</p>
+
+<p>The crowd increased until there was quite a ring formed round Mr.
+Bultitude and the indignant claimant, and presently Tipping came
+bustling up.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the row here, you fellows?" he said. "Bultitude again, of
+course. What's he been doing now?"</p>
+
+<p>"He had a rabbit he said he was keeping for me," explained little
+Porter: "and now he won't give it up or tell me what he's done with it."</p>
+
+<p>"He has some mice he ought to give us, too," said one or two new-comers,
+edging their way to the front.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude was of course exceedingly annoyed by this unlooked-for
+interruption, and still more by such utterly preposterous claims on him
+for animals; however, it was easy to explain that he had no such things
+in his possession, and after that of course no more could be said. He
+was beginning to disclaim all liability, when Siggers stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep that for the present," he said. "I say, we ought to have a regular
+trial over this, and get at the truth of it properly. Let's fetch him
+along to the goal-posts and judge him!"</p>
+
+<p>He fixed upon the goal-posts as being somehow more formal, and, as his
+proposal was well received, two of them grasped Mr. Bultitude by the
+collar and dragged him along in procession to the appointed spot between
+the two flags, while Siggers followed in what he conceived to be a
+highly judicial manner, and evidently enjoying himself prodigiously.</p>
+
+<p>Paul, though highly indignant, allowed himself to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> led along without
+resistance. It was safest to humour them, for after all it would not
+last long, and when they were tired of baiting him he could watch his
+time and slip quietly away.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the goal-posts Siggers arranged them in a circle,
+placing himself, the hapless Paul, and his accusers in the centre. "You
+chaps had better all be jurymen," he said. "I'll be judge, and unless he
+makes a clean breast of it," he added with judicial impartiality, "the
+court will jolly well punch his ugly young head off."</p>
+
+<p>Siggers' father was an Old Bailey barrister in good and rather sharp
+practice, so that it was clearly the son's mission to preside on this
+occasion. But unfortunately his hour of office was doomed to be a brief
+one, for Mr. Blinkhorn, becoming aware that the game was being still
+more scantily supported, and noticing the crowd at the goal, came up to
+know the reason of it at a long camel-like trot, his hat on the back of
+his head, his mild face flushed with exertion, and his pebble glasses
+gleaming in the winter sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you all doing here? Why don't you join the game? I've come
+here to play football with you, and how can I do it if you all slink off
+and leave me to play by myself?" he asked with pathos.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, sir," said Siggers, alarmed at the threatened loss of his
+dignity, "it's a trial, and I'm judge."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," the whole ring shouted together. "We're trying Bultitude,
+sir."</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, perhaps, Mr. Bultitude was glad of this interference. At
+least justice would be done now, although this usher had blundered so
+unpardonably that morning.</p>
+
+<p>"This is childish, you know," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "and it's not
+football. The Doctor will be seriously angry if he comes and sees you
+trifling here. Let the boy go."</p>
+
+<p>"But he's cheated some of the fellows, sir," grumbled Tipping and
+Siggers together.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, <i>you</i>'ve no right to punish him if he has. Leave him to me."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p><p>"Will you see fair play between them, sir? He oughtn't to be let off
+without being made to keep his word."</p>
+
+<p>"If there is any dispute between you and Bultitude," said Mr. Blinkhorn,
+"I have no objection to settle it&mdash;provided it is within my province."</p>
+
+<p>"Settle it without me," said Paul hurriedly. "I've leave to go home. I'm
+ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Who gave you leave to go home?" asked the master.</p>
+
+<p>"That young man over there on the rails," said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"I am the proper person to apply to for leave; you know that well
+enough," said Mr. Blinkhorn, with a certain coldness in his tone. "Now
+then, Porter, what is all this business about?"</p>
+
+<p>"Please, sir," said Porter, "he told me last term he had a lot of
+rabbits at home, and if I liked he would bring me back a lop-eared one
+and let me have it cheap, and I gave him two shillings, sir, and
+sixpence for a hutch to keep it in; and now he pretends he doesn't know
+anything about it!"</p>
+
+<p>To Paul's horror two or three other boys came forward with much the same
+tale. He remembered now that during the holidays he had discovered that
+Dick was maintaining a sort of amateur menagerie in his bedroom, and
+that he had ordered the whole of the livestock to be got rid of or
+summarily destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>Now it seemed that the wretched Dick had already disposed of it to these
+clamorous boys, and, what was worse, had stipulated with considerable
+forethought for payment in advance. For the first time he repented his
+paternal harshness. Like the netted lion, a paltry white mouse or two
+would have set him free; but, less happy than the beast in the fable, he
+had not one!</p>
+
+<p>He tried to stammer out excuses. "It's extremely unfortunate," he said,
+"but the fact is I'm not in a position to meet this&mdash;this sudden call
+upon me. Some other day, perhaps&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"None of your long words, now," growled Tipping.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> (Boys hate long words
+as much as even a Saturday Reviewer.) "Why haven't you brought the
+rabbits?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mr. Blinkhorn. "Why, having promised to bring the rabbits
+with you, haven't you kept your word? You must be able to give some
+explanation."</p>
+
+<p>"Because," said Mr. Bultitude, wriggling with embarrassment, "I&mdash;that is
+my father&mdash;found out that my young rascal of a son&mdash;I mean his young
+rascal of a son (<i>me</i>, you know) was, contrary to my express orders,
+keeping a couple of abominable rabbits in his bedroom, and a quantity of
+filthy little white mice which he tried to train to climb up the
+banisters. And I kept finding the brutes running about my bath-room,
+and&mdash;well, of course, I put a stop to it; and&mdash;no, what am I saying?&mdash;my
+father, of course, he put a stop to it; and, in point of fact, had them
+all drowned in a pail of water."</p>
+
+<p>It might be thought that he had an excellent opportunity here of avowing
+himself, but there was the risk that Mr. Blinkhorn would disbelieve him,
+and, with the boys, he felt that the truth would do anything but
+increase his popularity. But dissembling fails sometimes outside the
+copy-books, and Mr. Bultitude's rather blundering attempt at it only
+landed him in worse difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>There was a yell of rage and disappointment from the defrauded ones, who
+had cherished a lingering hope that young Bultitude had those rabbits
+somewhere, but (like Mr. Barkis and his wooden lemon) found himself
+unable to part with them when the time came to fulfil his contract. And
+as contempt is a frame of mind highly stimulating to one's self-esteem,
+even those who had no personal interest in the matter joined in the
+execrations with hearty goodwill and sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you let him do it? They were ours, not his. What right had your
+governor to go and drown our rabbits, eh?" they cried wrathfully.</p>
+
+<p>"What right?" said Paul. "Mustn't a man do as he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> pleases in his own
+house, then? I&mdash;he was not obliged to see the house overrun with vermin,
+I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>But this only made them angrier, and they resented his defence with
+hoots, and groans, and hisses.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Blinkhorn meanwhile was pondering the affair conscientiously. At
+last he said, "But you know the Doctor would never allow animals to be
+kept in the school, if Bultitude had brought them. The whole thing is
+against the rules, and I shall not interfere."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but," said Chawner, "he promised them all to day-boarders. The
+Doctor couldn't object to that, could he, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"True," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "true. I was not aware of that. Well then,
+Bultitude, since you are prevented from performing what you promised to
+do, I'm sure you won't object to do what is fair and right in the
+matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I quite follow you," said Mr. Bultitude. But he dreaded
+what was coming next.</p>
+
+<p>"It's very simple. You have taken money from these boys, and if you
+can't give them value for it, you ought to return all you took from
+them. I'm sure you see that yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't admit that I owe them anything," said Paul; "and at all events
+it is highly inconvenient to pay them now."</p>
+
+<p>"If your own sense of honour isn't enough," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "I must
+take the matter into my own hands. Let every boy who has any claim upon
+him tell me exactly what it is."</p>
+
+<p>One boy after another brought forward his claim. One had entrusted Dick,
+it appeared, with a shilling, for which he was to receive a mouse with a
+"plum saddle," and two others had invested ninepence each in white mice.
+With Porter's half-crown, the total came to precisely five
+shillings&mdash;all Paul had in the world, the one rope by which he could
+ever hope to haul himself up to his lost pinnacle!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p><p>Mr. Blinkhorn, naturally enough, saw no reason why the money, being
+clearly due, should not be paid at once. "Give me any money you have
+about you, Bultitude," he said, "and I'll satisfy your debts with it, as
+far as it goes."</p>
+
+<p>Paul clasped his arm convulsively. "No!" he cried hoarsely, "not that!
+Don't make me do that! I&mdash;I can't pay them&mdash;not now. They don't
+understand. If they only give me time they shall have double their money
+back&mdash;waggon-loads of rabbits, the best rabbits money can buy&mdash;if
+they'll wait. Tell them to wait. My dear sir, don't see me wronged! I
+won't pay now!"</p>
+
+<p>"They have waited long enough," said Mr. Blinkhorn; "you must pay them."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you I won't!" cried Paul; "do you hear? Not one sixpence. Oh, if
+you knew! That infernal Garud&acirc; Stone! What fools people are!"</p>
+
+<p>Then in his despair he did the most fatal thing possible. He tried to
+save himself by flight, and with a violent plunge broke through the
+circle and made for the road which led towards the station.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly the whole school, only too glad of the excitement, was at his
+heels. The unhappy Colonial Produce merchant ran as he had not run for a
+quarter of a century, faster even than he had on his first experience of
+Coggs' and Coker's society on that memorable Monday night. But in spite
+of his efforts the chase was a short one. Chawner and Tipping very soon
+had him by the collar, and brought him back, struggling and kicking out
+viciously, to Mr. Blinkhorn, whose good opinion he had now lost for
+ever.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, sir," said Chawner, "I can feel something like a purse in his
+pocket. Shall I take it out, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"As he refuses to act with common honesty&mdash;yes," said Mr. Blinkhorn.</p>
+
+<p>It was Dick's purse, of course; and in spite of Paul's frantic efforts
+to retain it, it was taken from him, its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> contents equitably divided
+amongst the claimants, and the purse itself returned to him&mdash;empty.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Bultitude," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "if you really wish to leave the
+field, you may."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude lost what little temper he had yet to lose; he flung the
+useless purse from him and broke away from them all in a condition
+little removed from insanity.</p>
+
+<p>Leave the field! What a mockery the permission was now. How was he to
+get home, a distance of more than fifty miles, without a penny in his
+pocket? Ten minutes before, and freedom was within his grasp, and now it
+had eluded him and was as hopelessly out of reach as ever!</p>
+
+<p>No one pitied him; no one understood the real extent of his loss. Mr.
+Blinkhorn and the few enthusiasts went back to their unobtrusive game,
+while the rest of the school discussed the affair in groups, the popular
+indignation against young Bultitude's hitherto unsuspected meanness
+growing more marked every instant.</p>
+
+<p>It might have even taken some decided and objectionable form before
+long, but when it was at its height there was a sudden cry of alarm.
+"<i>Cave</i>, you fellows, here's Grim!" and indeed in the far distance the
+Doctor's portly and imposing figure could be seen just turning the
+corner into the field.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude felt almost cheered. This coming to join his pupils'
+sports showed a good heart; the Doctor would almost certainly be in a
+good humour, and he cheated himself into believing that, at some
+interval in the game, he might perhaps find courage to draw near and
+seek to interest him in his incredible woes.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite extraordinary to see how the game, which had hitherto
+decidedly languished and hung fire, now quickened into briskness and
+became positively spirited. Everyone developed a hearty interest in it,
+and it would almost seem as if the boys, with more delicacy than they
+are generally credited with, were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> unwilling to let their master guess
+how little his indulgence was really appreciated. Even Mr. Tinkler,
+whose novel had kept him spell-bound on his rail all through the recent
+excitement, now slipped it hurriedly into his pocket and rushed
+energetically into the fray, shouting encouragement rather
+indiscriminately to either side, till he had an opportunity of finding
+out privately to which leader he had been assigned.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grimstone came down the field at a majestic slow trot, calling out
+to the players as he came on&mdash;"Well done, Mutlow! Finely played, sir!
+Dribble it along now. Ah, you're afraid of it! Run into it, sir, run
+into it! No running with the ball now, Siggers; play without those petty
+meannesses, or leave the game! There, leave the ball to me, will
+you&mdash;leave it to me!"</p>
+
+<p>And, as the ball had rolled in his direction, he punted it up in an
+exceedingly dignified manner, the whole school keeping respectfully
+apart, until he had brought it to a reasonable distance from the goal,
+when he kicked it through with great solemnity, amidst faint, and it is
+to be feared somewhat sycophantic applause, and turned away with the air
+of a man surfeited of success.</p>
+
+<p>"For which side did I win that?" he asked presently, whereupon Tipping
+explained that his side had been the favoured one. "Well then," he said,
+"you fellows must all back me up, or I shall not play for you any more;"
+and he kicked off the ball for the next game.</p>
+
+<p>It was noticeable that the party thus distinguished did not seem
+precisely overwhelmed with pleasure at the compliment, which, as they
+knew from experience, implied considerable exertion on their part, and
+even disgrace if they were unsuccessful.</p>
+
+<p>The other side too looked unhappy, feeling themselves in a position of
+extreme delicacy and embarrassment. For if they played their best, they
+ran some risk of offending the Doctor, or, what was worse, drawing him
+over into their ranks; while if, on the other hand, they allowed
+themselves to be too easily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> worsted, they might be suspected of
+sulkiness and temper&mdash;offences which he was very ready to discover and
+resent.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grimstone for his part enjoyed the exercise, and had no idea that he
+was not a thoroughly welcome and valued playmate. But though it was
+pleasant to outsiders to see a schoolmaster permitting himself to share
+in the recreation of his pupils, it must be owned that to the latter the
+advantages of the arrangement seemed something more than dubious.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude, being on the side adopted by the Doctor, found too soon
+that he was expected to bestir himself. More than ever anxious now to
+conciliate, he did his very best to conquer his natural repugnance and
+appear more interested than alarmed as the ball came in his way; but
+although (in boating slang) he "sugared" with some adroitness, he was
+promptly found out, for his son had been a dashing and plucky player.</p>
+
+<p>It was bitter for him to run meekly about while scathing sarcasms and
+comments on his want of courage were being hurled at his head. It
+shattered the scanty remnants of his self-respect, but he dared not
+protest or say a single word to open the Doctor's eyes to the injustice
+he was doing him.</p>
+
+<p>He was unpleasantly reminded, too, of the disfavour he had acquired
+amongst his companions, by some one or other of them running up to him
+every moment when the Doctor's attention was called elsewhere, and
+startling his nerves by a sly jog or pinch, or an abusive epithet hissed
+viciously into his ears&mdash;Chawner being especially industrious in this
+respect.</p>
+
+<p>And in this unsatisfactory way the afternoon dragged along until the
+dusk gathered and the lamps were lighted, and it became too dark to see
+goal-posts or ball.</p>
+
+<p>By the time play was stopped and the school reformed for the march home,
+Mr. Bultitude felt that he was glad even to get back to labour as a
+relief from such a form of enjoyment. It was perhaps the most miserable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
+afternoon he had ever spent in his whole easy-going life. In the course
+of it he had passed from brightest hope to utter despair; and now
+nothing remained to him but to convince the Doctor, which he felt quite
+unequal to do, or to make his escape without money&mdash;which would
+inevitably end in a recapture.</p>
+
+<p>May no one who reads this ever be placed upon the horns of such a
+dilemma!</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="A_Letter_from_Home" id="A_Letter_from_Home"></a>9. <i>A Letter from Home</i></h2>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Here are a few of the unpleasantest words</div>
+<div>That ever blotted paper....</div>
+<div class="i13">A letter,</div>
+<div>And every word in it a gaping wound."</div>
+<div class="right"><i>Merchant of Venice.</i></div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>If it were not that it was so absolutely essential to the interest of
+this story, I think I should almost prefer to draw a veil over the
+sufferings of Mr. Bultitude during the rest of that unhappy week at
+Crichton House; but it would only be false delicacy to do so.</p>
+
+<p>Things went worse and worse with him. The real Dick in his most
+objectionable moods could never have contrived to render himself one
+quarter so disliked and suspected as his substitute was by the whole
+school&mdash;masters and boys.</p>
+
+<p>It was in a great measure his own fault, too; for to an ordinary boy the
+life there would not have had any intolerable hardships, if it held out
+no exceptional attractions. But he would not accommodate himself to
+circumstances, and try, during his enforced stay, to get as much
+instruction and enjoyment as possible out of his new life.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps, in his position, it would be too much to expect such a thing
+and, at all events, it never even occurred to him to attempt it. He
+consumed himself instead with inward raging and chafing at his hard lot,
+and his utter powerlessness to break the spell which bound him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p><p>Sometimes, indeed, he would resolve to bear it no longer, and would
+start up impulsively to impart his misfortunes to some one in minor
+authority&mdash;not the Doctor, he had given that up in resigned despair long
+since. But as surely as ever he found himself coming to the point, the
+words would stick fast in his throat, and he was only too thankful to
+get away, with his tale untold, on any frivolous pretext that first
+suggested itself.</p>
+
+<p>This, of course, brought him into suspicion, for such conduct had the
+appearance of a systematic course of practical joking, and even the most
+impartial teachers will sometimes form an unfavourable opinion of a
+particular boy on rather slender grounds, and then find fresh
+confirmation of it in his most insignificant actions.</p>
+
+<p>As for the school generally, his scowls and his sullenness, his
+deficiency in the daring and impudence that had warmed their hearts
+towards Dick, and, above all, his strange knack of getting them into
+trouble&mdash;for he seldom received what he considered an indignity without
+making a formal complaint&mdash;all this brought him as much hearty dislike
+and contempt as, perhaps, the most unsympathetic boy ever earned since
+boarding-schools were first invented.</p>
+
+<p>The only boy who still seemed to retain a secret tenderness for him, as
+the Dick he had once looked up to and admired, was Jolland, who
+persisted in believing, and in stating his belief, that this apparent
+change of demeanour was a perverted kind of joke on Bultitude's part,
+which he would condescend to explain some day when it had gone far
+enough, and he wearied and annoyed Paul beyond endurance by perpetually
+urging him to abandon his ill-judged experiment and discover the point
+of the jest.</p>
+
+<p>But for Jolland's help, which he persevered in giving in spite of the
+opposition and unpopularity it brought upon himself, Mr. Bultitude would
+have found it impossible to make any pretence of performing the tasks
+required of him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p><p>He found himself expected, as a matter of course, to have a certain
+familiarity with Greek paradigms and German conversation scraps,
+propositions in Euclid and Latin gerunds, of all of which, having had a
+strict commercial education in his young days, he had not so much as
+heard before his metamorphosis. But by carefully copying Jolland's
+exercises, and introducing enough mistakes of his own to supply the
+necessary local colour, he was able to escape to a great degree the
+discovery of his blank ignorance on all these subjects&mdash;an ignorance
+which would certainly have been put down as mere idleness and obstinacy.</p>
+
+<p>But it will be readily believed that he lived in constant fear of such
+discovery, and as it was, his dependence on a little scamp like his
+son's friend was a sore humiliation to one who had naturally supposed
+hitherto that any knowledge he had not happened to acquire could only be
+meretricious and useless.</p>
+
+<p>He led a nightmare sort of existence for some days, until something
+happened which roused him from his state of passive misery into one more
+attempt at protest.</p>
+
+<p>It was Saturday morning, and he had come down to breakfast, after being
+knocked about as usual in the dormitory over night, with a dull wonder
+how long this horrible state of things could possibly be going to last,
+when he saw on his plate a letter with the Paddington post-mark,
+addressed in a familiar hand&mdash;his daughter Barbara's.</p>
+
+<p>For an instant his hopes rose high. Surely the impostor had been found
+out at last, and the envelope would contain an urgent invitation to him
+to come back and resume his rights&mdash;an invitation which he might show to
+the Doctor as his best apology.</p>
+
+<p>But when he looked at the address, which was "Master Richard Bultitude,"
+he felt a misgiving. It was unlikely that Barbara would address him thus
+if she knew the truth; he hesitated before tearing it open.</p>
+
+<p>Then he tried to persuade himself that of course she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> would have the
+sense to keep up appearances for his own sake on the outside of the
+letter, and he compelled himself to open the envelope with fingers that
+trembled nervously.</p>
+
+<p>The very first sentences scattered his faint expectations to the winds.
+He read on with staring eyes, till the room seemed to rock with him like
+a packet-boat and the sprawling school-girl handwriting, crossed and
+recrossed on the thin paper, changed to letters of scorching flame. But
+perhaps it will be better to give the letter in full, so that the reader
+may judge for himself whether it was calculated or not to soothe and
+encourage the exiled one.</p>
+
+<p>Here it is:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">My dearest darling Dick</span>,&mdash;I hope you have not been expecting a
+letter from me before this, but I had such lots to tell you that I
+waited till I had time to tell it all at once. For I have such news
+for you! You can't think how pleased you will be when you hear it.
+Where shall I begin? I hardly know, for it still seems so funny and
+strange&mdash;almost like a dream&mdash;only I hope we shall never wake up.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I must tell you anyhow, just as it comes. Well, ever since
+you went away, dear Father has been completely changed; you would
+hardly believe it unless you saw him. He is quite jolly and
+boyish&mdash;only fancy! and we are always telling him he is the biggest
+baby of us all, but it only makes him laugh. Once, you know, he
+would have been awfully angry if we had even hinted at it.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, I really think that the real reason he was so cross
+and sharp with us that last week was because you were going away;
+for now the wrench of parting is over, he is quite light-hearted
+again. You know how he always hates showing his feelings.</p>
+
+<p>"He is so altered now, you can't think. He has actually only once
+been up to the city since you left,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> and then he came home at four
+o'clock, and he seems to quite like to have us all about him.
+Generally he stays at home all the morning and plays at soldiers
+with baby in the dining-room. You would laugh to see him loading
+the cannons with real powder and shot, and he didn't care a bit
+when some of it made holes in the sideboard and smashed the
+looking-glass.</p>
+
+<p>"We had such fun the other afternoon; we played at brigands&mdash;papa
+and all of us. Papa had the upper conservatory for a robber-cave,
+and stood there keeping guard with your pop-gun; and he wouldn't
+let the servants go by without a kiss, unless they showed a written
+pass from us! Miss McFadden called in the middle of it, but she
+said she wouldn't come in, as papa seemed to be enjoying himself
+so. Boaler has given warning, but we can't think why. We have been
+out nearly every evening&mdash;once to Hengler's and once to the Christy
+Minstrels, and last night to the Pantomime, where papa was so
+pleased with the clown that he sent round afterwards and asked him
+to dine here on Sunday, when Sir Benjamin and Lady Bangle and
+Alderman Fishwick are coming. Won't it be jolly to see a clown
+close to? Should you think he'd come in <i>his</i> evening dress? Miss
+Mangnall has been given a month's holiday, because papa didn't like
+to see us always at lessons. Think of that!</p>
+
+<p>"We are going to have the whole house done up and refurnished at
+last. Papa chose the furniture for the drawing-room yesterday. It
+is all in yellow satin, which is rather bright, I think. I haven't
+seen the carpet yet, but it is to match the furniture; and there is
+a lovely hearthrug, with a lion-hunt worked on it.</p>
+
+<p>"But that isn't the best of it; we are going to have the big
+children's party after all! No one but children invited, and
+everyone to do exactly what they like. I wanted so much to have you
+home for it, but papa says it would only unsettle you and take you
+away from your work.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p><p>"Had Dulcie forgotten you? I should like to see her so much. Now I
+really must leave off, as I am going to the Aquarium with papa.
+Mind you write me as good a letter as this is, if that old Doctor
+lets you. Minnie and Roly send love and kisses, and papa sends his
+kind regards, and I am to say he hopes you are settling down
+steadily to work.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"With best love, your affectionate sister,<br />
+"<span class="smcap">Barbara Bultitude.</span>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"P.S.&mdash;I nearly forgot to say that Uncle Duke came the other day
+and has stayed here ever since. He is going to make papa's fortune!
+I believe by a gold mine he knows about somewhere, and a steam
+tramway in Lapland. But I don't like him very much&mdash;he is so
+polite."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>It would be nothing short of an insult to the reader's comprehension, if
+I were to enter into an elaborate explanation of the effect this letter
+had upon Mr. Bultitude. He took it in by degrees, trying to steady his
+nerves at each additional item of poor Barbara's well-meant intelligence
+by a sip at his tin-flavoured coffee. But when he came to the
+postscript, in spite of its purport being mercifully broken to him
+gradually by the extreme difficulty of making it out from two
+undercurrents of manuscript, he choked convulsively and spilt his
+coffee.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grimstone visited this breach of etiquette with stern promptness.
+"This conduct at table is disgraceful, sir&mdash;perfectly
+disgraceful&mdash;unworthy of a civilised being. I have been a teacher of
+youth for many years, and never till now did I have the pain of seeing a
+pupil of mine choke in his breakfast-cup with such deplorable
+ill-breeding. It's pure greediness, sir, and you will have the goodness
+to curb your indecent haste in consuming your food for the future. Your
+excellent father has frequently complained to me, with tears in his
+eyes, of the impossibility of teaching you to behave at meals with
+common propriety!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p><p>There was a faint chuckle along the tables, and several drank coffee
+with studied elegance and self-repression either as a valuable example
+to Dick, or as a personal advertisement. But Paul was in no mood for
+reproof and instruction. He stood up in his excitement, flourishing his
+letter wildly.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Grimstone!" he said; "never mind my behaviour now. I've something
+to tell you. I can't bear it any longer. I must go home at once&mdash;at
+once, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a general sensation at this, for his manner was peremptory and
+almost dictatorial. Some thought he would get a licking on the strength
+of it, and most hoped so. But the Doctor dismissed them to the
+playground, keeping Paul back to be dealt with in privacy.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Grimstone played nervously with her dry toast at the end of the
+table, for she could not endure to see the boys in trouble and dreaded a
+scene, while Dulcie looked on with wide bright eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, sir," said the Doctor, looking up from his marmalade, "why must
+you go home at once?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've just had a letter," stammered Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"No one ill at home, I hope?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said Paul. "It's not that; it's worse! She doesn't know what
+horrible things she tells me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who is 'she'?" said the Doctor&mdash;and Dulcie's eyes were larger still and
+her face paled.</p>
+
+<p>"I decline to say," said Mr. Bultitude. It would have been absurd to say
+'my daughter,' and he had not presence of mind just then to transpose
+the relationships with neatness and success. "But indeed I am wanted
+most badly!"</p>
+
+<p>"What are you wanted for, pray?"</p>
+
+<p>"Everything!" declared Paul; "it's all going to rack and ruin without
+me!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's absurd," said the Doctor; "you're not such an important
+individual as all that, Bultitude. But let me see the letter."</p>
+
+<p>Show him the letter&mdash;lay bare all those follies of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> Dick's, the burden
+of which he might have to bear himself very shortly&mdash;never! Besides,
+what would be the use of it? It would be no argument in favour of
+sending him home&mdash;rather the reverse&mdash;so Paul was obliged to say,
+"Excuse me, Dr. Grimstone, it is&mdash;ah&mdash;of a private nature. I don't feel
+at liberty to show it to anyone."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, sir," said the Doctor, with some reason, "if you can't tell me
+who or what it is that requires your presence at home, and decline to
+show me the letter which would presumably give me some idea on the
+subject, how do you expect that I am to listen to such a preposterous
+demand&mdash;eh? Just tell me that!"</p>
+
+<p>Once more would Paul have given worlds for the firmness and presence of
+mind to state his case clearly and effectively; and he could hardly have
+had a better opportunity, for schoolmasters cannot always be playing the
+tyrant, and the Doctor was, in spite of his attempts to be stern,
+secretly more amused than angry at what seemed a peculiarly precocious
+piece of effrontery.</p>
+
+<p>But Paul felt the dismal absurdity of his position. Nothing he had said,
+nothing he could say, short of the truth, would avail him, and the truth
+was precisely what he felt most unable to tell. He hung his head
+resignedly, and held his tongue in confusion.</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh!" said the Doctor at last; "let me have no more of this
+tomfoolery, Bultitude. It's getting to be a positive nuisance. Don't
+come to me with any more of these ridiculous stories, or some day I
+shall be annoyed. There, go away, and be contented where you are, and
+try to behave like other people."</p>
+
+<p>"'Contented!'" muttered Paul, when out of hearing, as he went upstairs
+and through the empty schoolroom into the playground. "'Behave like
+other people!' Ah, yes, I suppose I shall have to come to that in time.
+But that letter&mdash;&mdash; Everything upside down&mdash;&mdash; Bangle asked to meet a
+common clown! That fellow Duke letting me in for gold-mines and
+tramways! It's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> all worse than I ever dreamed of; and I must stay here
+and be 'contented!' It's&mdash;it's perfectly damnable!"</p>
+
+<p>All through that morning his thoughts ran in the same doleful groove,
+until the time for work came to an end, and he found himself in the
+playground, and free to indulge his melancholy for a few minutes in
+solitude; for the others were still loitering about in the schoolroom,
+and a glass outhouse originally intended for a conservatory, but now
+devoted to boots and slates, and the books liberally besmeared with
+gilt, and telling of the exploits of boy-heroes so beloved of boys.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude, only too delighted to get away from them for a little
+while, was leaning against the parallel bars in dull despondency, when
+he heard a rustling in the laurel hedge which cut off the house garden
+from the gravelled playground, and looking up, saw Dulcie slip through
+the shrubs and come towards him with an air of determination in her
+proud little face.</p>
+
+<p>She looked prettier and daintier than ever in her grey hat and warm fur
+tippet; but of course Paul was not of the age or in the mood to be much
+affected by such things&mdash;he turned his head pettishly away.</p>
+
+<p>"It's no use doing that, Dick," she said: "I'm tired of sulking. I
+shan't sulk any more till I have an explanation."</p>
+
+<p>Paul made the sound generally written "Pshaw!"</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to tell me everything. I will know it. Oh, Dick, you might
+tell me! I always told you anything you wanted to know; and I let mamma
+think it was I broke the clock-shade last term, and you know you did it.
+And I want to know something so very badly!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's no use coming to <i>me</i>, you know," said Paul. "I can't do anything
+for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you can; you know you can!" said Dulcie impulsively. "You can tell
+me what was in that letter you had at breakfast&mdash;and you shall too!"</p>
+
+<p>"What an inquisitive little girl you are," said Paul<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> sententiously.
+"It's not nice for little girls to be so inquisitive&mdash;it doesn't look
+well."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew it!" cried Dulcie; "you don't want to tell me&mdash;because&mdash;because
+it's from that other horrid girl you like better than me. And you
+promised to belong to me for ever and ever, and now it's all over! Say
+it isn't! Oh, Dick, promise to give the other girl up. I'm sure she's
+not a nice girl. She's written you an unkind letter; now hasn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word," said Paul, "this is very forward; at your age too. Why,
+my Barbara&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Your Barbara! you dare to call her that? Oh, I knew I was right; I
+<i>will</i> see that letter now. Give it me this instant!" said Dulcie
+imperiously; and Paul really felt almost afraid of her.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," he said, retreating a step or two, "it's all a mistake;
+there's nothing to get into such a passion about&mdash;there isn't indeed!
+And&mdash;don't cry&mdash;you're really a pretty little girl. I only wish I could
+tell you everything; but you'd never believe me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I would, Dick!" protested Dulcie, only too willing to be
+convinced of her boy-lover's constancy; "I'll believe anything, if
+you'll only tell me. And I'm sorry I was so angry. Sit down by me and
+tell me from the very beginning. I promise not to interrupt."</p>
+
+<p>Paul thought for a moment. After all, why shouldn't he? It was much
+pleasanter to tell his sorrows to her little ear and hear her childish
+wonder and pity than face her terrible father&mdash;he had tried that. And
+then she might tell her mother; and so his story might reach the
+Doctor's ears after all, without further effort on his part.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said at last, "I think you're a good-natured little girl; you
+won't laugh. Perhaps I will tell you!"</p>
+
+<p>So he sat down on the bench by the wall, and Dulcie, quite happy again
+now at this proof of good faith, nestled up against him confidingly,
+waiting for his first words with parted lips and eager sparkling eyes.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p><p>"Not many days ago," began Paul, "I was somebody very different
+from&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, indeed," said a jarring, sneering voice close by; "was you?" And he
+looked up and saw Tipping standing over him with a plainly hostile
+intent.</p>
+
+<p>"Go away, Tipping," said Dulcie; "we don't want you. Dick is telling me
+a secret."</p>
+
+<p>"He's very fond of telling, I know," retorted Tipping. "If you knew what
+a sneak he was you'd have nothing to do with him, Dulcie. I could tell
+you things about him that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He's not a sneak," said Dulcie. "Are you, Dick? Why don't you go,
+Tipping. Never mind what he says, Dick; go on as if he wasn't there. I
+don't care what he says!"</p>
+
+<p>It was a most unpleasant situation for Mr. Bultitude, but he did not
+like to offend Tipping. "I&mdash;I think&mdash;some other time, perhaps," he said
+nervously. "Not now."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you're afraid to say what you were going to say now I'm here," said
+the amiable Tipping, nettled by Dulcie's little air of haughty disdain.
+"You're a coward; you know you are. You pretend to think such a lot of
+Dulcie here, but you daren't fight!"</p>
+
+<p>"Fight!" said Mr. Bultitude. "Eh, what for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, for her, of course. You can't care much about her if you daren't
+fight for her. I want to show her who's the best man of the two!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to be shown," wailed poor Dulcie piteously, clinging to
+the reluctant Paul; "I know. Don't fight with him, Dick. I say you're
+not to."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not!" said Mr. Bultitude with great decision. "I shouldn't
+think of such a thing!" and he rose from the bench and was about to walk
+away, when Tipping suddenly pulled off his coat and began to make sundry
+demonstrations of a martial nature, such as dancing aggressively towards
+his rival and clenching his fists.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p><p>By this time most of the other boys had come down into the playground,
+and were looking on with great interest. There was an element of romance
+in this promised combat which gave it additional attractions. It was
+like one of the struggles between knightly champions in the Waverley
+novels. Several of them would have fought till they couldn't see out of
+their eyes if it would have given them the least chance of obtaining
+favour in Dulcie's sight, and they all envied Dick, who was the only boy
+that was not unmercifully snubbed by their capricious little princess.</p>
+
+<p>Paul alone was blind to the splendour of his privileges. He examined
+Tipping carefully, as the latter was still assuming a hostile attitude
+and chanting a sort of war-cry supposed to be an infallible incentive to
+strife.</p>
+
+<p>"Yah, you're afraid!" he sang very offensively. "I wouldn't be a funk!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh!" said Paul at last; "go away, sir, go away!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go away, eh?" jeered Tipping. "Who are you to tell me to go away? Go
+away yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Paul, only too happy to oblige. But he found himself
+prevented by a ring of excited backers.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't funk it, Dick!" cried some, forgetting recent ill-feeling in the
+necessity for partisanship. "Go in and settle him as you did that last
+time. I'll second you. You can do it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't hit each other in the face," pleaded Dulcie, who had got upon a
+bench and was looking down into the ring&mdash;not, if the truth must be
+told, without a certain pleasurable excitement in the feeling that it
+was all about her.</p>
+
+<p>And now Mr. Bultitude discovered that he was seriously expected to fight
+this great hulking boy, and that the sole reason for any disagreement
+was an utterly unfounded jealousy respecting this little girl Dulcie. He
+had not a grain of chivalry in his disposition&mdash;chivalry being an
+eminently unpractical virtue&mdash;and naturally he saw no advantage in
+letting himself be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> mauled for the sake of a child younger than his own
+daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Dulcie's appeal enraged Tipping, who took it as addressed solely to
+himself. "You ought to be glad to stick up for her," he said between his
+teeth. "I'll mash you for this&mdash;see if I don't!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul thought he saw his way clear to disabuse Tipping of his mistaken
+idea. "Are you proposing," he asked politely, "to&mdash;to 'mash' me on
+account of that little girl there on the seat?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll soon see," growled Tipping. "Shut your head, and come on!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but I want to know," persisted Mr. Bultitude. "Because," he said
+with a sickly attempt at jocularity which delighted none, "you see, I
+don't want to be mashed. I'm not a potato. If I understand you aright,
+you want to fight me because you think me likely to interfere with your
+claim to that little girl's&mdash;ah&mdash;affections?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's it," said Tipping gruffly; "so you'd better waste no more words
+about it, and come on."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't care about coming on," protested Paul earnestly. "It's all
+a mistake. I've no doubt she's a very nice little girl, but I assure
+you, my good boy, I've no desire to stand in your way for one instant.
+She's nothing to me&mdash;nothing at all! I give her up to you. Take her,
+young fellow, with my blessing! There, now, that's all settled
+comfortably&mdash;eh?"</p>
+
+<p>He was just looking round with a self-satisfied and relieved air, when
+he began to be aware that his act of frank unselfishness was not as much
+appreciated as it deserved. Tipping, indeed, looked baffled and
+irresolute for one moment, but a low murmur of disgust arose from the
+bystanders, and even Jolland declared that it was "too beastly mean."</p>
+
+<p>As for Dulcie, she had been looking on incredulously at her champion's
+unaccountable tardiness in coming to the point. But this public
+repudiation was too much for her. She gave a little low wail as she
+heard the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> shameless words of recantation, and then, without a word,
+jumped lightly down from her bench and ran away to hide herself
+somewhere and cry.</p>
+
+<p>Even Paul, though he knew that he had done nothing but what was strictly
+right, and had acted purely in self-protection, felt unaccountably
+ashamed of himself as he saw this effect of his speech. But it was too
+late now.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="The_Complete_Letter-Writer" id="The_Complete_Letter-Writer"></a>10. <i>The Complete Letter-Writer</i></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Accelerated by ignominious shovings&mdash;nay, as it is written, by
+smitings, twitchings, spurnings <i>&agrave; posteriori</i> not to be
+named."&mdash;<i>French Revolution.</i></p>
+
+<p>"This letter being so excellently ignorant will breed no terror in
+the youth."&mdash;<i>Twelfth Night.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude had meant to achieve a double stroke of diplomacy&mdash;to
+undeceive Dulcie and conciliate the lovesick Tipping. But whatever his
+success may have been in the former respect, the latter object failed
+conspicuously.</p>
+
+<p>"You shan't get off by a shabby trick like that," said Tipping,
+exasperated by the sight of Dulcie's emotion; "you've made her cry now,
+and you shall smart for it. So, now, are you going to stand up to me
+like a man, or will you take a licking?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not going to help you to commit a breach of the peace," said Paul
+with great dignity. "Go away, you quarrelsome young ruffian! Get one of
+your schoolfellows to fight you, if you must fight. I don't want to be
+mixed up with you in any way."</p>
+
+<p>But at this Tipping, whose blood was evidently at boiling point, came
+prancing down on him in a Zulu-like fashion, swinging his long arms like
+a windmill, and finding that his enemy made no attempt at receiving him,
+but only moved away apprehensively, he seized him by the collar as a
+prelude to dealing him a series of kicks behind.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p><p>Although Mr. Bultitude, as we have seen, was opposed to fighting as a
+system he could not submit to this sort of thing without at least some
+attempt to defend himself; and judging it of the highest importance to
+disable his adversary in the most effectual manner before the latter had
+time to carry out his offensive designs, he turned sharply round and hit
+him a very severe blow in the lower part of his waistcoat.</p>
+
+<p>The result fulfilled his highest expectations. Tipping collapsed like a
+pocket-rule, and staggered away speechless, and purple with pain, while
+Paul stood calm and triumphant. He had shown these fellows that he
+wasn't going to stand any nonsense. They would leave him alone after
+this, perhaps.</p>
+
+<p>But once more there were cries and murmurs of "Shame!" "No hitting below
+the belt!" "Cad&mdash;coward!"</p>
+
+<p>It appeared that, somehow, he had managed to offend their prejudices
+even in this. "It's very odd," he thought; "when I didn't fight they
+called me a coward, and now, when I do, I don't seem to have pleased
+them much. I don't care, though. I've settled <i>him</i>."</p>
+
+<p>But after a season of protracted writhing by the parallel bars, Tipping
+came out, still gasping and deadly pale, leaning on Biddlecomb's
+shoulder, and was met with universal sympathy and condolence.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks!" he said with considerable effort. "Of course&mdash;I'm not
+going&mdash;to fight him after a low trick like that; but perhaps you fellows
+will see that he doesn't escape quite as easily as he fancies?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a general shout. "No; he shall pay for it! We'll teach him to
+fight fair! We'll see if he tries that on again!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul heard it with much uneasiness. What new devilry were they about to
+practise upon him? He was not left long in doubt.</p>
+
+<p>"I vote," suggested Biddlecomb, as if he were proposing a testimonial,
+"we make him run the gauntlet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> Grim won't come out and catch us. I saw
+him go out for a drive an hour ago." And the idea was very favourably
+entertained.</p>
+
+<p>Paul had heard of "running the gauntlet," and dimly suspected that it
+was not an experience he was likely to enjoy, particularly when he saw
+everyone busying himself with tying the end of his pocket-handkerchief
+into a hard knot. He tried in vain to excuse himself, declaring again
+and again that he had never meant to injure the boy. He had only
+defended himself, and was under the impression that he was at perfect
+liberty to hit him wherever he could, and so on. But they were in no
+mood for excuses.</p>
+
+<p>With a stern magisterial formality worthy of a Vehm-Gericht, they formed
+in two long lines down the centre of the playground; and while Paul was
+still staring in wonder at what this strange man&oelig;uvre might mean,
+somebody pounced upon him and carried him up to one end of the ranks,
+where Tipping had by this time sufficiently recovered to be able to "set
+him going," as he chose to call it, with a fairly effective kick.</p>
+
+<p>After that he had a confused sense of flying madly along the double line
+of avengers under a hail of blows which caught him on every part of his
+head, shoulders, and back till he reached the end, where he was
+dexterously turned and sent spinning up to Tipping again, who in his
+turn headed him back on his arrival, and forced him to brave the
+terrible lane once more.</p>
+
+<p>Never before had Mr. Bultitude felt so sore and insulted. But they kept
+it up long after the thing had lost its first freshness&mdash;until at last
+exhaustion made them lean to mercy, and they cuffed him ignominiously
+into a corner, and left him to lament his ill-treatment there till the
+bell rang for dinner, for which, contrary to precedent, his recent
+violent exercise had excited little appetite.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be killed soon if I stay here," he moaned; "I know I shall.
+These young brigands would murder me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> cheerfully, if they were not
+afraid of being caned for it. I'm a miserable man, and I wish I was
+dead!"</p>
+
+<p>Although that afternoon, being Saturday, was a half-holiday, Mr.
+Bultitude was spared the ordeal of another game at football; for a smart
+storm of rain and sleet coming on about three o'clock kept the
+school&mdash;not altogether unwilling prisoners&mdash;within doors for the day.</p>
+
+<p>The boys sat in their places in their schoolroom, amusing themselves
+after their several fashions&mdash;some reading, some making libellous copies
+of drawings that took their fancy in the illustrated papers, some
+playing games; others, too listless to play and too dull to find
+pleasure in the simplest books, filled up the time as well as they could
+by quarrelling and getting into various depths of hot water. Paul sat in
+a corner pretending to read a story relating the experiences of certain
+infants of phenomenal courage and coolness in the Arctic regions. They
+killed bears and tamed walruses all through the book; but for the first
+time, perhaps, since their appearance in print their exploits fell flat.
+Not, however, that this reflected any discredit upon the author's
+powers, which are justly admired by all healthy-minded boys; but it was
+beyond the power of literature just then to charm Mr. Bultitude's
+thoughts from the recollection of his misfortunes.</p>
+
+<p>As he took in all the details of his surroundings&mdash;the warm close room;
+the raw-toned desks and tables at which a rabble of unsympathetic boys
+were noisily whispering and chattering, with occasional glances in his
+direction, from which, taught by experience, he augured no good; the
+high uncurtained windows, blurred with little stars of half-frozen rain,
+and the bare, bleak branches of the trees outside tossing drearily
+against a low leaden sky&mdash;he tried in vain to cheat himself into a
+dreamy persuasion that all this misery could not be real, but would fade
+away as suddenly and mysteriously as it had stolen upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the close of the afternoon the Doctor came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> in and took his
+place at the writing-table, where he was apparently very busy with the
+composition of some sort of document, which he finished at last with
+evident satisfaction at the result of his labour. Then he observed that,
+according to their custom of a Saturday afternoon, the hour before
+tea-time should be devoted to "writing home."</p>
+
+<p>So the books, chess-boards, and dominoes were all put away, and a new
+steel pen and a sheet of notepaper, neatly embossed with the heading
+"Crichton House School" in old English letters, having been served out
+to everyone, each boy prepared himself to write down such things as
+filial affection, strict truthfulness, and the desire of imparting
+information might inspire between them.</p>
+
+<p>Paul felt, as he clutched his writing materials, much as a shipwrecked
+mariner might be expected to do at finding on his desolate island a
+good-sized flag and a case of rockets. His hopes revived once more; he
+forgot the smarts left by the knots in the handkerchiefs, he had a whole
+hour before him&mdash;it was possible to set several wires in motion for his
+release in an hour.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, he must write several letters. First, one to his solicitor
+detailing, as calmly and concisely as his feelings would allow, the
+shameful way in which he had been treated, and imploring him to take
+measures of some sort for getting him out of his false and awkward
+position; one to his head clerk, to press upon him the necessity of
+prudence and caution in dealing with the impostor; notes to Bangle and
+Fishwick putting them off&mdash;they should not be outraged by an
+introduction to a vulgar pantomime clown under his roof; and lastly
+(this was an outburst he could not deny himself), a solemn impressive
+appeal to the common humanity, if not to the ordinary filial instincts,
+of his undutiful son.</p>
+
+<p>His fingers tingled to begin. Sentences of burning, indignant eloquence
+crowded confusedly into his head&mdash;he would write such letters as would
+carry instant <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>conviction to the most practical and matter-of-fact
+minds. The pathos and dignity of his remonstrances should melt even
+Dick's selfish, callous heart.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps he overrated the power of his pen&mdash;perhaps it would have
+required more than mere ink to persuade his friends to disbelieve their
+own senses, and see a portly citizen of over fifty packed into the frame
+of a chubby urchin of fourteen. But, at all events, no one's faith was
+put to so hard a test&mdash;those letters were never written.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't begin to write yet, any of you," said the Doctor; "I have a few
+words to say to you first. In most cases, and as a general rule, I think
+it wisest to let every boy commit to paper whatever his feelings may
+dictate to him. I wish to claim no censorship over the style and diction
+of your letters. But there have been so many complaints lately from the
+parents of some of the less advanced of you, that I find myself obliged
+to make a change. Your father particularly, Richard Bultitude," he
+added, turning suddenly upon the unlucky Paul, "has complained bitterly
+of the slovenly tone and phrasing of your correspondence; he said very
+justly that they would disgrace a stable-boy, and unless I could induce
+you to improve them, he begged he might not be annoyed by them in
+future."</p>
+
+<p>It was by no means the least galling part of Mr. Bultitude's trials,
+that former forgotten words and deeds of his in his original condition
+were constantly turning up at critical seasons, and plunging him deeper
+into the morass just when he saw some prospect of gaining firm ground.</p>
+
+<p>So, on this occasion, he did remember that, being in a more than usually
+bad temper one day last year, he had, on receiving a sprawling,
+ill-spelt application from Dick for more pocket-money, to buy fireworks
+for the 5th of November, written to make some such complaint to the
+schoolmaster. He waited anxiously for the Doctor's next words; he might
+want to read the letters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> before they were sent off, in which case Paul
+would not be displeased, for it would be an easier and less dangerous
+way of putting the Doctor in possession of the facts.</p>
+
+<p>But his complaints were to be honoured by a much more effectual remedy,
+for it naturally piqued the Doctor to be told that boys instructed under
+his auspices wrote like stable-boys. "However," he went on, "I wish your
+people at home to be assured from time to time of your welfare, and to
+prevent them from being shocked and distressed in future by the crudity
+of your communications, I have drawn up a short form of letter for the
+use of the lower boys in the second form&mdash;which I shall now proceed to
+dictate. Of course all boys in the first form, and all in the second
+above Bultitude and Jolland, will write as they please, as usual.
+Richard, I expect you to take particular pains to write this out neatly.
+Are you all ready? Very well then, ... now;" and he read out the
+following letter, slowly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Parents (or parent according to circumstances) comma" (all of
+which several took down most industriously)&mdash;"You will be rejoiced to
+hear that, having arrived with safety at our destination, we have by
+this time fully resumed our customary regular round of earnest work
+relieved and sweetened by hearty play. ('Have you all got "hearty play"
+down?'" inquired the Doctor rather suspiciously, while Jolland observed
+in an undertone that it would take some time to get <i>that</i> down.) "I
+hope, I trust I may say without undue conceit, to have made considerable
+progress in my school-tasks before I rejoin the family circle for the
+Easter vacation, as I think you will admit when I inform you of the
+programme we intend" ('D.V. in brackets and capital letters'&mdash;as before,
+this was taken down verbatim by Jolland, who probably knew very much
+better), "intend to work out during the term.</p>
+
+<p>"In Latin, the class of which I am a member propose to thoroughly master
+the first book of Virgil's magnificent Epic, need I say I refer to the
+soul-moving story of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> the Pious &AElig;neas?" (Jolland was understood by his
+near neighbours to remark that he thought the explanation distinctly
+advisable), "whilst, in Greek, we have already commenced the thrilling
+account of the 'Anabasis' of Xenophon, that master of strategy! nor
+shall we, of course, neglect in either branch of study the syntax and
+construction of those two noble languages"&mdash;("noble languages," echoed
+the writers mechanically, contriving to insinuate a touch of irony into
+the words).</p>
+
+<p>"In German under the able tutelage of Herr Stohwasser, who, as I may
+possibly have mentioned to you in casual conversation, is a graduate of
+the University of Heidelberg" ("and a silly old hass," added Jolland
+parenthetically), "we have resigned ourselves to the spell of the
+Teutonian Shakespeare" (there was much difference of opinion as to the
+manner of spelling the "Teutonian Shakespeare"), "as, in my opinion,
+Schiller may be not inaptly termed, and our French studies comprise such
+exercises, and short poems and tales, as are best calculated to afford
+an insight into the intricacies of the Gallic tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"But I would not have you imagine, my dear parents (or parent, as
+before), that, because the claims of the intellect have been thus amply
+provided for, the requirements of the body are necessarily overlooked!</p>
+
+<p>"I have no intention of becoming a mere bookworm, and, on the contrary,
+we have had one excessively brisk and pleasant game at football already
+this season, and should, but for the unfortunate inclemency of the
+weather, have engaged again this afternoon in the mimic warfare.</p>
+
+<p>"In the playground our favourite diversion is the game of 'chevy,' so
+called from the engagement famed in ballad and history (I allude to the
+battle of Chevy Chase), and indeed, my dear parents, in the rapid
+alternations of its fortunes and the diversity of its incident, the game
+(to my mind) bears a striking resemblance to the accounts of that
+ever-memorable contest.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p><p>"I fear I must now relinquish my pen, as the time allotted for
+correspondence is fast waning to its close, and tea-time is approaching.
+Pray give my kindest remembrance to all my numerous friends and
+relatives, and accept my fondest love and affection for yourselves, and
+the various other members of the family circle.</p>
+
+<p>"I am, I am rejoiced to say, in the enjoyment of excellent health, and
+surrounded as I am by congenial companions, and employed in interesting
+and agreeable pursuits, it is superfluous to add that I am happy.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, my dear parents, believe me, your dutiful and affectionate
+son, so and so."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor finished his dictation with a roll in his voice, as much as
+to say, "I think that will strike your respective parents as a chaste
+and classical composition; I think so!"</p>
+
+<p>But unexceptionable as its tone and sentiments undoubtedly were, it was
+far from expressing the feelings of Mr. Bultitude. The rest accepted it
+not unwillingly as an escape from the fatigue of original composition,
+but to him the neat, well-balanced sentences seemed a hollow mockery. As
+he wrote down each successive phrase, he wondered what Dick would think
+of it, and when at last it was finished, the precious hour had gone for
+another week!</p>
+
+<p>In speechless disgust but without protest, for his spirit was too broken
+by this last cruel disappointment, he had to fold, put into an envelope
+and direct this most misleading letter under the Doctor's superintending
+eye, which of course allowed him no chance of introducing a line or even
+a word to counteract the tone of self-satisfaction and contentment which
+breathed in every sentence of it.</p>
+
+<p>He saw it stamped, and put into the postbag, and then his last gleam of
+hope flickered out; he must give up struggling against the Inevitable;
+he must resign himself to be educated, and perhaps flogged here, while
+Dick was filling his house with clowns and pantaloons,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> destroying his
+reputation and damaging his credit at home. Perhaps, in course of time,
+he would grow accustomed to it, and, meanwhile, he would be as careful
+as possible to do and say nothing to make himself remarkable in any way,
+by which means he trusted, at least, to avoid any fresh calamity.</p>
+
+<p>And with this resolution he went to bed on Saturday night, feeling that
+this was a dreary finish to a most unpleasant week.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="A_Day_of_Rest" id="A_Day_of_Rest"></a>11. <i>A Day of Rest</i></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>"There was a letter indeed to be intercepted by a man's father to
+do him good with him!"&mdash;<i>Every Man in his Humour.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"I cannot lose the thought yet of this letter,</div>
+<div>Sent to my son; nor leave t' admire the change</div>
+<div>Of manners, and the breeding of our youth</div>
+<div>Within the kingdom, since myself was one."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i></div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Sunday came&mdash;a day which was to begin a new week for Mr. Bultitude, and,
+of course, for the rest of the Christian world as well. Whether that
+week would be better or worse than the one which had just passed away he
+naturally could not tell&mdash;it could hardly be much worse.</p>
+
+<p>But the Sunday itself, he anticipated, without, however, any very firm
+grounds for such an assumption, would be a day of brief but grateful
+respite; a day on which he might venture to claim much the same immunity
+as was enjoyed in former days by the insolvent; a day, in short, which
+would glide slowly by with the rather drowsy solemnity peculiar to the
+British sabbath as observed by all truly respectable persons.</p>
+
+<p>And yet that very Sunday, could he have foreseen it, was destined to be
+the most eventful day he had yet spent at Crichton House, where none had
+proved wanting in incident. During the next twelve hours he was to pass
+through every variety of unpleasant sensation. Embarrassment, suspense,
+fear, anxiety, dismay, and terror<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> were to follow each other in rapid
+succession, and to wind up, strangely enough, with a delicious ecstasy
+of pure relief and happiness&mdash;a fatiguing programme for any middle-aged
+gentleman who had never cultivated his emotional faculties.</p>
+
+<p>Let me try to tell how this came about. The getting-up bell rang an hour
+later than on week-days, but the boys were expected to prepare certain
+tasks suitable for the day before they rose. Mr. Bultitude found that he
+was required to learn by heart a hymn in which the rhymes "join" and
+"divine," "throne" and "crown," were so happily wedded that either might
+conform to the other&mdash;a graceful concession to individual taste which is
+not infrequent in this class of poetry. Trivial as such a task may seem
+in these days of School Boards, it gave him infinite trouble and mental
+exertion, for he had not been called upon to commit anything of the kind
+to memory for many years, and after mastering that, there still remained
+a long chronological list (the dates approximately computed) of the
+leading events before and immediately after the Deluge, which was to be
+repeated "without looking at the book."</p>
+
+<p>While he was wrestling desperately with these, for he was determined, as
+I have said before, to do all in his power to keep himself out of
+trouble, Mrs. Grimstone, in her morning wrapper, paid a visit to the
+dormitories and, in spite of all Paul's attempts to excuse himself,
+insisted upon pomatuming his hair&mdash;an indignity which he felt acutely.</p>
+
+<p>"When she knows who I really am," he thought, "she'll be sorry she made
+such a point of it. If there's one thing upon earth I loathe more than
+another, it's marrow-oil pomade!"</p>
+
+<p>Then there was breakfast, at which Dr. Grimstone appeared, resplendent
+in glossy broadcloth, and dazzling shirt-front and semi-clerical white
+tie, and after breakfast, an hour in the schoolroom, during which the
+boys (by the aid of repeated references to the text)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> wrote out "from
+memory" the hymn they had learnt, while Paul managed somehow to stumble
+through his dates and events to the satisfaction of Mr. Tinkler, who, to
+increase his popularity, made a point of being as easily satisfied with
+such repetitions as he decently could.</p>
+
+<p>After that came the order to prepare for church. There was a general
+rush to the little room with the shelves and bandboxes, where church
+books were procured, and great-coats and tight kid gloves put on.</p>
+
+<p>When they were almost ready the Doctor came in, wearing his blandest and
+most paternal expression.</p>
+
+<p>"A&mdash;it's a collection Sunday to-day, boys," he said. "Have you all got
+your threepenny-bits ready? I like to see my boys give cheerfully and
+liberally of their abundance. If any boy does not happen to have any
+small change, I can accommodate him if he comes to me."</p>
+
+<p>And this he proceeded to do from a store he had with him of that most
+convenient coin&mdash;the chosen expression of a congregation's
+gratitude&mdash;the common silver threepence, for the school occupied a
+prominent position in the church, and had acquired a great reputation
+amongst the churchwardens for the admirable uniformity with which one
+young gentleman after another "put into the plate"; and this reputation
+the Doctor was naturally anxious that they should maintain.</p>
+
+<p>I am sorry to say that Mr. Bultitude, fearing lest he should be asked if
+he had the required sum about him, and thus his penniless condition
+might be discovered and bring him trouble, got behind the door at the
+beginning of the money-changing transactions and remained there till it
+was over&mdash;it seemed to him that it would be too paltry to be disgraced
+for want of threepence.</p>
+
+<p>Now, being thus completely furnished for their devotions, the school
+formed in couples in the hall and filed solemnly out for the march to
+church.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude walked nearly last with Jolland, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> facile nature had
+almost forgotten his friend's shortcomings on the previous day. He kept
+up a perpetual flow of chatter which, as he never stopped for an answer,
+permitted Paul to indulge his own thoughts unrestrained.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to put your threepenny-bit in?" said Jolland; "I won't if
+you don't. Sometimes, you know, when the plate comes round, old Grim
+squints down the pews to see we don't shirk. Then I put in sixpence.
+Have you done your hymn? I do hate a hymn. What's the use of learning
+hymns? They won't mark you for them, you know, in any exam. I ever heard
+of, and it can't save you the expense of a hymnbook unless you learnt
+all the hymns in it, and that would take you years. Oh, I say, look!
+there's young Mutlow and his governor and mater. I wonder what Mutlow's
+governor does? Mutlow says he's a 'gentleman' if you ask him, but I
+believe he lies. See that fly driving past? Mother Grim" (the irreverent
+youth always spoke of Mrs. Grimstone in this way) "and Dulcie are in it.
+I saw Dulcie look at you, Dick. It's a shame to treat her as you did
+yesterday. There's young Tom on the box; don't his ears stick out
+rummily? I wonder if the 'ugly family' will be at church to-day? You
+know the ugly family; all with their mouths open and their eyes
+goggling, like a jolly old row of pantomime heads. And oh, Dick, suppose
+Connie Davenant's people have changed their pew&mdash;that'll be a sell for
+you rather, won't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand you," said Mr. Bultitude stiffly; "and, if you don't
+object, I prefer not to be called upon to talk just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, all right!" said Jolland, "there aren't so many fellows who will
+talk to you; but just as you please&mdash;I don't want to talk."</p>
+
+<p>And so the pair walked on in silence; Jolland with his nose in the air,
+determined that after this he really must cut his former friend as the
+other fellows had done, since his devotion was appreciated so little,
+and Paul<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> watching the ascending double line of tall chimney-pot hats as
+they surged before him in regular movement, and feeling a dull wonder at
+finding himself setting out to church in such ill-assorted company.</p>
+
+<p>They entered the church, and Paul was sent down to the extreme end of a
+pew next to the one reserved for the Doctor and his family. Dulcie was
+sitting there already on the other side of the partition; but she gave
+no sign of having noticed his arrival, being apparently absorbed in
+studying the rose-window over the altar.</p>
+
+<p>He sat down in his corner with a sense of rest and almost comfort,
+though the seat was not a cushioned one. He had the inoffensive Kiffin
+for a neighbour, his chief tormentors were far away from him in one of
+the back pews, and here at least he thought no harm could come to him.
+He could allow himself safely to do what I am afraid he generally did do
+under the circumstances&mdash;snatch a few intermittent but sweet periods of
+dreamless slumber.</p>
+
+<p>But, while the service was proceeding, Mr. Bultitude was suddenly
+horrified to observe that a young lady, who occupied a pew at right
+angles to and touching that in which he sat, was deliberately making
+furtive signals to him in a most unmistakable manner.</p>
+
+<p>She was a decidedly pretty girl of about fifteen, with merry and daring
+blue eyes and curling golden hair, and was accompanied by two small
+brothers (who shared the same book and dealt each other stealthy and
+vicious kicks throughout the service), and by her father, a stout,
+short-sighted old gentleman in gold spectacles, who was perpetually
+making the wrong responses in a loud and confident tone.</p>
+
+<p>To be signalled to in a marked manner by a strange young lady of great
+personal attractions might be a coveted distinction to other schoolboys,
+but it simply gave Mr. Bultitude cold thrills.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose <i>that's</i> 'Connie Davenant,'" he thought, shocked beyond
+measure as she caught his eye and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> coughed demurely for about the fourth
+time. "A very forward young person! I think somebody ought to speak
+seriously to her father."</p>
+
+<p>"Good gracious! she's writing something on the flyleaf of her
+prayer-book," he said to himself presently. "I hope she's not going to
+send it to <i>me</i>. I won't take it. She ought to be ashamed of herself!"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Davenant was indeed busily engaged in pencilling something on a
+blank sheet of paper; and, having finished, she folded it deftly into a
+cocked-hat, wrote a few words on the outside, and placed it between the
+leaves of her book.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as the congregation rose for the Psalms, she gave a meaning glance
+at the blushing and scandalised Mr. Bultitude and by dexterous
+management of her prayer-book shot the little cocked-hat, as if
+unconsciously, into the next pew.</p>
+
+<p>By a very unfortunate miscalculation, however, the note missed its
+proper object, and, clearing the partition, fluttered deliberately down
+on the floor by Dulcie's feet.</p>
+
+<p>Paul saw this with alarm; he knew that at all hazards he must get that
+miserable note into his own possession and destroy it. It might have his
+name somewhere about it; it might seriously compromise him.</p>
+
+<p>So he took advantage of the noise the congregation made in repeating a
+verse aloud (it was not a high church) to whisper to Dulcie: "Little
+Miss Grimstone, excuse me, but there's a&mdash;a note in the pew down by your
+feet. I believe it's intended for me."</p>
+
+<p>Dulcie had seen the whole affair and had been not a little puzzled by
+it, a clandestine correspondence being a new thing in her short
+experience; but she understood that in this golden-haired girl, her
+elder by several years, she saw her rival, for whom Dick had so basely
+abandoned her yesterday, and she was old enough to feel the slight and
+the sweetness of revenge.</p>
+
+<p>So she held her head rather higher than usual, with her firm little chin
+projecting wilfully, and waited for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> the next verse but one before
+retorting, "Little Master Bultitude, I know it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Could you&mdash;can you manage to reach it?" whispered Paul entreatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Dulcie, "I could."</p>
+
+<p>"Then will you&mdash;when they sit down?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Dulcie firmly, "I shan't."</p>
+
+<p>The other girl, she noticed with satisfaction, had become aware of the
+situation and was evidently uneasy. She looked as imploringly as she
+dared at remorseless little Dulcie, as if appealing to her not to get
+her into trouble; but Dulcie bent her eyes obstinately on her book and
+would not see her.</p>
+
+<p>If the letter had been addressed to any other boy in the school, she
+would have done her best to shield the culprits; but this she could not
+bring herself to do here. She found a malicious pleasure in remaining
+absolutely neutral, which of course was very wrong and ill-natured of
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude began now to be seriously alarmed. The fatal paper must be
+seen by some one in the Doctor's pew as soon as the congregation sat
+down again; and, if it reached the Doctor's hands, it was impossible to
+say what misconstruction he might put upon it or what terrible
+consequences might not follow.</p>
+
+<p>He was innocent, perfectly innocent; but though the consciousness of
+innocence is frequently a great consolation, he felt that unless he
+could imbue the Doctor with it as well, it would not save him from a
+flogging.</p>
+
+<p>So he made one more desperate attempt to soften Dulcie's resolution:
+"Don't be a naughty little girl," he said, very injudiciously for his
+purpose, "I tell you I must have it. You'll get me into a terrible mess
+if you're not careful!"</p>
+
+<p>But although Dulcie had been extremely well brought up, I regret to say
+that the only answer she chose to make to this appeal was that slight
+contortion of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> features, which with a pretty girl is euphemised as a
+"<i>moue</i>," and with a plain one is called "making a face." When he saw it
+he knew that all hope of changing her purpose must be abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>Then they all sat down, and, as Paul had foreseen, there the white
+cocked-hat lay on the dark pew-carpet, hideously distinct, with <i>billet
+doux</i> in every fold of it!</p>
+
+<p>It could only be a question of time now. The curate was reading the
+first lesson for the day, but Mr. Bultitude heard not a verse of it. He
+was waiting with bated breath for the blow to fall.</p>
+
+<p>It fell at last. Dulcie, either with the malevolent idea of hastening
+the crisis, or (which I prefer to believe for my own part) finding that
+her ex-lover's visible torments were too much for her desire of
+vengeance, was softly moving a heavy hassock towards the guilty note.
+The movement caught her mother's eye, and in an instant the compromising
+paper was in her watchful hands.</p>
+
+<p>She read it with incredulous horror, and handed it at once to the
+Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>The golden-haired one saw it all without betraying herself by any
+outward confusion. She had probably had some experience in such matters,
+and felt tolerably certain of being able, at the worst, to manage the
+old gentleman in the gold spectacles. But she took an early opportunity
+of secretly conveying her contempt for the traitress Dulcie, who
+continued to meet her angry glances with the blandest unconsciousness.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grimstone examined the cocked-hat through his double eyeglasses,
+with a heavy thunder-cloud gathering on his brows. When he had mastered
+it thoroughly, he bent forward and glared indignantly past his wife and
+daughter for at least half a minute into the pew where Mr. Bultitude was
+cowering, until he felt that he was coming all to pieces under the
+piercing gaze.</p>
+
+<p>The service passed all too quickly after that. Paul sat down and stood
+up almost unconsciously with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> rest; but for the first time in his
+life he could have wished the sermon many times longer.</p>
+
+<p>The horror of his position quite petrified him. After all his prudent
+resolutions to keep out of mischief and to win the regard and confidence
+of his gaoler by his good conduct, like the innocent convict in a
+melodrama, this came as nothing less than a catastrophe. He walked home
+in a truly dismal state of limp terror.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately for him none of the others seemed to have noticed his
+misfortune, and Jolland made no further advances. But even the weather
+tended to increase his depression, for it was a bleak, cheerless day,
+with a bitter and searching wind sweeping the gritty roads where
+yesterday's rain was turned to black ice in the ruts, and the sun shone
+with a dull coppery glitter that had no warmth or geniality about it.</p>
+
+<p>The nearer they came to Crichton House the more abjectly miserable
+became Mr. Bultitude's state of mind. It was as much as he could do to
+crawl up the steps to the front door, and his knees positively clapped
+together when the Doctor, who had driven home, met them in the hall and
+said in a still grave voice, "Bultitude, when you have taken off your
+coat, I want you in the study."</p>
+
+<p>He was as long about taking off his coat as he dared, but at last he
+went trembling into the study, which he found empty. He remembered the
+room well, with its ebony-framed etchings on the walls, bookcases and
+blue china over the draped mantelpiece, even to a large case of
+elaborately carved Indian chessmen in bullock-carts and palanquins, on
+horses and elephants, which stood in the window-recess. It was the very
+room to which he had been shown when he first called about sending his
+son to the school. He had little thought then that the time would come
+when he would attend there for the purpose of being flogged; few things
+would have seemed less probable. Yet here he was.</p>
+
+<p>But his train of thought was abruptly broken by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> entrance of the
+Doctor. He marched solemnly in, holding out the offending missive. "Look
+at this, sir!" he said, shaking it angrily before Paul's eyes. "Look at
+this! what do you mean by receiving a flippant communication like this
+in a sacred edifice? What do you mean by it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I didn't receive it," said Paul, at his wits' end.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't prevaricate with me, sir; you know well enough it was intended
+for you. Have the goodness to read it now, and tell me what you have to
+say for yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul read it. It was a silly little school-girl note, half slang and
+half sentiment, signed only with the initials C.D. "Well, sir?" said the
+Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"It's very forward and improper&mdash;very," said Paul; "but it's not my
+fault&mdash;I can't help it. I gave the girl no encouragement. I never saw
+her before in all my life!"</p>
+
+<p>"To my own knowledge, Bultitude, she has sat in that pew regularly for a
+year."</p>
+
+<p>"Very probably," said Paul, "but I don't notice these matters. I'm past
+that sort of thing, my dear sir."</p>
+
+<p>"What is her name? Come, sir, you know that."</p>
+
+<p>"Connie Davenant," said Paul, taken unawares by the suddenness of the
+question. "At least, I&mdash;I heard so to-day." He felt the imprudence of
+such an admission as soon as he had made it.</p>
+
+<p>"Very odd that you know her name if you never noticed her before," said
+the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"That young fellow&mdash;what's-his-name&mdash;Jolland told me," said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but it's odder still that she knows yours, for I perceive it is
+directed to you by name."</p>
+
+<p>"It's easily explained, my dear sir," said Paul; "easily explained. I've
+no doubt she's heard it somewhere. At least, I never told her; it is not
+likely. I do assure you I'm as much distressed and shocked by this
+affair as you can be yourself. I am indeed. I don't know what girls are
+coming to nowadays."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p><p>"Do you expect me to believe that you are perfectly innocent?" said the
+Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I do," said Mr. Bultitude. "I can't prevent fast young ladies from
+sending me notes. Why, she might have sent <i>you</i> one!"</p>
+
+<p>"We won't go into hypothetical cases," said the Doctor, not relishing
+the war being carried into his own country; "she happened to prefer you.
+But, although your virtuous indignation seems to me a trifle overdone,
+sir, I don't see my way clear to punishing you on the facts, especially
+as you tell me you never encouraged these&mdash;these overtures, and my
+Dulcie, I am bound to say, confirms your statement that it was all the
+other young lady's doing. But if I had had any proof that you had begun
+or responded to her&mdash;hem&mdash;advances, nothing could have saved you from a
+severe flogging at the very least&mdash;so be careful for the future."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said Paul rather feebly, quite overwhelmed by the narrowness of
+his escape. Then with a desperate effort he found courage to add, "May
+I&mdash;ah&mdash;take advantage of this&mdash;this restored cordiality to&mdash;to&mdash;in fact
+to make a brief personal explanation? It&mdash;it's what I've been trying to
+tell you for a long time, ever since I first came, only you never will
+hear me out. It's highly important. You've no notion how serious it is!"</p>
+
+<p>"There's something about you this term, Richard Bultitude," said the
+Doctor slowly, "that I confess I don't understand. This obstinacy is
+unusual in a boy of your age, and if you really have a mystery it may be
+as well to have it out and have done with it. But I can't be annoyed
+with it now. Come to me after supper to-night, and I shall be willing to
+hear anything you may have to say."</p>
+
+<p>Paul was too overcome at this unexpected favour to speak his thanks. He
+got away as soon as he could. His path was smoothed at last!</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon the boys, or all of them who had disposed of the work set
+them for the day, were sitting in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> the schoolroom, after a somewhat
+chilly dinner of cold beef, cold tarts, and cold water, passing the time
+with that description of literature known as "Sunday reading."</p>
+
+<p>And here, at the risk of being guilty of a digression, I must pause to
+record my admiration for this exceedingly happy form of compromise,
+which is, I think, peculiar to the British and, to a certain extent, the
+American nations.</p>
+
+<p>It has many developments; ranging from the mild Transatlantic compound
+of cookery and camp-meetings, to the semi-novel, redeemed and chastened
+by an arrangement which sandwiches a sermon or a biblical lecture
+between each chapter of the story&mdash;a great convenience for the race of
+skippers.</p>
+
+<p>Then there are one or two illustrated magazines which it is always
+allowable to read on the Sabbath without fear of rebuke from the
+strictest&mdash;though it is not quite easy to see why.</p>
+
+<p>Open any one of the monthly numbers, and the chances are that you may
+possibly find at one part a neat little doctrinal essay by a literary
+bishop; the rest of the contents will consist of nothing more serious
+than a paper upon "cockroaches and their habits" by an eminent savant; a
+description of foreign travel, done in a brilliant and wholly secular
+vein; and, further on again, an article on &aelig;sthetic furniture&mdash;while the
+balance of the number will be devoted to instalments of two thrilling
+novels by popular authors, whose theology is seldom their strongest
+point.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, too, when these very novels come out later in three-volume
+form, with the "mark of the beast" in the shape of a circulating library
+ticket upon them, they will be fortunate if they are not interdicted
+altogether by some of the serious families who take in the magazines as
+being "so suitable for Sundays."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude, at all events, had reason to be grateful for this
+toleration, for in one of the bound volumes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> supplied to him he found a
+most interesting and delightfully unsectarian novel, which appealed to
+his tastes as a business man, for it was all about commerce and making
+fortunes by blockade-running; and though he was no novel reader as a
+rule, his mind was so relieved and set at rest by the prospect of seeing
+the end of his trouble at last, that he was able to occupy his mind with
+the fortunes of the hero.</p>
+
+<p>He naturally detected technical errors here and there. But that pleased
+him, and he was becoming so deeply absorbed in the tale that he felt
+seriously annoyed when Chawner came softly up to the desk at which he
+was sitting, and sat down close to him, crossing his arms before him,
+and leaning forward upon them with his sallow face towards Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Dickie," he began, in a cautious, oily tone, "did I hear the Doctor say
+before dinner that he would hear anything you have to tell him after
+supper? Did I?"</p>
+
+<p>"I really can't say, sir," said Paul; "if you were near the keyhole at
+the time, very likely you did."</p>
+
+<p>"The door was open," said Chawner, "and I was in the cloak-room, so I
+heard, and I want to know. What is it you're going to tell the Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mind your own business, sir," said Paul sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"It is my own business," said Chawner; "but I don't want to be told what
+you're going to tell him. I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens!" said Mr. Bultitude, annoyed to find his secret in
+possession of this boy of all others.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," repeated Chawner. "I know, and I tell you what&mdash;I won't have it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Won't have it! and why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind why. Perhaps I don't choose that the Doctor shall be told
+just yet; perhaps I mean to go up and tell him myself some other day. I
+want to have a little more fun out of it before I've done."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but," said Paul, "you young ghoul, do you mean to say that all you
+care for is to see other people's sufferings?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p><p>Chawner grinned maliciously. "Yes," he said suavely; "it amuses me."</p>
+
+<p>"And so," said Paul, "you want to hold me back a little longer&mdash;because
+it's so funny; and then, when you're quite tired of your sport, you'll
+go up and tell the Doctor my&mdash;my unhappy story yourself, eh? No, my
+friend; I'd rather not tell him myself&mdash;but I'll be shot if I let <i>you</i>
+have a finger in it. I know my own interests better than that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't get in a passion, Dickie," said Chawner; "it's Sunday. You'll
+have to let me go up instead of you&mdash;when I've frightened them a little
+more."</p>
+
+<p>"Who do you mean by them, sir?" said Paul, growing puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"As if you didn't know! Oh, you're too clever for me, Dickie, I can
+see," sniggered Chawner.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you I don't know!" said Mr. Bultitude. "Look here, Chawner&mdash;your
+confounded name is Chawner, isn't it?&mdash;there's a mistake somewhere, I'm
+sure of it. Listen to me. I'm not going to tell the Doctor what you
+think I am!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do I think you are going to tell him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't the slightest idea; but, whatever it is, you're wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you're too clever, Dickie; you won't betray yourself; but other
+people want to pay Coker and Tipping out as well as you, and I say you
+must wait."</p>
+
+<p>"I shan't say anything to affect anyone but myself," said Paul; "if you
+know all about it, you must know that&mdash;it won't interfere with your
+amusement that I can see."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it will," said Chawner irritably, "it will&mdash;you mayn't mean to
+tell of anyone but yourself; but directly Grimstone asks you questions,
+it all comes out. I know all about it. And, anyway, I forbid you to go
+up till I give you leave."</p>
+
+<p>"And who the dooce are you?" said Mr. Bultitude, nettled at this
+assumption of authority. "How are you going to prevent me, may I ask?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p><p>"S'sh! here's the Doctor," whispered Chawner hurriedly. "I'll tell you
+after tea. What am I doing out of my place, sir? Oh, I was only asking
+Bultitude what was the collect for to-day, sir. Fourth Sunday after the
+Epiphany? thank you, Bultitude."</p>
+
+<p>And he glided back to his seat, leaving Paul in a state of vague
+uneasiness. Why did this fellow, with the infernal sly face and glib
+tongue, want to prevent him from righting himself with the world, and
+how could he possibly prevent him? It was absurd; he would take no
+notice of the young scoundrel&mdash;he would defy him.</p>
+
+<p>But he could not banish the uneasy feeling; the cup had slipped so many
+times before at the critical moment that he could not be sure whose hand
+would be the next to jog his elbow. And so he went down to tea with
+renewed misgivings.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="Against_Time" id="Against_Time"></a>12. <i>Against Time</i></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>"There is a kind of Followers likewise, which are dangerous, being
+indeed Espials; which enquire the Secrets of the House and beare
+Tales of them."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Bacon</span>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Then give me leave that I may turn the key,</div>
+<div>That no man enter till my tale be done."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Very possibly Chawner's interference in Mr. Bultitude's private affairs
+has surprised others besides the victim of it; but the fact is that
+there was a most unfortunate misunderstanding between them from the very
+first, which prevented the one from seeing, the other from explaining,
+the real state of the case.</p>
+
+<p>Chawner, of course, no more guessed Paul's true name and nature than
+anyone else who had come in contact with him in his impenetrable
+disguise, and his motive for attempting to prevent an interview with the
+Doctor can only, I fear, be explained by another slight digression.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor, from a deep sense of his responsibility for the morals of
+those under his care, was perhaps a trifle over-anxious to clear his
+moral garden of every noxious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> weed, and too constant in his vigilant
+efforts to detect the growing shoot of evil from the moment it showed
+above the surface.</p>
+
+<p>As he could not be everywhere, however, it is evident that many
+offences, trivial or otherwise, must have remained unsuspected and
+unpunished, but for a theory which he had originated and took great
+pains to propagate amongst his pupils.</p>
+
+<p>The theory was that every right-minded boy ought to feel himself in such
+a fiduciary position towards his master, that it became a positive duty
+to acquaint him with any delinquencies he might happen to observe among
+his fellows; and if, at the same time, he was oppressed by a secret
+burden on his own conscience, it was understood that he might hope that
+the joint revelation would go far to mitigate his own punishment.</p>
+
+<p>It is doubtful whether this system, though I believe it is found
+successful in Continental colleges, can be usefully applied to English
+boys; whether it may not produce a habit of mutual distrust and
+suspicion, and a tone the reverse of healthy.</p>
+
+<p>For myself, I am inclined to think that a schoolmaster will find it
+better in the long run, for both the character and morals of his school,
+if he is not too anxious to play the detective, and refrains from
+encouraging the more weak-minded or cowardly boys to save themselves by
+turning "schoolmaster's evidence."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grimstone thought otherwise; but it must be allowed that the system,
+as in vogue at Crichton House, did not work well.</p>
+
+<p>There were boys, of course, who took a sturdier view of their own rights
+and duties, and despised the talebearers as they deserved; there were
+others, also, too timid and too dependent on the good opinion of others
+to risk the loss of it by becoming informers; but there were always one
+or two whose consciences were unequal to the burden of their neighbour's
+sin, and could only be relieved by frank and full confession.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p><p>Unhappily they had, as a general rule, contributed largely to the sum
+of guilt themselves, and did not resort to disclosure until detection
+seemed reasonably imminent.</p>
+
+<p>Chawner was the leader of this conscientious band; he revelled in the
+system. It gave him the means at once of gratifying the almost universal
+love of power and of indulging a catlike passion for playing with the
+feelings of others, which, it is to be hoped, is more uncommon.</p>
+
+<p>He knew he was not popular, but he could procure most of the incidents
+of popularity; he could have his little court of cringing toadies; he
+could levy his tribute of conciliatory presents, and vent many private
+spites and hatreds into the bargain&mdash;and he generally did.</p>
+
+<p>Having himself a tendency to acts of sly disobedience, he found it a
+congenial pastime to set the fashion from time to time in some one of
+the peccadilloes to which boyhood is prone, and to which the Doctor's
+somewhat restrictive code added a large number, and as soon as he saw a
+sufficient number of his companions satisfactorily implicated, his
+opportunity came.</p>
+
+<p>He would take the chief culprits aside, and profess, in strict
+confidence, certain qualms of conscience which he feared could only be
+appeased by unburdening his guilt-laden soul.</p>
+
+<p>To this none would have had any right to object&mdash;had it not necessarily,
+or at least from Chawner's point of view, involved a full, true, and
+particular account of the misdoings of each and every one; and
+consequently, for some time after these professions of misgivings,
+Chawner would be surrounded by a little crowd of anxiously obsequious
+friends, all trying hard to overcome his scruples or persuade him at
+least to omit their names from his revelations.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes he would affect to be convinced by their arguments and send
+them away reassured; at others his scruples would return in an
+aggravated form; and so he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> would keep them on tenterhooks of suspense
+for days and weeks, until he was tired of the amusement&mdash;for this
+practising on the fears of weaker natures is a horribly keen delight to
+some&mdash;or until some desperate little dog, unable to bear his torture any
+longer, would threaten to give himself up and make an end of it.</p>
+
+<p>Then Chawner, to do him justice, always relieved him from so
+disagreeable a necessity, and would go softly into the Doctor's study,
+and, in a subdued and repentant tone, pour out his general confession
+for the public good.</p>
+
+<p>Probably the Doctor did not altogether respect the instruments he saw
+fit to use in this way; some would have declined to hear the informer
+out, flogged him well, and forgotten it; but Dr. Grimstone&mdash;though he
+was hardly likely to be impressed by these exhibitions of noble candour,
+and did not fail to see that the prospect of obtaining better terms for
+the penitent himself had something to do with them&mdash;yet encouraged the
+system as a matter of policy, went thoroughly into the whole affair, and
+made it the cause of an explosion which he considered would clear the
+moral atmosphere for some time to come.</p>
+
+<p>I hope that, after this explanation, Chawner's opposition to Mr.
+Bultitude's plans will be better understood.</p>
+
+<p>After tea, he made Paul a little sign to follow him, and the two went
+out together into the little glass-house beyond the schoolroom; it was
+dark, but there was light enough from the room inside for them to see
+each other's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, sir," began Paul, with dignity, when he had closed the glass door
+behind him, "perhaps you'll be good enough to tell me how you mean to
+prevent me from seeing Dr. Grimstone, and telling him&mdash;telling him what
+I have to tell him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you, Dickie," said Chawner, with an evil smirk. "You shall
+know soon enough."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p><p>"Don't stand grinning at me like that, sir," said the angry Mr.
+Bultitude; "say it out at once; it will make no difference to me, I give
+you warning!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes it will, though. I think it will. Wait. I heard all you said to
+Grimstone in the study to-day about that girl&mdash;Connie Davenant, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care; I am innocent. I have nothing to reproach myself with."</p>
+
+<p>"What a liar you are!" said Chawner, more in admiration than rebuke.
+"You told him you never gave her any encouragement, didn't you? And he
+said if he ever found you had, nothing could save you from a licking,
+didn't he?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did," said Paul, "he was quite right from his point of view&mdash;what
+then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, this," said Chawner: "Do you remember giving Jolland, the last
+Sunday of last term, a note for that very girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never did!" said poor Mr. Bultitude, "I never saw the wretched girl
+before."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said Chawner, "but I've got the note in my pocket! Jolland was
+seedy and asked me to take it for you, and I read it, and it was so
+nicely written that I thought I should like to keep it myself, and so I
+did&mdash;and here it is!"</p>
+
+<p>And he drew out with great caution a piece of crumpled paper and showed
+it to the horrified old gentleman. "Don't snatch ... it's rude; there it
+is, you see: 'My dear Connie' ... 'yours ever, Dick Bultitude.' No, you
+don't come any nearer ... there, now it's safe.... Now what do you mean
+to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I don't know," said Paul, feeling absolutely checkmated. "Give me
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you what I mean to do; I shall keep my eye on you, and directly
+I see you making ready to go to Grimstone, I shall get up first and take
+him this ... then you'll be done for. You'd better give in, really,
+Dickie!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p><p>The note was too evidently genuine; Dick must have written it (as a
+matter of fact he had; in a moment of pique, no doubt, at some caprice
+of his real enslaver Dulcie's&mdash;but his fickleness brought fatal results
+on his poor father's undeserving head)&mdash;if this diabolical Chawner
+carried out his threats he would indeed be "done for"; he did not yet
+fully understand the other's motive, but he thought that he feared lest
+Paul, in declaring his own sorrows, might also accuse Tipping and Coker
+of acts of cruelty and oppression, which Chawner proposed to denounce
+himself at some more convenient opportunity; he hesitated painfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said Chawner, "make up your mind; are you going to tell him, or
+not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must!" said Paul hoarsely. "I promise you I shall not bring any other
+names in ... I don't want to ... I only want to save myself&mdash;and I can't
+stand it any longer. Why should you stand between me and my rights in
+this currish way? I didn't know there were boys like you in the world,
+sir; you're a young monster!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mean you to tell the Doctor anything at all," said Chawner. "I
+shall do what I said."</p>
+
+<p>"Then do your worst!" said Paul, stung to defiance.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then," returned Chawner meekly, "I will&mdash;and we'll see who
+wins!"</p>
+
+<p>And they went back to the schoolroom again, where Mr. Bultitude, boiling
+with rage and seriously alarmed as well, tried to sit down and appear as
+if nothing had happened.</p>
+
+<p>Chawner sat down too, in a place from which he could see all Paul's
+movements, and they both watched one another anxiously from the corners
+of their eyes till the Doctor came in.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a foggy evening," he said as he entered: "the younger boys had
+better stay in. Chawner, you and the rest of the first form can go to
+church; get ready at once."</p>
+
+<p>Paul's heart leaped with triumph; with his enemy out of the way, he
+could carry out his purpose unhindered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> The same thing apparently
+occurred to Chawner, for he said mildly, "Please, sir, may Richard
+Bultitude come too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't Bultitude ask leave for himself?" said the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"I, sir!" said the horrified Paul, "it's a mistake&mdash;I don't want to go.
+I&mdash;I don't feel very well this evening!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you see, Chawner, you misunderstood him. By the way, Bultitude,
+there was something you were to tell me, I think?"</p>
+
+<p>Chawner's small glittering eyes were fixed on Paul menacingly as he
+managed to stammer that he did want to say something in private.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, I am going out to see a friend for an hour or so&mdash;when I
+come back I will hear you," and he left the room abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>Chawner would very probably have petitioned to stay in that evening as
+well, had he had time and presence of mind to do so; as it was, he was
+obliged to go away and get ready for church, but when his preparations
+were made he came back to Paul, and leaning over him said with an
+unpleasant scowl, "If I get back in time, Bultitude, we'll see whether
+you baulk me quite so easily. If I come back and find you've done it&mdash;I
+shall take in that letter!"</p>
+
+<p>"You may do what you please then," said Paul, in a high state of
+irritation, "I shall be well out of your reach by that time. Now have
+the goodness to take yourself off."</p>
+
+<p>As he went, Mr. Bultitude thought, "I never in all my life saw such a
+fellow as that, never! It would give me real pleasure to hire someone to
+kick him."</p>
+
+<p>The evening passed quietly; the boys left at home sat in their places,
+reading or pretending to read. Mr. Blinkhorn, left in charge of them,
+was at his table in the corner noting up his diary. Paul was free for a
+time to think over his position.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p><p>At first he was calm and triumphant; his dearest hopes, his
+long-wished-for opportunity of a fair and unprejudiced hearing, were at
+last to be fulfilled&mdash;Chawner was well out of the way for the best part
+of two hours&mdash;the Doctor was very unlikely to be detained nearly so long
+over one call; his one anxiety was lest he might not be able, after all,
+to explain himself in a thoroughly effective manner&mdash;he planned out a
+little scheme for doing this.</p>
+
+<p>He must begin gradually of course, so as not to alarm the schoolmaster
+or raise doubts of his sincerity or, worse still, his sanity. Perhaps a
+slight glance at instances of extraordinary interventions of the
+supernatural from the earliest times, tending to show the extreme
+probability of their survival on rare occasions even to the present day,
+might be a prudent and cautious introduction to the subject&mdash;only he
+could not think of any, and, after all, it might weary the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>He would start somewhat in this manner: "You cannot, my dear sir, have
+failed to observe since our meeting this year, a certain difference in
+my manner and bearing"&mdash;one's projected speeches are somehow generally
+couched in finer language than, when it comes to the point, the tongue
+can be prevailed upon to utter. Mr. Bultitude learned this opening
+sentence by heart, he thought it taking and neat, the sort of thing to
+fix his hearer's attention from the first.</p>
+
+<p>After that he found it difficult to get any further; he knew himself
+that all he was about to describe was plain, unvarnished fact&mdash;but how
+would it strike a stranger's ear? He found himself seeking ways in which
+to tone down the glaring improbability of the thing as much as possible,
+but in vain; "I don't know how I shall ever get it all out," he told
+himself at last; "if I think about it much longer I shall begin to
+disbelieve in it myself."</p>
+
+<p>Here Biddlecomb came up in a confidential manner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> and sat down by Paul;
+"Dick," he began, in rather a trembling voice, "did I hear the Doctor
+say something about your having something to tell him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh Lord, here's another of them now!" thought Paul. "You are right,
+young sir," he said: "have you any objection? mention it, you know, if
+you have, pray mention it. It's a matter of life and death to me, but if
+you at all disapprove, of course that ought to be final!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but," protested Biddlecomb, "I, I daresay I've not treated you very
+well lately, I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You were kind enough to suggest several very uncommonly unpleasant ways
+of annoying me, sir," said Paul resentfully, "if you mean that. You've
+kicked me more than once, and your handkerchief, unless I am very much
+mistaken, had the biggest and the hardest knot in it yesterday. If that
+gives you the right to interfere and dictate to me now, like your
+amiable friend, Master Chawner, I suppose you have it."</p>
+
+<p>"Now you're angry," said Biddlecomb humbly; "I don't wonder at it. I've
+behaved like a cad, I know, but, and this is what I wanted to say, I was
+sorry for you all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"That's very comforting," said Paul drily; "thank you. I'm vastly
+obliged to you."</p>
+
+<p>"I was, though," said Biddlecomb. "I, I was led away by the other
+fellows&mdash;I always liked you, you know, Bultitude."</p>
+
+<p>"You've a very odd way of showing your affection," remarked Mr.
+Bultitude; "but go on, let me hear all you have to say."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't much," said Biddlecomb, quite broken down; "only don't sneak
+of me this time, Dick, let me off, there's a good fellow. I'll stick up
+for you after this, I will really. You used not to be a fellow for
+sneaking once. It's caddish to sneak!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be alarmed, my good friend," said Paul; "I won't poach on that
+excellent young man Chawner's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> preserves. What I am going to tell the
+Doctor has nothing to do with you."</p>
+
+<p>"On your honour?" said Biddlecomb eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Paul testily, "on my honour. Now, perhaps, you'll let me
+alone. No, I won't shake hands, sir. I've had to accept your kicks, but
+I don't want your friendship."</p>
+
+<p>Biddlecomb went off, looking slightly ashamed of himself but visibly
+relieved from a haunting fear. "Thank goodness!" thought Paul, "he
+wasn't as obstinate as the other fellow. What a set they are! I knew it,
+there's another boy coming up now!"</p>
+
+<p>And indeed one boy after another came up in the same way as Biddlecomb
+had done, some cringing more than others, but all vowing that they had
+never intended to do any harm, and entreating him to change his mind
+about complaining of his ill-treatment. They brought little offerings to
+propitiate him and prove the depth of their unaltered
+regard&mdash;pencil-cases and pocket-knives, and so forth, until they drove
+Paul nearly to desperation. However, he succeeded in dispelling their
+fears after some hot arguments, and had just sent away the last
+suppliant, when he saw Jolland too rise and come towards him.</p>
+
+<p>Jolland leaned across Paul's desk with folded arms and looked him full
+in the face with his shallow light green eyes. "I don't know what you've
+said to all those chaps," he began; "they've come back looking precious
+glum, but they won't tell me what you said," (Mr. Bultitude had in
+satisfying their alarm taken care to let them know his private opinion
+of them, which was not flattering), "but I've got something to say to
+you, and it's this. I never thought you would quite come down to this
+sort of thing!"</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of thing?" said Paul, who was beginning to have enough of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, going up and letting on against all of us&mdash;it's mean, you know. If
+you have got bashed about pretty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> well since you came back, it's been
+all your own fault, and you know it. Last term you got on well
+enough&mdash;this time you began to be queer and nasty the very first day you
+came. I thought it was one of your larks at first, but I don't know what
+it is now, and I don't care. I stood up for you as long as I could, till
+you acted like a funk yesterday. Then I took my share in lamming you,
+and I'd do it again. But if you are cad enough to pay us all out in this
+way, I'll have no more to do with you&mdash;mind that. That's all I came to
+say."</p>
+
+<p>This was an unpalatable way of putting things, but Paul could not help
+seeing that there was some truth in it. Jolland had been kind to him,
+too, in a careless sort of way, and at some cost to himself; so it was
+with more mildness than temper that he answered him.</p>
+
+<p>"You're on the wrong tack, my boy, the wrong tack. I've no wish to tell
+tales of anyone, as I've been trying to explain to your friends. There's
+something the matter with me which you wouldn't understand if I told
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I didn't know," said Jolland, mollified; "if it's only physic you
+want."</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever it is," said Paul, not caring to undeceive him, "it won't
+affect you or anyone here, but myself. You're not a bad young fellow, I
+believe. I don't want to get you into trouble, sir; you don't want much
+assistance, I'm afraid, in that department. So be off, like a good
+fellow, and leave me in peace."</p>
+
+<p>All these interviews had taken time. He was alarmed on looking at the
+clock to see that it was nearly eight; the Doctor was a long time over
+that call&mdash;for the first time he began to feel uneasy&mdash;he made hurried
+mental calculations as to the probability of the Doctor or Chawner being
+the first to return.</p>
+
+<p>The walk to church took about twenty minutes; say the service took an
+hour, allowing for the return, he might expect Chawner by about
+half-past eight; it was striking the hour now&mdash;half an hour only in
+which he could hope for any favourable result from the interview!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p><p>For he saw this plainly, that if Chawner were once permitted to get the
+Doctor's ear first and show him that infamous love-note, no explanation
+of his (even if he had nerve to make it then, which he doubted) could
+possibly seem anything more than a desperate and far-fetched excuse; if
+he could anticipate Chawner, on the other hand, and once convince the
+Doctor of the truth of his story, the informer's malice would fall flat.</p>
+
+<p>And still the long hand went rapidly on, as Mr. Bultitude sat staring
+stupidly at it with a faint sick feeling&mdash;it had passed the quarter
+now&mdash;why did the Doctor delay in this unwarrantable manner? What a farce
+social civilities were&mdash;if he had allowed himself to be prevailed on to
+stay to supper! Twenty minutes past; Chawner and the others might return
+at any moment&mdash;a ring at the bell; they were there! all was over
+now&mdash;no, he was saved, that was Dr. Grimstone's voice in the hall&mdash;what
+an unconscionable time he was taking off his greatcoat and gloves.</p>
+
+<p>But all comes to the man who waits. In another moment the Doctor looked
+in, singled out Mr. Bultitude with a sharp glance, and a, "Now,
+Bultitude, I will hear you!" and led the way to his study.</p>
+
+<p>Paul staggered rather than walked after him: as usual at the critical
+moment his carefully prepared opening had deserted him&mdash;his head felt
+heavy and crowded&mdash;he wanted to run away, but forced himself to overcome
+such a suicidal proceeding and follow to the study.</p>
+
+<p>There was a lighted reading-lamp with a green glass shade upon the
+table. The Doctor sat down by it in an armchair by the fire, crossed his
+legs, and joined the tops of his fingers together. "Now, Bultitude," he
+said again.</p>
+
+<p>"Might I&mdash;might I sit down?" said poor Mr. Bultitude in a thick voice;
+it was all that occurred to him to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit by all means," said the Doctor blandly.</p>
+
+<p>So Paul drew a chair opposite the Doctor and sat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> down. He tried
+desperately to clear his head and throat and begin; but the only
+distinct thought in his mind just then was that the green lamp-shade
+lent a particularly ghastly hue to the Doctor's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Take your time, Bultitude," said the latter, after a long minute, in
+which a little skeleton clock on the mantelpiece ticked loudly&mdash;"there's
+no hurry, my boy."</p>
+
+<p>But this only reminded Paul that there was every need for hurry&mdash;Chawner
+might come in, and follow him here, unless he made haste.</p>
+
+<p>Still, he could only say, "You see me in a very agitated state, Dr.
+Grimstone&mdash;a very agitated state, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor gave a short, dry cough. "Well, Bultitude," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is, sir, I'm in a most unfortunate position, and&mdash;and the
+worst of it is, I don't know how to begin." Here he made another dead
+stop, while the Doctor raised his heavy eyebrows, and looked at the
+clock.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see any prospect of your finding yourself able to begin soon?"
+he inquired at last, with rather suspicious suavity. "Perhaps if you
+came to me later on&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not for the world!" said Paul, in a highly nervous condition. "I shall
+begin very soon, Doctor, I shall begin directly. Mine is such a very
+singular case; it's difficult, as you see, to, to open it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you anything on your mind?" asked the Doctor suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>Paul could hear steps and voices in the adjoining cloakroom&mdash;the
+churchgoers had returned. "Yes&mdash;no!" he answered, losing his head
+completely now.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a somewhat extraordinary, not to say an ambiguous, reply," said
+the Doctor; "what am I to understand by&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>There was a tap at the door. Paul started to his feet in a panic. "Don't
+let him in!" he shrieked, finding his voice at last. "Hear me first&mdash;you
+shall hear me first! Say that other rascal is not to come in. He wants
+to ruin me!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p><p>"I was going to say I was engaged," said the Doctor; "but there's
+something under this I must understand. Come in, whoever you are."</p>
+
+<p>And the door opened softly, and Chawner stepped meekly in; he was rather
+pale and breathed hard, but was otherwise quite composed.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, then, Chawner," said the Doctor impatiently, "what is it? Have you
+something on your mind, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Please, sir," said Chawner, "has Bultitude told you anything yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, why? Hold your tongue, Bultitude. I shall hear Chawner now&mdash;not
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, sir," explained Chawner, "he knew I had made up my mind to
+tell you something I thought you ought to know about him, and so he
+threatened to come first and tell some falsehood (I'm sure I don't know
+what) about me, sir. I think I ought to be here too."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a lie!" shouted Paul, "What a villain that boy is! Don't believe a
+word he says, Dr. Grimstone; it's all false&mdash;all!"</p>
+
+<p>"This is very suspicious," said the Doctor; "if your conscience were
+good, Bultitude, you could have no object in preventing me from hearing
+Chawner. Chawner, in spite of some obvious defects in his character," he
+went on, with a gulp (he never could quite overcome a repulsion to the
+boy), "is, on the whole, a right-minded and, ah, conscientious boy. I
+hear Chawner first."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, sir, if you please," said Chawner, with an odious side smirk of
+triumph at Paul, who, quite crushed by the horror of the situation, had
+collapsed feebly on his chair again, "I thought it was my duty to let
+you see this. I found it to-day in Bultitude's prayerbook, sir." And he
+handed Dick's unlucky scrawl to the Doctor, who took it to the lamp and
+read it hurriedly through.</p>
+
+<p>After that there was a terrible moment of dead silence; then the Doctor
+looked up and said shortly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> "You did well to tell me of this, Chawner;
+you may go now."</p>
+
+<p>When they were alone once more he turned upon the speechless Paul with
+furious scorn and indignation. "Contemptible liar and hypocrite," he
+thundered, pacing restlessly up and down the room in his excitement,
+till Paul felt very like Daniel, without his sense of security, "you are
+unmasked&mdash;unmasked, sir! You led me to believe that you were as much
+shocked and pained at this girl's venturing to write to you as I could
+be myself. You called it, quite correctly, 'forward and improper'; you
+pretended you had never given her the least encouragement&mdash;had not heard
+her name even&mdash;till to-day. And here is a note, written, as I should
+imagine, some time since, in which you address her as 'Connie Davenant,'
+and have the impudence to admire the hat she wore the Sunday before! I
+shudder, sir, to think of such duplicity, such precocious and shameless
+depravity. It astounds me. It deprives me of all power to think!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul made some faint and inarticulate remark about being a family
+man&mdash;always most particular, and so forth&mdash;luckily it passed unheard.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I do with you?" continued the Doctor; "how shall I punish
+such monstrous misconduct?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't ask <i>me</i>, sir," said Paul, desperately&mdash;"only, for heaven's sake,
+get it over as soon as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"If I linger, sir," retorted the Doctor, "it is because I have grave
+doubts whether your offence can be expiated by a mere flogging&mdash;whether
+that is not altogether too light a retribution."</p>
+
+<p>"He can't want to <i>torture</i> me," thought Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the Doctor again, "the doubt has prevailed. On a mind so
+hardened the cane would leave no lasting impression. I cannot allow your
+innocent companions to run the risk of contamination from your society.
+I must not permit this serpent to glide uncrushed, this cockatrice to
+practise his epistolary wiles,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> within my peaceful fold. My mind is made
+up&mdash;at whatever cost to myself&mdash;however it may distress and grieve your
+good father, who is so pathetically anxious for you to do him credit,
+sir. I must do my duty to the parents of the boys entrusted to my care.
+I shall not flog you, sir, for I feel it would be useless. I shall expel
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" Paul leaped up incredulous. "Expel me? Do I hear you aright, Dr.
+Grimstone? Say it again&mdash;you will expel me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have said it," the Doctor said sternly; "no expostulations can move
+me now" (as if Mr. Bultitude was likely to expostulate!) "Mrs. Grimstone
+will see that your boxes are packed the first thing to-morrow morning,
+and I shall take you myself to the station and consign you to the home
+you have covered with blushes and shame, by the 9.15 train, and I shall
+write a letter to-night explaining the causes for your dismissal."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude covered his face with his hands, to hide, not his shame
+and distress, but his indecent rapture. It seemed almost too good to be
+true! He saw himself about to be provided with every means of reaching
+home in comfort and safety. He need dread no pursuit now. There was no
+chance, either, of his being forced to return to the prison-house&mdash;the
+Doctor's letter would convince even Dick of the impossibility of that.
+And, best of all, this magnificent stroke of good luck had been obtained
+without the ignominy and pain of a flogging, without even the unpleasant
+necessity of telling his strange secret.</p>
+
+<p>But (having gained some experience during his short stay at the school)
+he had the duplicity to pretend to sob bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"But one night more, sir," continued the Doctor, "shall you pass beneath
+this roof, and that apart from your fellows. You will occupy the spare
+bedroom until the morning, when you quit the school in disgrace&mdash;for
+ever."</p>
+
+<p>I said in another chapter that this Sunday would find<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> Paul, at its
+close, after a trying course of emotions, in a state of delicious
+ecstasy of pure relief and happiness&mdash;and really that scarcely seems too
+strong an expression for his feelings.</p>
+
+<p>When he found himself locked securely into a comfortable, warm bedroom,
+with curtains and a carpet in it, safe from the persecutions of all
+those terrible boys, and when he remembered that this was actually the
+last night of his stay here&mdash;that he would certainly see his own home
+before noon next day, the reaction was so powerful that he could not
+refrain from skipping and leaping about the room in a kind of hysterical
+gaiety.</p>
+
+<p>And as he laid his head down on a yielding lavender-scented pillow, his
+thoughts went back without a pang to the varied events of the day; they
+had been painful, very painful, but it was well worth while to have gone
+through them to appreciate fully the delightful intensity of the
+contrast. He freely forgave all his tormentors, even Chawner&mdash;for had
+not Chawner procured his release?&mdash;and he closed his eyes at last with a
+smile of Sybaritic satisfaction and gentle longing for the Monday's dawn
+to break.</p>
+
+<p>And yet some, after his experiences, would have had their misgivings.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="A_Respite" id="A_Respite"></a>13. <i>A Respite</i></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center">"Discipulorum inter jubeo plorare cathedras."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Blithe and gay was Mr. Bultitude when he opened his eyes on Monday
+morning and realised his incredible good fortune; in a few hours he
+would be travelling safely and comfortably home, with every facility for
+regaining his rights. He chuckled&mdash;though his sense of humour was not
+large&mdash;he chuckled, as he lay snugly in bed, to think of Dick's
+discomfiture on seeing him return so unexpectedly; he began to put it
+down, quite unwarrantably, to his own cleverness, as having <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>conceived
+and executed such a stroke of genius as procuring his own expulsion.</p>
+
+<p>He remained in bed until long after the getting-up bell had rung,
+feeling that his position ensured him perfect impunity in this, and when
+he rose at length it was in high spirits, and he dressed himself with a
+growing toleration for things in general, very unlike his ordinary frame
+of mind. When he had finished his toilet, the Doctor entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Bultitude," he said gravely, "before sending you from us, I should like
+to hear from your own lips that you are not altogether without
+contrition for your conduct."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude considered that such an acknowledgment could not possibly
+do any harm, so he said&mdash;as, indeed, he might with perfect truth&mdash;that
+"he very much regretted what had passed."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to hear that," said the Doctor, more briskly, "very glad; it
+relieves me from a very painful responsibility. It may not impossibly
+induce me to take a more lenient view of your case."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" gasped Mr. Bultitude, feeling very uncomfortable all at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it is a serious step to ruin a boy's career at its outset by
+unnecessary harshness. Nothing, of course, can palliate the extreme
+baseness of your behaviour. Still from certain faint indications in your
+character of better things, I do not despair even yet (after you have
+received a public lesson at my hands, which you will never forget) of
+rearing you to become in time an ornament to the society in which it
+will be your lot to move. I will not give up in despair&mdash;I will
+persevere a little longer."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you!" Paul faltered, with a sudden sinking sensation.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Grimstone, too," said the Doctor, "has been interceding for you;
+she has represented to me that a public expression of my view of your
+conduct, together with a sharp, severe dose of physical pain, would be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>
+more likely to effect a radical improvement in your character, and to
+soften your perverted heart, than if I sent you away in hopeless
+disgrace, without giving you an opportunity of showing a desire to
+amend."</p>
+
+<p>"It's&mdash;very kind of Mrs. Grimstone," said Paul faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I hope you will show your appreciation of her kindness. Yes, I
+will not expel you. I will give you one more chance to retrieve your
+lost reputation. But, for your own sake, and as a public warning, I
+shall take notice of your offence in public. I shall visit it upon you
+by a sound flogging before the whole school at eleven o'clock. You need
+not come down till then&mdash;your breakfast will be sent up to you."</p>
+
+<p>Paul made a frantic attempt to dissuade him from his terrible
+determination. "Dr. Grimstone," he said, "I&mdash;I should much prefer being
+expelled, if it is all the same to you."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not all the same to me," said the Doctor. "This is mere pride and
+obstinacy, Bultitude; I should do wrong to take any notice of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I tell you I have great objection to&mdash;to being flogged," said Paul
+eagerly; "it wouldn't improve me at all; it would harden me,
+sir,&mdash;harden me. I&mdash;I cannot allow you to flog me, Dr. Grimstone. I have
+strong prejudices against the system of corporal punishment. I object to
+it on principle. Expulsion would make me quite a different being, I
+assure you; it would reform me&mdash;save me&mdash;it would indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"So, to escape a little personal inconvenience, you would be content to
+bring sorrow upon your worthy father's grey head, would you, sir?" said
+the Doctor. "I shall not oblige you in this. Nor, I may add, will your
+cowardice induce me to spare you in your coming chastisement. I leave
+you, sir&mdash;we shall meet again at eleven!"</p>
+
+<p>And he stalked out of the room. Perhaps, though he did not admit this
+even to himself, there were more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> considerations for commuting the
+sentence of expulsion than those he had mentioned. Boys are not often
+expelled from private schools, except for especially heinous offences,
+and in this case there was no real reason why the Doctor should be
+Quixotic enough to throw up a portion of his income&mdash;particularly if he
+could produce as great a moral effect by other means.</p>
+
+<p>But his clemency was too much for Mr. Bultitude; he threw himself on the
+bed and raved at the hideous fate in store for him; ten short minutes
+ago, and he had been so happy&mdash;so certain of release&mdash;and now, not only
+was he as far from all hope of escape as ever, but he had the certainty
+before him of a sound flogging in less than two hours!</p>
+
+<p>Just after something has befallen us which, for good or ill, will make a
+great change in our lives, what a totally new aspect the common everyday
+things about us are apt to wear&mdash;the book we were reading, the letter we
+had begun, the picture we knew&mdash;what a new and tender attraction they
+may have for us, or what a grim and terrible irony!</p>
+
+<p>Something of this Paul felt dimly, as he finished dressing, in a dazed,
+unconscious manner. The comfortable bedroom, with its delicately-toned
+wall-paper and flowery cretonnes, had become altogether hateful in his
+eyes now. Instead of feeling grateful (as he surely ought to have been)
+for the one night of perfect security and comfort he had passed there,
+he only loathed it for the delusive peace it had brought him.</p>
+
+<p>There was a gentle tap at the door, and Dulcie came in, bearing a tray
+with his breakfast, and looking like a little Royalist bearing food to a
+fugitive Cavalier; though Paul did not quite carry out his share of the
+simile.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" she said, almost cheerfully; "I got Mummy to let me take up
+your breakfast; and there's an egg for you, and muffins."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude sat on a chair and groaned.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p><p>"You might say 'thank you,'" said Dulcie, pouting. "That other girl
+wouldn't have brought you up much breakfast if she'd been in my place. I
+was going to tell you that I'd forgiven you, because very likely you
+never meant her to write to you" (Dulcie had not been told the sequel to
+the Davenant episode, which was quite as well for Paul). "But you don't
+seem to care whether I do or not."</p>
+
+<p>"I feel so miserable!" sighed Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must drink some coffee," prescribed Dulcie decidedly; "and you
+must eat some breakfast. I brought an egg on purpose; it's so
+strengthening, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't!" cried Paul, with a short howl of distress at this suggestion.
+"Don't talk about the&mdash;the flogging, I can't bear it."</p>
+
+<p>"But it's not papa's <i>new</i> cane, you know, Dick," said Dulcie
+consolingly. "I've hidden that; it's only the old one, and you always
+said that didn't hurt so very much, after a little while. It isn't as if
+it was the horsewhip, either. Daddy lost that out riding in the
+holidays."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the horsewhip's worse, is it?" said Paul, with a sickly smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom says so," said Dulcie. "After all, Dick, it will be all over in
+five minutes, or, perhaps, a little longer, and I do think you oughtn't
+to mind that so much, now, after mamma and I have begged you off from
+being expelled. We might never have seen one another again, Dick!"</p>
+
+<p>"You begged me off!" cried Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Dulcie; "Daddy wouldn't change his mind for ever so
+long&mdash;till I coaxed him. I couldn't bear to let you go."</p>
+
+<p>"You've done a very cruel thing," said Paul. "For such a little girl as
+you are, you've done an immense amount of mischief. But for you, that
+letter would not have been found out. You need not have spoilt my only
+chance of getting out of this horrible place!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p><p>Dulcie set down the tray, and, putting her hands behind her, leaned
+against a corner of a wardrobe.</p>
+
+<p>"And is that all you say to me!" she said, with a little tremble in her
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"That is all," said Paul. "I've no doubt you meant well, but you
+shouldn't have interfered. All this has come upon me through that. Take
+away the breakfast. It makes me ill even to look at it."</p>
+
+<p>Dulcie shook out her long brown hair, and clenched her small fist in an
+undeniable passion, for she had something of her father's hot temper
+when roused. "Very well, then," she said, moving with great dignity
+towards the door. "I'm very sorry I ever did interfere. I wish I'd let
+you be sent home to your papa, and see what he'd do to you. But I'll
+never, never interfere one bit with you again. I won't say one single
+word to you any more.... I'll never even look at you if you want me to
+ever so much.... I shall tell Tipping he can hit you as much as ever he
+likes, and I shall show Tom where I put the new cane&mdash;and I only hope it
+will hurt!" And with this parting shot she was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude wandered disconsolately about the upper part of the house
+after this, not daring to go down, and not able to remain in any one
+place. The maids who came up to make the beds looked at him with pitiful
+interest, but he was too proud to implore help from them. To hide would
+only make matters worse, for, as he had not a penny in his pocket, and
+no probability of being able to borrow one, he must remain in the house
+till hunger forced him from his hiding-place&mdash;supposing they did not
+hunt him out long before that time.</p>
+
+<p>The shouts of the boys in the playground during their half-hour's play
+had long since died away; he heard the clock in the hall strike
+eleven&mdash;time for him to seek his awful rendezvous. The Doctor had not
+forgotten him, he found, for presently the butler came up and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>ceremoniously announced that the Doctor "would see him now, if he
+pleased."</p>
+
+<p>He stumbled downstairs in a half-unconscious condition, the butler threw
+open the two doors which led to the schoolroom, and Paul tottered in,
+more dead than alive with shame and fear.</p>
+
+<p>The whole school were at their places, with no books before them, and
+arranged as if to hear a lecture. Mr. Blinkhorn alone was absent, for,
+not liking these exhibitions, he had taken an opportunity of slipping
+out into the playground, round which he was now solemnly trotting at the
+"double" with elbows squared and head up; an exercise which he said was
+an excellent thing for the back and lungs. He had a habit of suddenly
+leaving the class he was taking to indulge in it for a few minutes,
+returning breathless but refreshed.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tinkler was at his seat, wearing that faint grin on his face with
+which he might have prepared to see a pig killed or a bull-fight, and
+all the boys fixed their eyes expectantly on Mr. Bultitude as he
+appeared at the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand there, sir," said the Doctor, who was standing at his
+writing-table in an attitude; "out there in the middle, where your
+schoolfellows can see you." Paul obeyed and stood where he was told,
+looking, as he felt, absolutely boneless.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of those here," began the Doctor in an impressive bass, "may
+wonder why I have called you all together on this, the first day of the
+week; most of those who reside under my roof are acquainted with, and I
+trust execrate, the miserable cause of my doing so.</p>
+
+<p>"If there is one virtue which I have striven to implant more than any
+other in your breasts," he continued, "it is the cultivation of a modest
+and becoming reserve in your intercourse with those of the opposite sex.</p>
+
+<p>"With the majority I have, I hope, been successful, and it is as painful
+for me to tell as for you to hear, that there exists in your midst a
+youthful reprobate,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> trained in all the arts of ensnaring the vagrant
+fancies of innocent but giddy girlhood.</p>
+
+<p>"See him as he cowers there before your gaze, in all the bared
+hideousness of his moral depravity" (the Doctor on occasions like these
+never spared his best epithets, and Paul soon began to feel himself a
+very villain); "a libertine, young in years, but old in&mdash;in everything
+else, who has not scrupled to indite an amatory note, so appalling in
+its familiarity, and so outrageous in the warmth of its sentiments, that
+I cannot bring myself to shock your ears with its contents.</p>
+
+<p>"You do well to shun him as a moral leper; but how shall I tell you
+that, not satisfied with pressing his effusions upon the shrinking
+object of his precocious affections, the impious wretch has availed
+himself of the shelter of a church to cloak his insidious advances, and
+even force a response to them from a heedless and imprudent girl!</p>
+
+<p>"If," continued the Doctor, now allowing his powerful voice to boom to
+its full compass&mdash;"if I can succeed in bringing this coward, this
+unmanly dallier in a sentiment which the healthy mind of boyhood rejects
+as premature, to a sense of his detestable conduct; if I can score the
+lesson upon his flesh so that some faint notion of its force and purport
+may be conveyed to what has been supplied to him as a heart, then I
+shall not have lifted this hand in vain!</p>
+
+<p>"He shall see whether he will be allowed to trail the fair name of the
+school for propriety and correctness of deportment in the dust of a
+pew-floor, and spurn my reputation as a preceptor like a church hassock
+beneath his feet!</p>
+
+<p>"I shall say no more; I will not prolong these strictures, deserved
+though they be, beyond their proper limits.... I shall now proceed to
+act. Richard Bultitude, remain there till I return to mete out to you
+with no sparing hand the punishment you have so richly merited."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p><p>With these awful words the Doctor left the room, leaving Paul in a
+state of abject horror and dread which need not be described. Never,
+never again would he joke, as he had been wont to do with Dick in
+lighter moods, on the subject of corporal punishment under any
+circumstances&mdash;it was no fit theme for levity; if this&mdash;this outrage
+were really done to him, he could never be able to hold up his head
+again. What if it were to get about in the city!</p>
+
+<p>The boys, who had sunk, as they always did, into a state of torpid awe
+under the Doctor's eloquence, now recovered spirits enough to rally Paul
+with much sprightly humour.</p>
+
+<p>"He's gone to fetch his cane," said some, and imitated for Paul's
+instruction the action of caning by slapping a ruler upon a copy-book
+with a dreadful fidelity and resonance; others sought to cross-examine
+him upon the love-letter, it appearing from their casual remarks that
+not a few had been also honoured by communications from the artless Miss
+Davenant.</p>
+
+<p>It is astonishing how unfeeling even ordinary good-natured boys can be
+at times.</p>
+
+<p>Chawner sat at his desk with raised shoulders, rubbing his hands, and
+grinning like some malevolent ape: "I told you, Dickie, you know," he
+murmured, "that it was better not to cross me."</p>
+
+<p>And still the Doctor lingered. Some kindly suggested that he was "waxing
+the cane." But the more general opinion was that he had been detained by
+some visitor; for it appeared that (though Paul had not noticed it)
+several had heard a ring at the bell. The suspense was growing more and
+more unbearable.</p>
+
+<p>At last the door opened in a slow ominous manner, and the Doctor
+appeared. There was a visible change in his manner, however. The white
+heat of his indignation had died out: his expression was grave but
+distinctly softened&mdash;and he had nothing in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you outside, Bultitude," he said; and Paul,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> still uncertain
+whether the scene of his disgrace was only about to be shifted, or what
+else this might mean, followed him into the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"If anything can strike shame and confusion into your soul, Richard,"
+said the Doctor, when they were outside, "it will be what I have to tell
+you now. Your unhappy father is here, in the dining-room."</p>
+
+<p>Paul staggered. Had Dick the brazen effrontery to come here to taunt him
+in his slavery? What was the meaning of it? What should he say to him?
+He could not answer the Doctor but by a vacant stare.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not seen him yet," said the Doctor. "He has come at a most
+inopportune moment" (here Mr. Bultitude could <i>not</i> agree with him). "I
+shall allow you to meet him first, and give you the opportunity of
+breaking your conduct to him. I know how it will wring his paternal
+heart!" and the Doctor shook his head sadly, and turned away.</p>
+
+<p>With a curious mixture of shame, anger, and impatience, Paul turned the
+handle of the dining-room door. He was to meet Dick face to face once
+more. The final duel must be fought out between them here. Who would be
+the victor?</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange sensation on entering to see the image of what he had
+so lately been standing by the mantelpiece. It gave a shock to his sense
+of his own identity. It seemed so impossible that that stout substantial
+frame could really contain Dick. For an instant he was totally at a loss
+for words, and stood pale and speechless in the presence of his
+unprincipled son.</p>
+
+<p>Dick on his side seemed at least as much embarrassed. He giggled
+uneasily, and made a sheepish offer to shake hands, which was
+indignantly declined.</p>
+
+<p>As Paul looked he saw distinctly that his son's fraudulent imitation of
+his father's personal appearance had become deteriorated in many
+respects since that unhappy night when he had last seen it. It was then
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> copy, faultlessly accurate in every detail. It was now almost a
+caricature, a libel!</p>
+
+<p>The complexion was nearly sallow, with the exception of the nose, which
+had rather deepened in colour. The skin was loose and flabby, and the
+eyes dull and a little bloodshot. But perhaps the greatest alteration
+was in the dress. Dick wore an old light tweed shooting-coat of his, and
+a pair of loose trousers of blue serge; while, instead of the formally
+tied black neckcloth his father had worn for a quarter of a century, he
+had a large scarf round his neck of some crude and gaudy colour; and the
+conventional chimney-pot hat had been discarded for a shabby old
+wide-brimmed felt wideawake.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether, it was by no means the costume which a British merchant,
+with any self-respect whatever, would select, even for a country visit.</p>
+
+<p>And thus they met, as perhaps never, since this world was first set
+spinning down the ringing grooves of change, met father and son before!</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="An_Error_of_Judgment" id="An_Error_of_Judgment"></a>14. <i>An Error of Judgment</i></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The Survivorship of a worthy Man in his Son is a Pleasure scarce
+inferior to the Hopes of the Continuance of his own Life." <i>Spectator.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Du bist ein Knabe&mdash;sei es immerhin</div>
+<div>Und fahre fort, den Fr&ouml;hlichen zu spielen."</div>
+<div class="i13"><span class="smcap">Schiller</span>, <i>Don Carlos</i>.</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Paul was the first to break a very awkward silence. "You young
+scoundrel!" he said, with suppressed rage. "What the devil do you mean
+by laughing like that? It's no laughing matter, let me tell you, sir,
+for one of us!"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help laughing," said Dick; "you do look so queer!"</p>
+
+<p>"Queer! I may well look queer. I tell you that I have never, never in my
+whole life, spent such a perfectly infernal week as this last!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p><p>"Ah!" observed Dick, "I thought you wouldn't find it <i>all</i> jam! And yet
+you seemed to be enjoying yourself, too," he said with a grin, "from
+that letter you wrote."</p>
+
+<p>"What made you come here? Couldn't you be content with your miserable
+victory, without coming down to crow and jeer at me?"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't that," said Dick. "I&mdash;I thought I should like to see the
+fellows, and find out how you were getting on, you know." These,
+however, were not his only and his principal motives. He had come down
+to get a sight of Dulcie.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir," said Mr. Bultitude, with ponderous sarcasm, "you'll be
+delighted to hear that I'm getting on uncommonly well&mdash;oh, uncommonly!
+Your high-spirited young friends batter me to sleep with slippers on
+most nights, and, as a general thing, kick me about during the day like
+a confounded football! And last night, sir, I was going to be expelled;
+and this morning I'm forgiven, and sentenced to be soundly flogged
+before the whole school! It was just about to take place as you came in;
+and I've every reason to believe it is merely postponed!"</p>
+
+<p>"I say, though," said Dick, "you must have been going it rather, you
+know. I've never been expelled. Has Chawner been sneaking again? What
+have you been up to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing. I solemnly swear&mdash;nothing! They're finding out things you've
+done, and thrashing <i>me</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Dick soothingly, "you'll work them all off during the term,
+I daresay. There aren't many really bad ones. I suppose he's seen my
+name cut on his writing-table?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; not that I'm aware of," said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he'd let you hear of it if he had!" said Dick. "It's good for a
+swishing, that is. But, after all, what's a swishing? I never cared for
+a swishing."</p>
+
+<p>"But I do care, sir. I care very much, and, I tell you, I won't stand
+it. I can't! Dick," he said abruptly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> as a sudden hope seized him. "You,
+you haven't come down here to say you're tired of your folly, have you?
+Do you want to give it up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rather not," said Dick. "Why should I? No school, no lessons, nothing
+to do but amuse myself, eat and drink what I like, and lots of money.
+It's not likely, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever thought that you're bringing yourself within reach of the
+law, sir?" said Paul, trying to frighten him. "Perhaps you don't know
+that there's an offence known as 'false personation with intent to
+defraud,' and that it's a felony. That's what you're doing at this
+moment, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not any more than you are!" retorted Dick. "I never began it. I had as
+much right to wish to be you as you had to wish to be me. You're just
+what you said you wanted to be, so you can't complain."</p>
+
+<p>"It's useless to argue with you, I see," said Paul. "And you've no
+feelings. But I'll warn you of one thing. Whether that is my body or not
+you've fraudulently taken possession of, I don't know; if it is not, it
+is very like mine, and I tell you this about it. The sort of life you're
+leading it, sir, will very soon make an end of you, if you don't take
+care. Do you think that a constitution at my age can stand sweet wines
+and pastry, and late hours? Why, you'll be laid up with gout in another
+day or two. Don't tell me, sir. I know you're suffering from indigestion
+at this very minute. I can see your liver (it may be <i>my</i> liver for
+anything I know) is out of order. I can see it in your eyes."</p>
+
+<p>Dick was a little alarmed at this, but he soon said: "Well, and if I am
+seedy, I can get Barbara to take the stone and wish me all right again,
+can't I? That's easy enough, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, easy enough!" said Paul, with a suppressed groan. "But, Dick, you
+don't go up to Mincing Lane in that suit and that hat? Don't tell me you
+do that!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p><p>"When I do go up, I wear them," said Dick composedly. "Why not? It's a
+roomy suit, and I hate a great topper on my head; I've had enough of
+that here on Sundays. But it's slow up at your office. The chaps there
+aren't half up to any larks. I made a first-rate booby-trap, though, one
+day for an old yellow buffer who came in to see you. He <i>was</i> in a bait
+when he found the waste-paper basket on his head!"</p>
+
+<p>"What was his name?" said Paul, with forced calm.</p>
+
+<p>"Something like 'Shells.' He said he was a very old friend of mine, and
+I told him he lied."</p>
+
+<p>"Shellack&mdash;my Canton correspondent&mdash;a man I was anxious to be of use
+to when he came over!" moaned Mr. Bultitude. "Miserable young cub, you
+don't know what mischief you've done!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it won't matter much to you now," said Dick; "you're out of it
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you&mdash;do you mean to keep me out of it for ever, then?" asked Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"As long as ever I can!" returned Dick frankly. "It will be rather
+interesting to see what sort of a fellow you'll grow into&mdash;if you ever
+do grow. Perhaps you will always be like that, you know. This magic is a
+rum thing to meddle with."</p>
+
+<p>This suggestion almost maddened Paul. He made one stride forward, and
+faced his son with blazing eyes. "Do you think I will put up with it?"
+he said, between his teeth. "Do you suppose I shall stand calmly by and
+see you degrading and ruining me? I may never be my old self again, but
+I don't mean to play into your hands for all that. You can't always keep
+me here, and wherever I go I'll tell my tale. I know you, you clumsy
+rogue, you haven't the sense to play your part with common intelligence
+now. You would betray yourself directly I challenged you to deny my
+story.... You know you would.... You couldn't face me for five minutes.
+By Gad! I'll do it now. I'll expose you before the Doctor&mdash;before the
+whole school. You shall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> see if you can dispose of me quite so easily as
+you imagine!"</p>
+
+<p>Dick had started back at first in unmistakable alarm at this unexpected
+defiance, probably feeling his self-possession unequal to such a test;
+but, when Paul had finished, he said doggedly: "Well, you can do it if
+you choose, I suppose. I can't stop you. But I don't see what good it
+would do."</p>
+
+<p>"It would show people you were an impudent impostor, sir," said Paul
+sternly, going to the door as if to call the Doctor, though he shrank
+secretly from so extreme and dangerous a measure.</p>
+
+<p>There was a hesitation in his manner, in spite of the firmness of his
+words, which Dick was not likely to miss. "Stop!" he said. "Before you
+call them in, just listen to me for a minute. Do you see this?" And,
+opening his coat, he pulled out from his waistcoat pocket one end of his
+watch-chain. Hanging to it, attached by a cheap gilt fastening of some
+sort, was a small grey tablet. Paul knew it at once&mdash;it was the Garud&acirc;
+Stone. "You know it, I see," said Dick, as Paul was about to move
+towards him&mdash;with what object he scarcely knew himself. "Don't trouble
+to come any closer. Well, I give you fair warning. You can make things
+very nasty for me if you like. I can't help that&mdash;but, if you do&mdash;if you
+try to score off me in any way, now or at any time&mdash;if you don't keep it
+up when the Doctor comes in&mdash;I tell you what I shall do. I shall go
+straight home and find young Roly. I shall give him this stone, and just
+tell him to say some wish after me. I don't believe there are many
+things it can't do, and all I can say is&mdash;if you find yourself and all
+this jolly old school (except Dulcie) taken off somewhere and stuck down
+all at once thousands of miles away on a desolate island, or see
+yourself turned into a Red Indian, or, or a cabhorse, you'll have
+yourself to thank for it&mdash;that's all. Now you can have them all up and
+fire away."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Paul, in a broken voice, for, wild as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> threat was, he
+could not afford to despise it after his experiences of the stone's
+power, "I&mdash;I was joking, Dick; at least I didn't mean it. I know of
+course I'm helpless. It's a sad thing for a father to say, but you've
+got the best of it.... I give in ... I won't interfere with you. There's
+only one thing I ask. You won't try any more experiments with that
+miserable stone.... You'll promise me that, at least?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Dick: "it's all right. I'll play fair. As long as you behave
+yourself and back me up I won't touch it. I only want to stay as I am. I
+don't want to hurt you."</p>
+
+<p>"You won't lose it?" said Paul anxiously. "Couldn't you lock it up? that
+fastening doesn't look very safe."</p>
+
+<p>"It will do well enough," said Dick. "I got it done at the watchmaker's
+round the corner, for sixpence. But I'll have a stronger ring put in
+somewhere, if I think of it."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause, in which the conversation seemed about to flag
+hopelessly, but at last Dick said, almost as if he felt some compunction
+for his present unfilial attitude: "Now, you know, it's much better to
+take things quietly. It can't be altered now, can it? And it's not such
+bad fun being a boy after all&mdash;for some things. You'll get into it
+by-and-by, you see if you don't, and be as jolly as a sandboy. We shall
+get along all right together, too. I shan't be hard on you. It isn't my
+fault that you happen to be at this particular school&mdash;you chose it! And
+after this term you can go to any other school you like&mdash;Eton or Rugby,
+or anywhere. I don't mind the expense. Of, if you'd rather, you can have
+a private tutor. And I'll buy you a pony, and you can ride in the Row.
+You shall have a much better time of it than I ever had, as long as you
+let me go on my own way."</p>
+
+<p>But these dazzling bribes had no influence upon Mr. Bultitude; nothing
+short of complete restitution would ever satisfy him, and he was too
+proud and too angry at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> his crushing defeat to even pretend to be in the
+least pacified.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want your pony," he said bitterly; "I might as well have a
+white elephant, and I don't suppose I should enjoy myself much more at a
+public school than I do here. Let's have no humbug, sir. You're up and
+I'm down&mdash;there's no more to be said&mdash;I shall tell the Doctor nothing,
+but I warn you, if ever the time comes&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course," said Dick, feeling tolerably secure, now he had
+disposed of the main difficulty. "If you can turn me out, I suppose you
+will&mdash;that's only fair. I shall take care not to give you the chance.
+And, oh, I say, do you want any tin? How much have you got left?"</p>
+
+<p>Paul turned away his head, lest Dick should see the sudden exultation he
+knew it must betray, as he said, with an effort to appear unconcerned,
+"I came away with exactly five shillings, and I haven't a penny now!"</p>
+
+<p>"I say," said Dick, "you are a fellow; you must have been going it. How
+did you get rid of it all in a week?"</p>
+
+<p>"It went, as far as I can understand," said Mr. Bultitude, "in rabbits
+and mice. Some boys claimed it as money they paid you to get them, I
+believe."</p>
+
+<p>"All your own fault," said Dick, "you would have them drowned. But you'd
+better have some tin to get along with. How much do you want? Will
+half-a-crown do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Half-a-crown is not much, Dick," said his father, almost humbly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's&mdash;ahem&mdash;a handsome allowance for a young fellow like you," said
+Dick, rather unkindly; "but I haven't any half-crowns left. I must give
+you this, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>And he held out a sovereign, never dreaming what it signified to Paul,
+who clutched it with feelings too great for words, though gratitude was
+not a part of them, for was it not his own money?</p>
+
+<p>"And now look out," said Dick, "I hear Grim. Remember what I told you;
+keep it up."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p><p>Dr. Grimstone came in with the air of a man who has a painful duty to
+perform; he started slightly as his eye noted the change in his
+visitor's dress and appearance. "I hope," he began gravely, "that your
+son has spared me the pain of going into the details of his
+misbehaviour; I wish I could give you a better report of him."</p>
+
+<p>Dick was plainly, in spite of his altered circumstances, by no means at
+ease in the schoolmaster's presence; he stood, shifting from foot to
+foot on the hearth-rug, turning extremely red and obstinately declining
+to raise his eyes from the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, ah," he stammered at last, "you were just going to swish him,
+weren't you, when I turned up, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"I found myself forced," said the Doctor, slightly shocked at this
+coarse way of putting things, "forced to contemplate administering to
+him (for his ultimate benefit) a sharp corrective in the presence of his
+schoolfellows. I distress you, I see, but the truth must be told. He has
+no doubt confessed his fault to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Dick, "he hasn't though. What's he been up to now?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had hoped he would have been more open, more straightforward, when
+confronted with the father who has proved himself so often indulgent and
+anxious for his improvement; it would have been a more favourable
+symptom, I think. Well, I must tell you myself. I know too well what a
+shock it will be to your scrupulously sensitive moral code, my dear Mr.
+Bultitude" (Dick showed a painful inclination to giggle here); "but I
+have to break to you the melancholy truth that I detected this unhappy
+boy in the act of conducting a secret and amorous correspondence with a
+young lady in a sacred edifice!"</p>
+
+<p>Dick whistled sharply: "Oh, I say!" he cried, "that's bad" (and he
+wagged his head reprovingly at his disgusted father, who longed to
+denounce his hypocrisy, but dared not); "that's bad ... he shouldn't do
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> sort of thing you know, should he? At his age too ... the young
+dog!"</p>
+
+<p>"This horror is what I should have expected from you," said the Doctor
+(though he was in truth more than scandalised by the composure with
+which his announcement was received). "Such boldness is indeed
+characteristic of the dog, an animal which, as you are aware, was with
+the ancients a synonym for shamelessness. No boy, however abandoned,
+should hear such words of unequivocal condemnation from a father's lips
+without a pang of shame!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul was only just able to control his rage by a great effort.</p>
+
+<p>"You're right there, sir," said Dick; "he ought to be well ragged for it
+... he'll break my heart, if he goes on like this, the young beggar. But
+we mustn't be too hard on him, eh? After all, it's nature, you know,
+isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon?" said Dr. Grimstone very stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," explained Dick, with a perilous approach to digging the other
+in the ribs, "we did much the same sort of thing in our time, eh? I'm
+sure I did&mdash;lots of times!"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't reproach myself on that head, Mr. Bultitude; and permit me to
+say, that such a tone of treating the affair is apt to destroy the
+effect, the excellent moral effect, of your most impressively conveyed
+indignation just now. I merely give you a hint, you understand!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, ah," said Dick, feeling that he had made a mistake, "yes, I didn't
+mean that. But I say, you haven't given him a&mdash;a whopping yet, have
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had just stepped out to procure a cane for that purpose," said the
+Doctor, "when your name was announced."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, look here, you won't want to start again when I'm gone, will
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"An ancient philosopher, my dear sir, was accustomed to postpone the
+correction of his slaves until the first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> glow of his indignation had
+passed away. He found that he could&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Lay it on with more science," suggested Dick, while Paul writhed where
+he stood. "Perhaps so, but you might forgive him now, don't you think?
+he won't do it again. If he goes writing any more love-letters, tell me,
+and I'll come and talk to him; but he's had a lesson, you know. Let him
+off this time."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no right to resist such an entreaty," said the Doctor, "though I
+may be inclined myself to think that a few strokes would render the
+lesson more permanent. I must ask you to reconsider your plea for his
+pardon."</p>
+
+<p>Paul heard this with indescribable anxiety; he had begun to feel
+tolerably sure that his evil hour was postponed <i>sine die</i>, but might
+not Dick be cruel and selfish enough to remain neutral, or even side
+with the enemy, in support of his assumed character?</p>
+
+<p>Luckily he was not. "I'd rather let him off," he said awkwardly; "I
+don't approve of caning fellows myself. It never did me any good, I
+know, and I got enough of it to tell."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, I yield. Richard, your father has interceded for you; and I
+cannot disregard his wishes, though I have my own view in the matter.
+You will hear no more of this disgraceful conduct, sir, unless you do
+something to recall it to my memory. Thank your father for his kindness,
+which you so little deserved, and take your leave of him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there, it's all right!" said Dick; "he'll behave himself after
+this, I know. And oh! I say, sir," he added hastily, "is&mdash;is Dulcie
+anywhere about?"</p>
+
+<p>"My daughter?" asked the Doctor. "Would you like to see her?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't mind," said Dick, blushing furiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry to say she has gone out for a walk with her mother," said the
+Doctor. "I'm afraid she cannot be back for some time. It's unfortunate."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p><p>Dick's face fell. "It doesn't matter," he muttered awkwardly. "She's
+all right, I hope?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is very seldom ailing, I'm happy to say; just now she is
+particularly well, thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, is she?" said Dick gloomily, probably disappointed to find that he
+was so little missed, and not suspecting that his father had been
+accepted as a substitute.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, do you mind&mdash;could I see the fellows again for a minute or two&mdash;I
+mean I should rather like to inspect the school, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"See my boys? Certainly, my dear sir, by all means; this way," and he
+took Dick out to the schoolroom&mdash;Paul following out of curiosity.
+"You'll find us at our studies, you see," said the Doctor, as he opened
+the first baize door. There was a suspicious hubbub and hum of voices
+from within; but as they entered every boy was bent over his books with
+the rapt absorption of the devoted student&mdash;an absorption that was the
+direct effect of the sound the door-handle made in turning.</p>
+
+<p>"Our workshop," said the Doctor airily, looking round. "My first form,
+Mr. Bultitude. Some good workers here, and some idle ones."</p>
+
+<p>Dick stood in the doorway, looking (if the truth must be told)
+uncommonly foolish. He had wanted, in coming there, to enjoy the
+contrast between the past and present&mdash;which accounts for a good many
+visits of "old boys" to the scene of their education. But, confronted
+with his former schoolfellows, he was seized at first with an utterly
+unreasonable fear of detection.</p>
+
+<p>The class behaved as classes usually do on such occasions. The good boys
+smirked and the bad ones stared&mdash;the general expression being one of
+uneasy curiosity. Dick said never a word, feeling strangely bashful and
+nervous.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Tipping, my head boy," touching that young gentleman on the
+shoulder, and making him several degrees more uncomfortable. "I expect
+solid results from Tipping some day."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p><p>"He looks as if his head was pretty solid," said Dick, who had once cut
+his knuckles against it.</p>
+
+<p>"My second boy, Biddlecomb. If he applies himself, he too will do me
+credit in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"How do, Biddlecomb?" said Dick. "I owe you ninepence&mdash;I mean&mdash;oh hang
+it, here's a shilling for you! Hallo, Chawner!" he went on, gradually
+overcoming his first nervousness, "how are you getting on, eh? Doing
+much in the sneaking way lately?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know him!" exclaimed the Doctor with naive surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; I don't know him. I've heard of him, you know&mdash;heard of him!"
+Chawner looked down his nose with a feeble attempt at a gratified
+simper, while his neighbours giggled with furtive relish.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Dick at last, after a long look at all the old familiar
+objects, "I must be off, you know. Got some important business at home
+this evening to look after. The fellows look very jolly and contented,
+and all that sort of thing. Enough to make one want to be a boy again
+almost, eh? Good-bye, you chaps&mdash;ahem, young gentlemen, I wish you good
+morning!"</p>
+
+<p>And he went out, leaving behind him the impression that "young
+Bultitude's governor wasn't half such a bad old buffer."</p>
+
+<p>He paused at the open front door, to which Paul and the Doctor had
+accompanied him. "Good-bye," he said; "I wish I'd seen Dulcie. I should
+like to see your daughter, sir; but it can't be helped. Good-bye; and
+you," he added in a lower tone to his father, who was standing by,
+inexpressibly pained and disgusted by his utter want of dignity, "you
+mind what I told you. Don't try any games with me!"</p>
+
+<p>And, as he skipped jauntily down the steps to the gateway, the Doctor
+followed his unwieldy, oddly-dressed form with his eyes, and, inclining
+his head gravely to Dick's sweeping wave of the hand, asked with a
+compassionate tone in his voice. "You don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> happen to know, Richard, my
+boy, if your father has had any business troubles lately&mdash;anything to
+disturb him?"</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. Bultitude's feelings prevented him from making any intelligible
+reply.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="The_Rubicon" id="The_Rubicon"></a>15. <i>The Rubicon</i></h2>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div class="i8">"My three schoolfellows,</div>
+<div>Whom I will trust&mdash;as I will adders fanged;</div>
+<div>They bear the mandate."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Paul never quite knew how the remainder of that day passed at Crichton
+House. He was ordered to join a class which was more or less engaged
+with some kind of work: he had a hazy idea that it was Latin, though it
+may have been Greek; but he was spared the necessity of taking any
+active part in the proceedings, as Mr. Blinkhorn was not disposed to be
+too exacting with a boy who in one short morning had endured a sentence
+of expulsion, a lecture, the immediate prospect of a flogging, and a
+paternal visit, and, as before, mercifully left him alone.</p>
+
+<p>His classmates, however, did not show the same chivalrous delicacy; and
+Paul had to suffer many unmannerly jests and gibes at his expense,
+frequent and anxious inquiries as to the exact nature of his treatment
+in the dining-room, with sundry highly imaginative versions of the same,
+while there was much candid and unbiassed comment on the appearance and
+conduct of himself and his son.</p>
+
+<p>But he bore it unprotesting&mdash;or, rather, he scarcely noticed it; for all
+his thoughts were now entirely taken up by one important subject&mdash;the
+time and manner of his escape.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to Dick's thoughtless liberality, he had now ample funds to carry
+him safely home. It was hardly likely that any more unexpected claims
+could be brought against him now, particularly as he had no intention
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> publishing his return to solvency. He might reasonably consider
+himself in a position to make his escape at the very first favourable
+opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>When would that opportunity present itself? It must come soon. He could
+not wait long for it. Any hour might yet see him pounced upon and
+flogged heartily for some utterly unknown and unsuspected transgression;
+or the golden key which would unlock his prison bars might be lost in
+some unlucky moment; for his long series of reverses had made him loth
+to trust to Fortune, even when she seemed to look smilingly once more
+upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Fortune's countenance is apt to be so alarmingly mobile with some
+unfortunates.</p>
+
+<p>But in spite of the new facilities given him for escape, and his strong
+motives for taking advantage of them, he soon found to his utter dismay
+that he shrank from committing himself to so daring and dangerous a
+course, just as much as when he had tried to make a confidant of the
+Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>For, after all, could he be sure of himself? Would his ill-luck suffer
+him to seize the one propitious moment, or would that fatal
+self-distrust and doubt that had paralysed him for the past week seize
+him again just at the crisis?</p>
+
+<p>Suppose he did venture to take the first irrevocable step, could he rely
+on himself to go through the rest of his hazardous enterprise? Was he
+cool and wary enough? He dared not expect an uninterrupted run. Had he
+ruses and expedients at command on any sudden check?</p>
+
+<p>If he could not answer all these doubts favourably, was it not sheer
+madness to take to flight at all?</p>
+
+<p>He felt a dismal conviction that his success would have to depend, not
+on his own cunning, but on the forbearance or blindness of others. The
+slightest <i>contretemps</i> must infallibly upset him altogether.</p>
+
+<p>The fact was, he had all his life been engaged in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> less eventful and
+contentious branches of commerce. His will had seldom had to come in
+contact with others, and when it did so, he had found means, being of a
+prudent and cautious temperament, of avoiding disagreeable personal
+consequences by timely compromises or judicious employment of delegates.
+He had generally found his fellow-men ready to meet him reasonably as an
+equal or a superior.</p>
+
+<p>But now he must be prepared to see in everyone he met a possible enemy,
+who would hand him over to the tyrant on the faintest suspicion. They
+were spies to be baffled or disarmed, pursuers to be eluded. The
+smallest slip in his account of himself would be enough to undo him.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder that, as he thought over all this, his heart quailed within
+him.</p>
+
+<p>They say&mdash;the paradox-mongers say&mdash;that it requires a far higher degree
+of moral courage for a soldier in action to leave the ranks under fire
+and seek a less distinguished position towards the rear, than would
+carry him on with the rest to charge a battery.</p>
+
+<p>This may be true, though it might not prove a very valuable defence at a
+court-martial; but, at all events, Mr. Bultitude found, when it came to
+the point, that it was almost impossible for him to screw up his courage
+to run away.</p>
+
+<p>It is not a pleasant state, this indecision whether to stay passively
+and risk the worst or avoid it by flight, and the worst of it is that,
+whatever course is eventually forced upon us, it finds us equally
+unprepared, and more liable from such indecision to bungle miserably in
+the sequel.</p>
+
+<p>Paul might never have gained heart to venture, but for an unpleasant
+incident that took place during dinner and a discovery he made after it.</p>
+
+<p>They happened to have a particularly unpopular pudding that day; a
+pallid preparation of suet, with an infrequent currant or two embalmed
+in it, and Paul was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> staring at his portion of this delicacy
+disconsolately enough, wondering how he should contrive to consume and,
+worse still, digest it, when his attention was caught by Jolland, who
+sat directly opposite him.</p>
+
+<p>That young gentleman, who evidently shared the general prejudice against
+the currant pudding, was inviting Mr. Bultitude's attention to a little
+contrivance of his own for getting rid of it, which consisted in
+delicately shovelling the greater part of what was on his plate into a
+large envelope held below the table to receive it.</p>
+
+<p>This struck Paul as a heaven-sent method of avoiding the difficulty, and
+he had just got the envelope which had held Barbara's letter out of his
+pocket, intending to follow Jolland's example, when the Doctor's voice
+made him start guiltily and replace the envelope in his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Jolland," said the Doctor, "what have you got there?"</p>
+
+<p>"An envelope, sir," explained Jolland, who had now got the remains of
+his pudding safely bestowed.</p>
+
+<p>"What is in that envelope?" said the Doctor, who happened to have been
+watching him.</p>
+
+<p>"In the envelope, sir? Pudding, sir," said Jolland, as if it were the
+most natural thing in the world to send bulky portions of pudding by
+post.</p>
+
+<p>"And why did you place pudding in the envelope?" inquired the Doctor in
+his deepest tone.</p>
+
+<p>Jolland felt a difficulty in explaining that he had done so because he
+wished to avoid eating it, and with a view to interring it later on in
+the playground: he preferred silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I tell you why you did it, sir?" thundered the Doctor. "You did
+it, because you were scheming to obtain a second portion&mdash;because you
+did not feel yourself able to eat both portions at your leisure here,
+and thought to put by a part to devour in secret at a future time. It's
+a most painful exhibition of pure piggishness. There shall be no
+pocketing at this table, sir.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> You will eat that pudding under my eye at
+once, and you will stay in and write out French verbs for two days. That
+will put an end to any more gorging in the garden for a time, at least."</p>
+
+<p>Jolland seemed stupefied, though relieved, by the unexpected
+construction put upon his conduct, as he gulped down the intercepted
+fragments of pudding, while the rest diligently cleared their plates
+with as much show of appreciation as they could muster.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude shuddered at this one more narrow escape. If he had been
+detected&mdash;as he must have been in another instant&mdash;in smuggling pudding
+in an envelope he might have incautiously betrayed his real motives, and
+then, as the Doctor was morbidly sensitive concerning all complaints of
+the fare he provided, he would have got into worse trouble than the
+unfortunate Jolland, to say nothing of the humiliation of being detected
+in such an act.</p>
+
+<p>It was a solemn warning to him of the dangers he was exposed to hourly,
+while he lingered within those walls; but his position was still more
+strongly brought home to him by the terrible discovery he made shortly
+afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>He was alone in the schoolroom, for the others had all gone down into
+the playground, except Jolland, who was confined in one of the
+class-rooms below, when the thought came over him to test the truth of
+Dick's hint about a name cut on the Doctor's writing-table.</p>
+
+<p>He stole up to it guiltily, and, lifting the slanting desk which stood
+there, examined the surface below. Dick had been perfectly correct.
+There it was, glaringly fresh and distinct, not large but very deeply
+cut and fearfully legible. "R. Bultitude." It might have been done that
+day. Dick had probably performed it out of bravado, or under the
+impression that he was not going to return after the holidays.</p>
+
+<p>Paul dropped the desk over the fatal letters with a shudder. The
+slightest accidental shifting of it must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> disclose them&mdash;nothing but a
+miracle could have kept them concealed so long. When they did come to
+light, he knew from what he had seen of the Doctor, that the act would
+be considered as an outrage of the blackest and most desperate kind. He
+would most unquestionably get a flogging for it!</p>
+
+<p>He fetched a large pewter ink-pot, and tried nervously to blacken the
+letters with the tip of a quill, to make them, if possible, rather less
+obtrusive than they were. All in vain; they only stood out with more
+startling vividness when picked out in black upon the brown-stained
+deal. He felt very like a conscience-stricken murderer trying to hide a
+corpse that <i>wouldn't</i> be buried. He gave it up at last, having only
+made a terrible mess with the ink.</p>
+
+<p>That settled it. He must fly. The flogging must be avoided at all
+hazards. If an opportunity delayed its coming, why, he must do without
+the opportunity&mdash;he must make one. For good or ill, his mind was made up
+now for immediate flight.</p>
+
+<p>All that afternoon, while he sat trying to keep his mind upon long sums
+in Bills of Parcels, which disgusted him as a business man, by the
+glaring improbability of their details, his eye wandered furtively down
+the long tables to where the Doctor sat at the head of the class. Every
+chance movement of the principal's elbow filled him with a sickening
+dread. A hundred times did those rudely carved letters seem about to
+start forth and denounce him.</p>
+
+<p>It was a disquieting afternoon for Paul.</p>
+
+<p>But the time dragged wearily on, and still the desk loyally kept its
+secret. The dusk drew on and the gas-burners were lit. The younger boys
+came up from the lower class-room and were sent out to play; the Doctor
+shortly afterwards dismissed his own class to follow them, and Paul and
+his companions had the room to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>He sat there on the rough form with his slate before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> him, hearing
+half-unconsciously the shouts, laughter, and ring of feet coming up from
+the darkness outside, and the faint notes of a piano, which filtered
+through the double doors from one of the rooms, where a boy was
+practising Haydn's "Surprise," from Hamilton's exercise book, a surprise
+which he rendered as a mildly interjectional form of astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>All the time Paul was racked with an intense burning desire to get up
+and run for it then, before it became too late; but cold fits of doubt
+and fear preserved him from such lunacy&mdash;he would wait, his chance might
+come before long.</p>
+
+<p>His patience was rewarded; the Doctor came in, looking at his watch, and
+said, "I think these boys have had enough of it, Mr. Tinkler, eh? You
+can send them out now till tea-time."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tinkler, who had been entangling himself frightfully in intricate
+calculations upon the blackboard, without making a single convert, was
+only too glad to take advantage of the suggestion, and Paul followed the
+rest into the playground with a sense of relief.</p>
+
+<p>The usual "chevy" was going on there, with more spirit than usual,
+perhaps, because the darkness allowed of practical jokes and surprises,
+and offered great facilities for paying off old grudges with secrecy and
+despatch, and as the Doctor had come to the door of the greenhouse, and
+was looking on, the players exerted themselves still more, till the
+"prison" to which most of one side had been consigned by being run down
+and touched by their fleeter enemies was filled with a long line of
+captives holding hands and calling out to be released.</p>
+
+<p>Paul, who had run out vaguely from his base, was promptly pursued and
+made prisoner by an unnecessarily vigorous thump in the back, after
+which he took his place at the bottom of the line of imprisoned ones.</p>
+
+<p>But the enemy's spirit began to slacken; one after another of the
+players still left to the opposite side<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> succeeded in outrunning pursuit
+and touching the foremost prisoner for the time being, so as to set him
+free by the rules of the game. The Doctor went in again, and the enemy
+relapsed as usual into total indifference, so that Paul, without exactly
+knowing how, soon found himself the only one left in gaol, unnoticed and
+apparently forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>He could not see anything through the darkness, but he heard the voices
+of the boys disputing at the other side of the playground; he looked
+round; at his right was the indistinct form of a large laurel bush,
+behind that he knew was the playground gate. Could it be that his chance
+had come at last?</p>
+
+<p>He slipped behind the laurel and waited, holding his breath; the dispute
+still went on; no one seemed to have noticed him, probably the darkness
+prevented all chance of that; he went on tip-toe to the gate&mdash;it was not
+locked.</p>
+
+<p>He opened it very carefully a little way; it was forbearing enough not
+to creak, and the next moment he was outside, free to go where he would!</p>
+
+<p>Escape, after all, was simple enough when he came to try it; he could
+hardly believe at first that he really was free at last; free with money
+enough in his pocket to take him home, with the friendly darkness to
+cover his retreat; free to go back and confront Dick on his own ground,
+and, by force, or fraud, get the Garud&acirc; Stone into his own hands once
+more.</p>
+
+<p>As yet he never doubted that it would be easy enough to convince his
+household, if necessary, of the truth of his story, and enlist them one
+and all on his side; all that he required, he thought, was caution; he
+must reach the house unobserved, and wait and watch, and the deuce would
+be in it if the stone were not safe in his pocket again before twelve
+hours had gone by.</p>
+
+<p>All this time he was still within a hundred yards or so of the
+playground wall; he must decide upon some particular route, some
+definite method of ordering his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> flight; to stay where he was any longer
+would clearly be unwise, yet, where should he go first?</p>
+
+<p>If he went to the station at once, how could he tell that he should be
+lucky enough to catch a train without having to wait long for it, and
+unless he did that, he would almost certainly be sought for first on the
+station platform, and might be caught before a train was due?</p>
+
+<p>At last, with an astuteness he had not suspected himself of possessing,
+which was probably the result of the harrowing experiences he had lately
+undergone, he hit upon a plan of action. "I'll go to a shop," he
+thought, "and change this sovereign, and ask to look at a
+timetable&mdash;then, if I find I can catch a train at once, I'll run for it;
+if one is not due for some time, I can hang about near the station till
+it comes in."</p>
+
+<p>With this intention he walked on towards the town till he came to a
+small terrace of shops, when he went into the first, which was a
+stationer's and toy-dealer's, with a stock in trade of cheap wooden toys
+and incomprehensible games, drawing slates, penny packets of stationery
+and cards of pen and pencil-holders, and a particularly stuffy
+atmosphere; the proprietor, a short man with a fat white face with a
+rich glaze all over it and a fringe of ragged brown whisker meeting
+under his chin, was sitting behind the counter posting up his ledger.</p>
+
+<p>Paul looked round the shop in search of something to purchase, and at
+last said, more nervously than he expected to do, "I want a pencil-case,
+one which screws up and down." He thought a pencil-case would be an
+innocent, unsuspicious thing to ask for. The man set rows of cards
+containing pencil-cases of every imaginable shape on the counter before
+him, and when Mr. Bultitude had chosen and paid for one, the stationer
+asked if there would be anything else, and if he might send it for him.
+"You're one of Dr. Grimstone's young gentlemen up at Crichton House,
+aren't you, sir?" he added.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p><p>A guilty dread of discovery made Paul anxious to deny this at once.
+"No," he said; "oh no; no connection with the place. Ah, could you allow
+me to look at a time-table?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, sir; expectin' some one to-night or to-morrow p'raps. Let me
+see," he said, consulting a table which hung behind him. "There's a
+train from Pancras comes in in half an hour from now, 6.5 that is;
+there's another doo at 8.15, and one at 9.30. Then from Liverpool Street
+they run&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Mr. Bultitude, "but&mdash;but I want the up-trains."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said the man, with a rather peculiar intonation, "I thought maybe
+your par or mar was comin' down. Ain't Dr. Grimstone got the times the
+trains go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Paul desperately, without very well knowing what he said,
+"yes, he has, but ah, not for this month; he&mdash;he sent me to inquire."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he though?" said the stationer. "I thought you wasn't one of his
+young gentlemen?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude saw what a fearful trap he had fallen into and stood
+speechless.</p>
+
+<p>"Go along with you!" said the little stationer at last, with a not
+unkindly grin. "Lor bless you, I knew your face the minnit you come in.
+To go and tell me a brazen story like that! You're a young pickle, you
+are!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude began to shuffle feebly towards the door. "Pickle, eh?" he
+protested in great discomposure. "No, no. Heaven knows I'm no pickle.
+It's of no consequence about those trains. Don't trouble. Good evening
+to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop," said the man, "don't be in such a nurry now. You tell me what
+you want to know straightforward, and I don't mean to say as I won't
+help you so far as I can. Don't be afraid of my telling no tales. I've
+bin a schoolboy myself in my time, bless your 'art. I shouldn't wonder
+now if I couldn't make a pretty good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> guess without telling at what
+you're after. You've bin a catchin' of it hot, and you want to make a
+clean bolt of it. I ain't very far off, now, am I?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Paul; for something in the man's manner inspired confidence.
+"I do want to make a bolt of it. I've been most abominably treated."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, look here, I ain't got no right to interfere; and if you're
+caught, I look to you not to bring my name in. I don't want to get into
+trouble up at Crichton House and lose good customers, you see. But I
+like the looks of you, and you've always dealt 'ere pretty regular. I
+don't mind if I give you a lift. Just see here. You want to get off to
+London, don't you? What for is your business, not mine. Well, there's a
+train, express, stops at only one station on the way, in at 5.50. It's
+twenty minnits to six now. If you take that road just oppersite, it'll
+bring you out at the end of the Station Road; you can do it easy in ten
+minnits and have time to spare. So cut away, and good luck to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm vastly obliged to you," said Paul, and he meant it. It was a new
+experience to find anyone offering him assistance. He left the close
+little shop, crossed the road, and started off in the direction
+indicated to him at a brisk trot.</p>
+
+<p>His steps rang out cheerfully on the path ironbound with frost. He was
+almost happy again under the exhilarating glow of unusual exercise and
+the excitement of escape and regained freedom.</p>
+
+<p>He ran on, past a series of villa residences enclosed in varnished
+palings and adorned with that medi&aelig;val abundance of turrets, balconies,
+and cheap stained-glass, which is accepted nowadays as a guarantee of
+the tenant's culture, and a satisfactory substitute for effective
+drainage. After the villas came a church, and a few yards farther on the
+road turned with a sharp curve into the main thoroughfare leading to the
+station.</p>
+
+<p>He was so near it that he could hear the shrill engine whistles, and the
+banging of trucks on the railway sidings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> echoed sharply from the
+neighbouring houses. He was saved, in sight of haven at last!</p>
+
+<p>Full of delight at the thought, he put on a still greater pace, and
+turning the corner without looking, ran into a little party of three,
+which was coming in the opposite direction.</p>
+
+<p>Fate's vein of irony was by no means worked out yet. As he was
+recovering from the collision, and preparing to offer or accept an
+apology, as the case might be, he discovered to his horror that he had
+fallen amongst no strangers.</p>
+
+<p>The three were his old acquaintances, Coker, Coggs, and the virtuous
+Chawner&mdash;of whom he had fondly hoped to have seen the last for ever!</p>
+
+<p>The moral and physical shock of such an encounter took all Mr.
+Bultitude's remaining breath away. He stood panting under the sickly
+rays of a street-lamp, the very incarnation of helpless, hopeless
+dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo!" said Coker, "it's young Bultitude!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by cannoning into a fellow like this?" said Coggs.
+"What are you up to out here, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"If it comes to that," said Paul, casting about for some explanation of
+his appearance, "what are you up to here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why," said Chawner, "if you want to know, Dick, we've been to fetch the
+<i>St. James' Gazette</i> for the Doctor. He said I might go if I liked, and
+I asked for Coker and Coggs to come too; because there was something I
+wanted to tell them, very important, and I have told them, haven't I,
+Corny?"</p>
+
+<p>Coggs growled sulkily; Coker gave a tragic groan, and said: "I don't
+care when you tell, Chawner. Do it to-night if you like. Let's talk
+about something else. Bultitude hasn't told us yet how he came out here
+after us."</p>
+
+<p>His last words suggested a pretext to Paul, of which he hastened to make
+use. "Oh," he said, "I? I came out here, after you, to say that Dr.
+Grimstone will not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> require the <i>St. James' Gazette</i>. He wants the
+<i>Globe</i> and, ah, the <i>Star</i> instead."</p>
+
+<p>It did not sound a very probable combination; but Paul used the first
+names that occurred to him, and, as it happened, aroused no suspicions,
+for the boys read no newspapers.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we've got the other now," said Coker. "We shall have to go back
+and get the fellow at the bookstall to change it, I suppose. Come on,
+you fellows!"</p>
+
+<p>This was at least a move in the right direction; for the three began at
+once to retrace their steps. But, unfortunately, all these explanations
+had taken time, and before they had gone many yards, Mr. Bultitude was
+horrified to hear the station-bell ring loudly, and immediately after a
+cloud of white steam rose above the station roof as the London train
+clanked cumbrously in, and was brought to with a prolonged screeching of
+brakes.</p>
+
+<p>The others were walking very slowly. At the present pace it would be
+almost impossible to reach the train in time. He looked round at them
+anxiously. "H-hadn't we better run, don't you think?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Run!" said Coker scornfully. "What for? I'm not going to run. You can,
+if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, ah, really," said Paul briskly, very grateful for the permission;
+"do you know, I think I will!"</p>
+
+<p>And run he did, with all his might, rushing headlong through the gates,
+threading his way between the omnibuses and under the Roman noses of the
+mild fly-horses in the enclosure, until at length he found himself
+inside the little booking-office.</p>
+
+<p>He was not too late; the train was still at the platform, the engine
+getting up steam with a dull roar. But he dared not risk detection by
+travelling without a ticket. There was time for that, too. No one was at
+the pigeon-hole but one old lady.</p>
+
+<p>But, unhappily, the old lady considered taking a ticket as a solemn rite
+to be performed with all due<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> caution and deliberation. She had already
+catechised the clerk upon the number of stoppages during her proposed
+journey, and exacted earnest assurances from him that she would not be
+called upon to change anywhere in the course of it; and as Paul came up
+she was laying out the purchase-money for her ticket upon the ledge and
+counting it, which, the fare being high and the coins mostly halfpence,
+seemed likely to take some time.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment, ma'am, if you please," cried Mr. Bultitude, panting and
+desperate. "I'm pressed for time."</p>
+
+<p>"Now you've gone and put me out, little boy," said the old lady fussily.
+"I shall have to begin all over again. Young man, will you take and
+count the other end and see if it adds up right? There's a halfpenny
+wrong somewhere; I know there is."</p>
+
+<p>"Now then," shouted the guard from the platform. "Any more going on?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going on!" said Paul. "Wait for me. First single to St. Pancras,
+quick!"</p>
+
+<p>"Drat the boy!" said the old lady angrily. "Do you think the world's to
+give way for you? Such impidence! Mind your manners, little boy, can't
+you? You've made me drop a threepenny bit with your scrouging!"</p>
+
+<p>"First single, five shillings," said the clerk, jerking out the precious
+ticket.</p>
+
+<p>"Right!" cried the guard at the same instant. "Stand back there, will
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul dashed towards the door of the booking-office which led to the
+platform; but just as he reached it a gate slammed in his face with a
+sharp click, through the bars of it he saw, with hot eyes, the tall,
+heavy carriages which had shelter and safety in them jolt heavily past,
+till even the red lamp on the last van was quenched in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>That miserable old woman had shattered his hopes at the very moment of
+their fulfilment. It was fate again!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p><p>As he stood, fiercely gripping the bars of the gate, he heard Coggs'
+hateful voice again.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo! so you haven't got the <i>Globe</i> and the other thing after all,
+then; they've shut you out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mr. Bultitude in a hollow voice; "they've shut me out!"</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="Hard_Pressed" id="Hard_Pressed"></a>16. <i>Hard Pressed</i></h2>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles,</div>
+<div>How he outruns the wind, and with what care</div>
+<div>He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles:</div>
+<div class="i2">The many musets through the which he goes</div>
+<div class="i2">Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>As soon as the gate was opened, Paul went through mechanically with the
+others on to the platform, and waited at the bookstall while they
+changed the paper. He knew well enough that what had seemed at the time
+a stroke of supreme cunning would now only land him in fresh
+difficulties, if indeed it did not lead to the detection of his scheme.
+But he dared not interfere and prevent them from making the unlucky
+exchange. Something seemed to tie his tongue, and in sullen leaden
+apathy he resigned himself to whatever might be in store for him.</p>
+
+<p>They passed out again by the booking-office. There was the old lady
+still at the pigeon-hole, trying to persuade the much-enduring clerk to
+restore a lucky sixpence she had given him by mistake, and was quite
+unable to describe. Mr. Bultitude would have given much just then to go
+up and shake her into hysterics, or curse her bitterly for the mischief
+she had done; but he refrained, either from an innate chivalry, or from
+a feeling that such an outburst would be ill-judged.</p>
+
+<p>So, silent and miserable, with slow step and hanging head, he set out
+with his gaolers to render himself up once more at his house of
+bondage&mdash;a sort of involuntary Regulus, without the oath.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p><p>"Dickie, you were very anxious to run just now," observed Chawner,
+after they had gone some distance on their homeward way.</p>
+
+<p>"We were late for tea&mdash;late for tea," explained Paul hastily.</p>
+
+<p>"If you think the tea worth racing like that for, I don't," said Coggs
+viciously; "it's muck."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't catch me racing, except for something worth having," said
+Coker.</p>
+
+<p>One more flash of distinct inspiration came to Paul's aid in the very
+depths of his gloom. It was, in fact, a hazy recollection from English
+history of the ruse by which Edward I., when a prince, contrived to
+escape from his captors at Hereford Castle.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;why," he said excitedly, "would you race if you had something
+worth racing for, hey? would you now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Try us!" said Coker emphatically.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you call 'something'?" inquired Chawner suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Mr. Bultitude; "what do you say to a shilling?"</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't got a shilling," objected Coggs.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's a shilling, see," said Paul, producing one. "Now then, I'll give
+this to any boy I see get into tea first!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bultitude thinks he can run," said Coker, with an amiable unbelief in
+any disinterestedness. "He means to get in first and keep the shilling
+himself, I know."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll back myself to run him any day," put in Coggs.</p>
+
+<p>"So will I," added Chawner.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, is it agreed?" Paul asked anxiously. "Will you try?"</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Chawner. "You must give us a start to the next
+lamp-post, though. You stay here, and when we're ready we'll say 'off'!"</p>
+
+<p>They drew a line on the path with their feet to mark Paul's starting
+point, and went on to the next lamp.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> After a moment or two of anxious
+waiting he heard Coggs shout, all in one breath, "One-two-three-off!"
+and the sound of scampering feet followed immediately.</p>
+
+<p>It was a most exciting and hotly contested race. Paul saw them for one
+brief moment in the lamplight. He saw Chawner scudding down the path
+like some great camel, and Coker squaring his arms and working them as
+if they were wings. Coggs seemed to be last.</p>
+
+<p>He ran a little way himself just to encourage them, but, as the sound of
+their feet grew fainter and fainter, he felt that his last desperate
+ruse had taken effect, and with a chuckle at his own cleverness, turned
+round and ran his fastest in the opposite direction. He felt little or
+no interest in the result of the race.</p>
+
+<p>Once more he entered the booking-office and, kneeling on a chair,
+consulted the time-board that hung on the wall over the sheaf of texts
+and the missionary box.</p>
+
+<p>The next train was not until 7.25. A whole hour and twenty-five minutes
+to wait! What was he to do? Where was he to pass the weary time till
+then? If he lingered on the platform he would assuredly be recaptured.
+His absence could not remain long undiscovered and the station would be
+the first place they would search for him.</p>
+
+<p>And yet he dared not wander away from the neighbourhood of the station.
+If he kept to the shops and lighted thoroughfares he might be recognised
+or traced. If, on the other hand, he went out farther into the country
+(which was utterly unknown to him), he had no watch, and it would be
+only too easy to lose his way, or miscalculate time and distance in the
+darkness.</p>
+
+<p>To miss the next train would be absolutely fatal.</p>
+
+<p>He walked out upon the platform, and on past the refreshment and waiting
+rooms, past the weighing machine, the stacked trucks and the lamp-room,
+meeting and seen by none&mdash;even the boy at the bookstall was busy with
+bread and butter and a mug of tea in a dark corner, and never noticed
+him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p><p>He went on to the end of the platform where the planks sloped gently
+down to a wilderness of sheds, coaling stages and sidings; he could just
+make out the bulky forms of some tarpaulined cattle-vans and open
+coal-trucks standing on the lines of metals which gleamed in the scanty
+gaslights.</p>
+
+<p>It struck him that one of these vans or trucks would serve his purpose
+admirably, if he could only get into it, and very cautiously he picked
+his way over the clogging ballast and rails, till he came to a low
+narrow strip of platform between two sidings.</p>
+
+<p>He mounted it and went on till he came to the line of trucks and vans
+drawn up alongside; the vans seemed all locked, but at the end he found
+an empty coal-waggon in which he thought he could manage to conceal
+himself and escape pursuit till the longed-for 7.25 train should arrive
+to relieve him.</p>
+
+<p>He stepped in and lay down in one corner of it, listening anxiously for
+any sound of search, but hearing nothing more than the dismal dirge of
+the telegraph wires overhead; he soon grew cold and stiff, for his
+enforced attitude was far from comfortable, and there was more coal-dust
+in his chosen retreat than he could have wished. Still it was secluded
+enough; it was not likely that it would occur to anyone to look for him
+there. Ten days ago Mr. Paul Bultitude would have found it hard to
+conceive himself lying down in a hard and grimy coal-truck to escape his
+son's schoolmaster, but since then he had gone through too much that was
+unprecedented and abnormal to see much incongruity in his situation&mdash;it
+was all too hideously real to be a nightmare.</p>
+
+<p>But even here he was not allowed to remain undisturbed; after about half
+an hour, when he was beginning to feel almost secure, there came a sharp
+twanging of wires beneath, and two short strokes of a bell in the
+signal-box hard by.</p>
+
+<p>He heard some one from the platform, probably the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> station-master,
+shout, "Look alive, there, Ing, Pickstones, some of you. There's those
+three trucks on the A siding to go to Slopsbury by the 6.30
+luggage&mdash;she'll be in in another five minutes."</p>
+
+<p>There were steps as if some persons were coming out of a cabin
+opposite&mdash;they came nearer and nearer: "These three, ain't it, Tommy?"
+said a gruff voice, close to Paul's ear.</p>
+
+<p>"That's it, mate," said another, evidently Tommy's&mdash;"get 'em along up to
+the points there. Can't have the 6.30 standing about on this 'ere line
+all night, 'cos of the Limited. Now then, all together, shove! they've
+got the old 'orse on at the other end."</p>
+
+<p>And to Paul's alarm he felt the truck in which he was begin to move
+ponderously on the greasy metals, and strike the next with its buffers
+with a jarring shock and a jangling of coupling chains.</p>
+
+<p>He could not stand this; unless he revealed himself at once, or managed
+to get out of this delusive waggon, the six-whatever-it-was train would
+be up and carry him off to Slopsbury, a hundred miles or so farther from
+home; they would have time to warn Dick&mdash;he would be expected&mdash;ambushes
+laid for him, and his one chance would be gone for ever!</p>
+
+<p>There was a whistle far away on the down line, and that humming
+vibration which announces an approaching train: not a moment to lose&mdash;he
+was afraid to attempt a leap from the moving waggons, and resolved to
+risk all and show himself.</p>
+
+<p>With this intention he got upon his knees, and putting his head above
+the dirty bulwark, looked over and said softly, "Tommy, I say, Tommy!"</p>
+
+<p>A porter, who had been laboriously employed below, looked up with a
+white and scared face, and staggered back several feet; Mr. Bultitude in
+a sudden panic ducked again.</p>
+
+<p>"Bill!" Paul heard the porter say hoarsely, "I'll take my Bible oath
+I've never touched a drop this week, not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> to speak of&mdash;but I've got 'em
+again, Bill, I've got 'em again!"</p>
+
+<p>"Got what agin?" growled Bill. "What's the matter now?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's the jumps, Bill," gasped the other, "the 'orrors&mdash;they've got me
+and no mistake. As I'm a livin' man, as I was a shovin' of that there
+truck, I saw a imp&mdash;a gashly imp, Bill, stick its hugly 'ed over the
+side and say, 'Tommy,' it ses, jest like that&mdash;it ses, 'Tommy, I wants
+you!' I dursn't go near it, Bill. I'll get leave, and go 'ome and lay
+up&mdash;it glared at me so 'orrid, Bill, and grinned&mdash;ugh! I'll take the
+pledge after this 'ere, I will&mdash;I'll go to chapel Sundays reg'lar!"</p>
+
+<p>"Let's see if there ain't something there first," said the practical
+Bill. "Easy with the 'oss up there. Now then," here he stepped on the
+box of the wheel and looked in. "Shin out of this, whatever y'are, we
+don't contrack to carry no imps on this line&mdash;Well, if ever I&mdash;Tommy,
+old man, it's all right, y'ain't got 'em this time&mdash;'ere's yer imp!"</p>
+
+<p>And, reaching over, he hauled out the wretched Paul by the scruff of his
+neck in a state of utter collapse, and deposited him on the ground
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>"That ain't your private kerridge, yer know, that ain't&mdash;there wasn't no
+bed made up there for you, that I know on. You ain't arter no good, now;
+you're a wagabone! that's about your size, I can see&mdash;what d'yer mean by
+it, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Shet yer 'ed, Bill, will yer?" said Tommy, whose relief probably
+softened his temper, "this here's a young gent."</p>
+
+<p>"Young gent, or no young gent," replied Bill sententiously, "he's no
+call to go 'idin' in our waggins and givin' 'ard-workin' men a turn.
+'Old 'im tight, Tommy&mdash;here's the luggage down on us."</p>
+
+<p>Tommy held him fast with a grip of iron, while the other porters coupled
+the trucks, and the luggage train lumbered away with its load.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p><p>After this the men slouched up and stood round their captive, staring
+at him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, my men," said Paul, "I've run away from school, I want to go
+on to town by the next train, and I took the liberty of hiding in the
+truck, because the schoolmaster will be up here very soon to look for
+me&mdash;you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"I understand," said Bill, "and a nice young party <i>you</i> are."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I don't want to be caught," said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Naterally," assented Tommy sympathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, can't you hide me somewhere where he won't see me? Come, you can
+do that?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you say, Bill?" asked Tommy.</p>
+
+<p>"What'll the Guv'nor say?" said Bill dubiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got a little money," urged Paul. "I'll make it worth your while."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you say that afore?" said Bill; "the Guv'nor needn't know."</p>
+
+<p>"Here's half-a-sovereign between you," said Paul, holding it out.</p>
+
+<p>"That's something like a imp," said Tommy warmly; "if all bogeys acted
+as 'andsome as this 'ere, I don't care how often they shows theirselves.
+We'll have a supper on this, mates, and drink young Delirium Trimminses'
+jolly good 'ealth. You come along o' me, young shaver, I'll stow you
+away right enough, and let you out when yer train comes in."</p>
+
+<p>He led Paul on to the platform again and opened a sort of cupboard or
+closet. "That's where we keeps the brooms and lamp-rags, and them," he
+said; "it ain't what you may call tidy, but if I lock you in no one
+won't trouble you."</p>
+
+<p>It was perfectly dark and the rags smelt unpleasantly, but Mr. Bultitude
+was very glad of this second ark of refuge, even though he did bruise
+his legs over the broom-handles; he was gladder still by-and-by, when he
+heard a rapid heavy footfall outside, and a voice he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> knew only too
+well, saying, "I want to see the station-master. Ha, there he is. Good
+evening, station-master, you know me&mdash;Dr. Grimstone, of Crichton House.
+I want you to assist me in a very unpleasant affair&mdash;the fact is, one of
+my pupils has had the folly and wickedness to run away."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say so!" said the station-master.</p>
+
+<p>"It's only too true, I'm sorry to say; he seemed happy and contented
+enough, too; it's a black ungrateful business. But I must catch him, you
+know; he must be about here somewhere, I feel sure. You don't happen to
+have noticed a boy who looked as if he belonged to me? They can't tell
+me at the booking-office."</p>
+
+<p>How glad Paul was now he had made no inquiries of the station-master!</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the latter, "I can't say I have, sir, but some of my men may
+have come across him. I'll inquire&mdash;here, Ing, I want you; this
+gentleman here has lost one of his boys, have you seen him?"</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of a young gentleman was he to look at?" Paul heard Tommy's
+voice ask.</p>
+
+<p>"A bright intelligent-looking boy," said the Doctor, "medium height,
+about thirteen, with auburn hair."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I ain't seen no intelligent boys with median 'eight," said Tommy
+slowly, "not leastways, to speak to positive. What might he 'ave on,
+now, besides his oburn 'air?"</p>
+
+<p>"Black cloth jacket, with a wide collar," was the answer; "grey
+trousers, and a cloth cap with a leather peak."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Tommy, "then I see 'im."</p>
+
+<p>"When&mdash;where?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Bout arf an 'our since."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know where he is now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Tommy, to Paul's intense horror, for he was listening,
+quaking, to every word of this conversation, which was held just outside
+his cupboard door.</p>
+
+<p>"I dessay I could give a guess if I give my mind to it."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p><p>"Out with it, Ing, now, if you know; no tricks," said the
+station-master, who had apparently just turned to go away. "Excuse me,
+sir, but I've some matters in there to see after."</p>
+
+<p>When he had gone, the Doctor said rather heatedly, "Come, you're keeping
+something from me, I <i>will</i> have it out of you. If I find you have
+deceived me, I'll write to the manager and get you sent about your
+business&mdash;you'd better tell me the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"You see," said Tommy, very slowly, and reluctantly, "that young gent o'
+yourn <i>was</i> a gent."</p>
+
+<p>"I tried my very best to render him so," said the Doctor stiffly, "here
+is the result&mdash;how did you discover he was one, pray?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Cos he acted like a gent," said Tommy; "he took and give me a
+'arf-suffering."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll give you another," said the Doctor, "if you can tell me
+where he is."</p>
+
+<p>"Thankee, sir, don't you be afraid&mdash;you're a gent right enough, too,
+though you do 'appen to be a schoolmaster."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the unhappy boy?" interrupted the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Seems as if I was a roundin' on 'im, like, don't it a'most, sir?" said
+Tommy, with too evident symptoms of yielding in his voice. Paul shook so
+in his terror that he knocked down a broom or two with a clatter which
+froze his blood.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," said the Doctor, "not at all, my good fellow;
+you're&mdash;ahem&mdash;advancing the cause of moral order."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, ah," said Tommy, obviously open to conviction. "Well, if I'm a
+doin' all that, I can't go fur wrong, can I? And arter all, we mayn't
+like schools or schoolmasters, not over above, but we can't get on
+without 'em, I s'pose. But, look ye here, sir&mdash;if I goes and tells you
+where you can get hold of this here boy, you won't go and wallop him
+now, will ye?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p><p>"I can make no bargains," said the Doctor; "I shall act on my own
+discretion."</p>
+
+<p>"That's it," said Tommy, unaccountably relieved, "spoke like a merciful
+Christian gen'leman; if you don't go actin' on nothing more nor your
+discretion, you can't hurt him much, I take it. Well then, since you've
+spoke out fair, I don't mind putting you on his track like."</p>
+
+<p>If the door of the cupboard had not been locked, Paul would undoubtedly
+have burst out and yielded himself up, to escape the humiliation of
+being sold like this by a mercenary and treacherous porter. As it was,
+he had to wait till the inevitable words should be spoken.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see," went on Tommy, very slowly, as if struggling with the
+remnants of a conscience, "it was like this here&mdash;he comes up to me, and
+says&mdash;your young gen'leman, I mean&mdash;says he, 'Porter, I wants to 'ide,
+I've run away.' And I says to him, says I, 'It's no use your 'anging
+about 'ere,' I says, ''cause, if you do, your guv'nor (meanin' no
+offence to you, sir) 'll be comin' up and ketchin' of you on the 'op.'
+'Right you are, porter,' says he to me, 'what do you advise?' he says.
+'Well,' I says, 'I don't know as I'm right in givin' you no advice at
+all, havin' run away from them as has the care on you,' I says; 'but if
+<i>I</i> was a young gen'leman as didn't want to be ketched, I should just
+walk on to Dufferton; it ain't on'y three mile or so, and you'll 'ave
+time for to do it before the up-train comes along there.' 'Thankee,
+porter,' he says, 'I'll do that,' and away he bolts, and for anything I
+know, he's 'arf way there by this time."</p>
+
+<p>"A fly!" shouted the Doctor excitedly, when Tommy had come to the end of
+his veracious account. "I'll catch the young rascal now&mdash;who has a good
+horse? Davis, I'll take you. Five shillings if you reach Dufferton
+before the up-train. Take the&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The rest was lost in the banging of the fly door and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> the rumble of
+wheels; the terrible man had been got safely off on a wrong scent, and
+Paul fell back amongst the lumber in his closet, faint with the suspense
+and relief.</p>
+
+<p>Presently he heard Tommy's chuckling whisper through the keyhole: "Are
+you all right in there, sir? he's safe enough now&mdash;orf on a pretty
+dance. You didn't think I was goin' to tell on ye, did ye now? I ain't
+quite sech a cur as that comes to, particular when a young gent saves me
+from the 'orrors, and gives me a 'arf-suffering. I'll see you through,
+you make yourself easy about that."</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour went slowly by for Mr. Bultitude in his darkness and
+solitude. The platform gradually filled, as he could tell by the tread
+of feet, the voices, and the scent of cigars, and at last, welcome
+sound, he heard the station bell ringing for the up-train.</p>
+
+<p>It ran in the next minute, shaking the cupboard in which Paul crouched,
+till the brushes rattled. There was the usual blind hurry and confusion
+outside as it stopped. Paul waited impatiently inside. The time passed,
+and still no one came to let him out. He began to grow alarmed. Could
+Tommy have forgotten him? Had he been sent away by some evil chance at
+the critical moment? Two or three times his excited fancy heard the
+fatal whistle sound for departure. Would he be left behind after all?</p>
+
+<p>But the next instant the door was noiselessly unlocked. "Couldn't do it
+afore," said honest Tommy. "Our guv'nor would have seen me. Now's your
+time. Here's a empty first-class coach I've kept for ye. In with you
+now."</p>
+
+<p>He hoisted Paul up the high footboard to an empty compartment, and shut
+the door, leaving him to sink down on the luxurious cushions in
+speechless and measureless content. But Tommy had hardly done so before
+he reappeared and looked in. "I say," he suggested, "if I was you, I'd
+get under the seat before you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> gets to Dufferton, otherways your
+guv'nor'll be spottin' you. I'll lock you in."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll get under now; some one might see me here," said Paul; and, too
+anxious for safety to thank his preserver, he crawled under the low,
+blue-cushioned seat, which left just room enough for him to lie there in
+a very cramped and uncomfortable position. Still he need not stay there
+after the train had once started, except for five minutes or so at
+Dufferton.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately he had not been long under the seat before he heard two
+loud imperious voices just outside the carriage door.</p>
+
+<p>"Porter! guard! Hi, somebody! open this door, will you; it's locked."</p>
+
+<p>"This way, sir," he heard Tommy's voice say outside. "Plenty of room
+higher up."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to go higher up. I'll go here. Just open it at once, I
+tell you."</p>
+
+<p>The door was opened reluctantly, and two middle-aged men came in.
+"Always take the middle carriage of a train," said the first. "Safest in
+any accident, y'know. Never heard of a middle carriage of a train
+getting smashed up, to speak of."</p>
+
+<p>The other sat heavily down just over Paul, with a comfortable grunt, and
+the train started, Paul feeling naturally annoyed by this intrusion, as
+it compelled him to remain in seclusion for the whole of the journey.
+"Still," he thought, "it is lucky that I had time to get under here
+before they came in; it would have seemed odd if I had done it
+afterwards." And he resigned himself to listen to the conversation which
+followed.</p>
+
+<p>"What was it we were talking about just now?" began the first. "Let me
+see. Ah! I remember. Yes; it was a very painful thing&mdash;very, indeed, I
+assure you."</p>
+
+<p>There is a certain peculiar and uncomfortable suspicion that attacks
+most of us at times, which cannot fairly be set down wholly to
+self-consciousness or an exaggerated idea of our own importance. I mean
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> suspicion that a partly-heard conversation must have ourselves for
+its subject. More often than not, of course, it proves utterly
+unfounded, but once in a way, like most presentiments, it finds itself
+unpleasantly fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude, though he failed to recognise either of the voices, was
+somehow persuaded that the conversation had something to do with
+himself, and listened with eager attention.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," the speaker continued; "he was never, according to what I hear, a
+man of any extraordinary capacity, but he was always spoken of as a man
+of standing in the City, doing a safe business, not a risky one, and so
+on, you know. So, of course, his manner, when I called, shocked me all
+the more."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said the other. "Was he violent or insulting, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! I can only describe his conduct as eccentric&mdash;what one might
+call reprehensibly eccentric and extravagant. I didn't call exactly in
+the way of business, but about a poor young fellow in my house, who is,
+I fear, rather far gone in consumption, and, knowing he was a Life
+Governor, y'know, I thought he might give me a letter for the hospital.
+Well, when I got up to Mincing Lane&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Paul started. It was as he had feared, then; they <i>were</i> speaking of
+him!</p>
+
+<p>"When I got there, I sent in my card with a message that, if he was
+engaged or anything, I would take the liberty of calling at his private
+house, and so on. But they said he would see me. The clerk who showed me
+in said: 'You'll find him a good deal changed, if you knew him, sir.
+We're very uneasy about him here,' which prepared me for something out
+of the common. Well, I went into a sort of inner room, and there he was,
+in his shirt-sleeves, busy over some abomination he was cooking at the
+stove, with the office-boy helping him! I never was so taken aback in my
+life. I said something about calling another time, but Bultitude&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p><p>Paul groaned. The blow had fallen. Well, it was better to be prepared
+and know the worst.</p>
+
+<p>"Bultitude says, just like a great awkward schoolboy, y'know, 'What's
+your name? How d'ye do? Have some hardbake, it's just done?' Fancy
+finding a man in his position cooking toffee in the middle of the day,
+and offering it to a perfect stranger!"</p>
+
+<p>"Softening of the brain&mdash;must be," said the other.</p>
+
+<p>"I fear so. Well, he asked what I wanted, and I told him, and he
+actually said he never did any business now, except sign his name where
+his clerks told him. He'd worked hard all his life, he said, and he was
+tired of it. Business was, I understood him to say, 'all rot!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Then he wouldn't promise me votes or give me a letter or anything,
+without consulting his head clerk; he seemed to know nothing whatever
+about it himself, and when that was over, he asked me a quantity of
+frivolous questions which appeared to have a sort of catch in them, as
+far as I could gather, and he was exceedingly angry when I wouldn't
+humour him."</p>
+
+<p>"What kind of questions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, really I hardly know. I believe he wanted to know whether I would
+rather be a bigger fool than I looked or look a bigger fool than I was,
+and he pressed me quite earnestly to repeat some foolishness after him,
+about 'being a gold key,' when he said 'he was a gold lock,' I was very
+glad to get away from him, it was so distressing."</p>
+
+<p>"They tell me he has begun to speculate, too, lately," said the other.
+"You see his name about in some very queer things. It's a pitiful affair
+altogether."</p>
+
+<p>Paul writhed under his seat with shame. How could he, even if he
+succeeded in ousting Dick and getting back his old self, how could he
+ever hold up his head again after this?</p>
+
+<p>Why, Dick must be mad. Even a schoolboy would have had more caution when
+so much depended on it. But none would suspect the real cause of the
+change.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> These horrible tales were no doubt being circulated everywhere!</p>
+
+<p>The conversation fell back into a less personal channel again after
+this; they talked of "risks," of some one who had only been "writing" a
+year and was doing seven thousand a week, of losses they had been "on,"
+and of the uselessness of "writing five hundred on everything," and
+while at this point the train slackened and stopped&mdash;they had reached
+Dufferton.</p>
+
+<p>There was an opening of doors all along the train, and sounds of some
+inquiry and answer at each. The voices became audible at length, and, as
+he had expected, Paul found that the Doctor, not having discovered him
+on the platform, was making a systematic search of the train, evidently
+believing that he had managed to slip in somewhere unobserved.</p>
+
+<p>It was a horrible moment when the door of his compartment was flung open
+and a stream of ice-cold air rushed under the blue cloth which,
+fortunately for Paul, hung down almost to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>Some one held a lantern up outside, and by its rays Paul saw from behind
+the hanging the upper half of Dr. Grimstone appear, very pale and
+polite, at the doorway. He remained there for some moments without
+speaking, carefully examining every corner of the compartment.</p>
+
+<p>The two men on the seats drew their wraps about them and shivered, until
+at length one said rather testily&mdash;"Get in, sir; kindly get in if you're
+coming on, please. This draught is most unpleasant!"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not propose to travel by this train, sir," said the Doctor; "but,
+as a person entrusted with the care of youth, permit me to inquire
+whether you have seen (or, it may be assisted to conceal) a small boy of
+intelligent appearance&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why should we conceal small boys of intelligent appearance about us,
+pray?" demanded the man who had described his visit to Mincing Lane.
+"And may we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> ask you to shut that door, and make any communications you
+wish to make through the window, or else come in and sit down?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's not an answer to my question, sir," retorted the Doctor. "I
+notice you carefully decline to say whether you have seen a boy. I
+consider your manner suspicious, sir; and I shall insist on searching
+this carriage through and through till I find that boy!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude rolled himself up close against the partition at these
+awful words.</p>
+
+<p>"Guard, guard!" shouted the first gentleman. "Come here. Here's a
+violent person who will search this carriage for something he has lost.
+I won't be inconvenienced in this way without any reason whatever! He
+says we're hiding a boy in here!"</p>
+
+<p>"Guard!" said the Doctor, quite as angrily, "I insist upon looking under
+these seats before you start the train. I've looked through every other
+carriage and he must be in here. Gentlemen, let me pass, I'll get him if
+I have to travel in this compartment to town with you!"</p>
+
+<p>"For peace and quietness sake, gentlemen," said the guard, "let him look
+round, just to ease his mind. Lend me your stick a minute, sir, please.
+I'll turn him out if he's anywhere about this here compartment!"</p>
+
+<p>And with this he pulled Dr. Grimstone down from the footboard and
+mounted it himself; after which he began to rummage about under the
+seats with the Doctor's heavy stick.</p>
+
+<p>Every lunge found out some tender part in Mr. Bultitude's person and
+caused him exquisite torture; but he clenched his teeth hard to prevent
+a sound, while he thought each fresh dig must betray his whereabouts.</p>
+
+<p>"There," said the guard at last; "there really ain't no one there, sir,
+you see. I've felt everywhere and&mdash;&mdash; Hello, I certainly did feel
+something just then, gentlemen!" he added, in an undertone, after a
+lunge which took all the breath out of Paul's body. All was lost now!</p>
+
+<p>"You touch that again with that confounded stick if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> you dare!" said one
+of the passengers. "That's a parcel of mine. I won't have you poking
+holes through it in that way. Don't tell that lunatic behind you, he'll
+be wanting it opened to see if his boy's inside! Now perhaps you'll let
+us alone!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir," said the guard at last to the Doctor, as he withdrew, "he
+ain't in there. There's nothing under any of the seats. Your boy'll be
+comin' on by the next train, most likely&mdash;the 8.40. We're all behind.
+Right!"</p>
+
+<p>"Good night, sir," said the first passenger as he leant out of the
+window, to the baffled schoolmaster on the platform. "You've put us to
+all this inconvenience for nothing, and in the most offensive way too. I
+hope you won't find your boy till you're in a better temper, for his
+sake."</p>
+
+<p>"If I had you out on this platform, sir," shouted the angry Doctor, "I'd
+horsewhip you for that insult. I believe the boy's there and you know
+it. I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But the train swept off and, to Paul's joy and thankfulness, soon left
+the Doctor, gesticulating and threatening, miles behind it.</p>
+
+<p>"What a violent fellow for a schoolmaster, eh?" said one of Paul's
+companions, when they were fairly off again. "I wasn't going to have him
+turning the cushions inside out here; we shouldn't have settled down
+again before we got in!"</p>
+
+<p>"No; and if the guard hasn't, as it is, injured that Indian shawl in my
+parcel, I shall be&mdash;&mdash; Why, bless my soul, that parcel's not under the
+seat after all! It's up in the rack. I remember putting it there now."</p>
+
+<p>"The guard must have fancied he felt something; and yet&mdash;&mdash; Look here,
+Goldicutt; just feel under here with your feet. It certainly does seem
+as if something soft was&mdash;eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Goldicutt accordingly explored Paul's ribs with his boot for some
+moments, which was very painful.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word," he said at last, "it really does seem very like it. It's
+not hard enough for a bag or a hat-box.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> It yields distinctly when you
+kick it. Can you fetch it out with your umbrella, do you think? Shall we
+tell the guard at the next&mdash;&mdash;? Lord, it's coming out of its own accord.
+It's a dog! No, my stars&mdash;it's the boy, after all!"</p>
+
+<p>For Paul, alarmed at the suggestion about the guard, once more felt
+inclined to risk the worst and reveal himself. Begrimed with coal,
+smeared with whitewash, and covered with dust and flue, he crawled
+slowly out and gazed imploringly up at his fellow-passengers.</p>
+
+<p>After the first shock of surprise they lay back in their seats and
+laughed till they cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you young rascal!" they said, when they recovered breath, "you
+don't mean to say you've been under there the whole time?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have indeed," said Paul. "I&mdash;I didn't like to come out before."</p>
+
+<p>"And are you the boy all this fuss was about? Yes? And we kept the
+schoolmaster off without knowing it! Why, this is splendid, capital!
+You're something like a boy, you little dog, you! This is the best joke
+I've heard for many a day!"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," said Paul, "I haven't inconvenienced you. I could not help it,
+really."</p>
+
+<p>"Inconvenienced us? Gad, your schoolmaster came very near
+inconveniencing us and you too. But there, he won't trouble any of us
+now. To think of our swearing by all our gods there was no boy in here,
+and vowing he shouldn't come in, while you were lying down there under
+the seat all the time! Why, it's lovely! The boy's got pluck and manners
+too. Shake hands, young gentleman, you owe us no apologies. I haven't
+had such a laugh for many a day!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you&mdash;you won't give me up?" faltered poor Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the one who was called Goldicutt, and who was a jovial old
+gentleman with a pink face and white whiskers, "we're not exactly going
+to take the trouble of getting out at the next station, and bringing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>
+you back to Dufferton, just to oblige that hot-tempered master of yours,
+you know; he hasn't been so particularly civil as to deserve that."</p>
+
+<p>"But if he were to telegraph and get some one to stop me at St.
+Pancras?" said Paul nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, he might do that, to be sure&mdash;sharp boy this&mdash;well, as we've gone
+so far, I suppose we must go through with the business now and smuggle
+the young scamp past the detectives, eh, Travers?"</p>
+
+<p>The younger man addressed assented readily enough, for the Doctor had
+been so unfortunate as to prejudice them both from the first by his
+unjustifiable suspicions, and it is to be feared they had no scruples in
+helping to outwit him.</p>
+
+<p>Then they noticed the pitiable state Mr. Bultitude was in, and he had to
+give them a fair account of his escape and subsequent adventures, at
+which even their sympathy could not restrain delighted shouts of
+laughter&mdash;though Paul himself saw little enough in it all to laugh at;
+they asked his name, which he thought more prudent, for various reasons,
+to give as "Jones," and other details, which I am afraid he invented as
+he went on, and altogether they reached Kentish Town in a state of high
+satisfaction with themselves and their prot&eacute;g&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p>At Kentish Town there was one more danger to be encountered, for with
+the ticket collector there appeared one of the station inspectors. "Beg
+pardon, gentlemen," said the latter, peering curiously in, "but does
+that young gent in the corner happen to belong to either of you?"</p>
+
+<p>The white-whiskered gentleman seemed a little flustered at this
+downright inquiry, but the other was more equal to the occasion. "Do you
+hear that, Johnny, my boy," he said, to Paul (whom they had managed
+during the journey to brush and scrape into something approaching
+respectability), "they want to know if you belong to me. I suppose
+you'll allow a son to belong to his father to a certain extent, eh?" he
+asked the inspector.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p><p>The man apologised for what he conceived to be a mistake. "We've orders
+to look out for a young gent about the size of yours, sir," he
+explained; "no offence meant, I'm sure," and he went away satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>A very few minutes more and the train rolled in to the terminus, under
+the same wide arch beneath which Paul had stood, helpless and
+bewildered, a week ago.</p>
+
+<p>"Now my advice to you, young man," said Mr. Goldicutt, as he put Paul
+into a cab, and pressed half-a-sovereign into his unwilling hand, "is to
+go straight home to Papa and tell him all about it. I daresay he won't
+be very hard on you&mdash;here's my card, refer him to me if you like.
+Good-night, my boy, good-night, and good luck to you. Gad, the best joke
+I've had for years!"</p>
+
+<p>And the cab rolled away, leaving them standing chuckling on the
+platform, and, as Paul found himself plunging once more into the welcome
+roar and rattle of London streets, he forgot the difficulties and
+dangers that might yet lie before him in the thought that at last he was
+beyond the frontier, and, for the first time since he had slipped
+through the playground gate, he breathed freely.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="A_Perfidious_Ally" id="A_Perfidious_Ally"></a>17. <i>A Perfidious Ally</i></h2>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"But homeward&mdash;home&mdash;what home? had he a home?</div>
+<div>His home&mdash;he walk'd;</div>
+<div>Then down the long street having slowly stolen,</div>
+<div>His heart foreshadowing all calamity,</div>
+<div>His eyes upon the stones, he reached his home."</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Paul had been careful, whilst in the hearing of his friends, to give the
+cabman a fictitious address, but as soon as he reached the Euston Road,
+he stopped the man and ordered him to put him down at the church near
+the south end of Westbourne Terrace, for he dared not drive up openly to
+his own door.</p>
+
+<p>At last he found himself standing safely on the pavement, looking down
+the long line of yellow lamps of his own terrace, only a few hundred
+yards from home.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p><p>But though his purpose was now within easy reach, his spirits were far
+from high; his anxiety had returned with tenfold power; he felt no
+eagerness or exultation; on the contrary, the task he had set himself
+had never before seemed so hopeless, so insurmountable.</p>
+
+<p>He stood for some time by the railing of the church, which was lighted
+up for evening service, listening blankly to the solemn drone of the
+organ within, unable to summon up resolution to move from the spot and
+present himself to his unsuspecting family.</p>
+
+<p>It was a cold night, with a howling wind, and high in the blue black sky
+fleecy clouds were coursing swiftly along; he obliged himself to set out
+at last, and walked down the flags towards his house, shivering as much
+from nervousness as cold.</p>
+
+<p>There was a dance somewhere in the terrace that evening, a large one; as
+far as he could see there were close ranks of carriages with blazing
+lamps, and he even fancied he could hear the shouts of the link-boys and
+the whistles summoning cabs.</p>
+
+<p>As he came nearer, he had a hideous suspicion, which soon became a
+certainty, that the entertainment was at his own house; worse still, it
+was of a kind and on a scale calculated to shock and horrify any prudent
+householder and father of a family.</p>
+
+<p>The balcony above the portico was positively hung with gaudy Chinese
+lanterns, and there were even some strange sticks and shapes up in one
+corner that looked suspiciously like fireworks. Fireworks in Westbourne
+Terrace! What would the neighbours think or do?</p>
+
+<p>Between the wall which separates the main road from the terrace and the
+street front there were no less than four piano-organs, playing, it is
+to be feared, by express invitation; and there was the usual crowd of
+idlers and loungers standing about by the awning stretched over the
+portico, listening to the music and loud laughter which came from the
+brilliantly lighted upper rooms.</p>
+
+<p>Paul remembered then, too late, that Barbara in that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> memorable letter
+of hers had mentioned a grand children's party as being in
+contemplation. Dick had held his tongue about it that morning; and he
+himself had not thought it was to be so soon.</p>
+
+<p>For an instant he felt almost inclined to turn away and give the whole
+thing up in sick despair&mdash;even to return to Market Rodwell and brave the
+Doctor's anger; for how could he hope to explain matters to his family
+and servants, or get the Garud&acirc; Stone safely into his hands again before
+all these guests, in the whirl and tumult of an evening party?</p>
+
+<p>And yet he dared not, after all, go back to Crichton House&mdash;that was too
+terrible an alternative, and he obviously could not roam the world to
+any extent, a runaway schoolboy to all appearance, and with less than a
+sovereign in his pocket!</p>
+
+<p>After a short struggle, he felt he must make his way in, watch and wait,
+and leave the rest to chance. It was his evil fate, after all, that had
+led him on to make his escape on this night of all others, and had
+allowed him to come through so much, only to be met with these
+unforeseen complications just when he might have imagined the worst was
+over.</p>
+
+<p>He forced his way through the staring crowd, and went down the steps
+into the area; for he naturally shrank from braving the front door, with
+its crowd of footmen and hired waiters.</p>
+
+<p>He found the door in the basement open, which was fortunate, and slipped
+quietly through the pantry, intending to reach the hall by the kitchen
+stairs. But here another check met him. The glass door which led to the
+stairs happened to be shut, and he heard voices in the kitchen, which
+convinced him that if he wished to escape notice he must wait quietly in
+the darkness until the door was opened for him, whenever that might be.</p>
+
+<p>The door from the pantry to the kitchen was partly open, however, and
+Mr. Bultitude could not avoid hearing everything that passed there,
+although every fresh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> word added to his uneasiness, until at last he
+would have given worlds to escape from his involuntary position of
+eavesdropper.</p>
+
+<p>There were only two persons just then in the kitchen: his cook, who,
+still in her working dress, was refreshing herself after her labours
+over the supper with a journal of some sort, and the housemaid, who, in
+neat gala costume, was engaged in fastening a pin more securely in her
+white cap.</p>
+
+<p>"They haven't give me a answer yet, Eliza," said the cook, looking up
+from her paper.</p>
+
+<p>"Lor, cook!" said Eliza, "you couldn't hardly expect it, seeing you only
+wrote on Friday."</p>
+
+<p>"No more I did, Eliza. You see it on'y began to come into my mind sudden
+like this last week. I'm sure I no more dreamt&mdash;&mdash;. But they've answered
+a lady who's bin in much the same situation as me aperiently. You just
+'ark to this a minute." And she proceeded to read from her paper:
+"'<i>Lady Bird.</i>&mdash;You ask us (1) what are the signs by which you may
+recognise the first dawnings of your lover's affection. On so delicate a
+matter we are naturally averse from advising you; your own heart must be
+your best guide. But perhaps we may mention a few of the most usual and
+infallible symptoms'&mdash;What sort of a thing is a symptim, Eliza?"</p>
+
+<p>"A symptim, cook," explained Eliza, "is somethink wrong with the inside.
+Her at my last place in Cadogan Square had them uncommon bad. She was
+what they call &aelig;sthetical, pore young thing. Them infallible ones are
+always the worst."</p>
+
+<p>"It don't seem to make sense though, Eliza," objected cook doubtfully.
+"Hear how it goes on: 'Infallible symptoms. If you have truly inspired
+him with a genuine and lasting passion' (don't he write beautiful?)
+'passion, he will continually haunt those places in which you are most
+likely to be found' (I couldn't tell you the times master's bin down in
+my kitching this last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> week); 'he will appear awkward and constrained in
+your presence' (anything more awkward than master <i>I</i> never set eyes on.
+He's knocked down one of the best porcelain vegetables this very
+afternoon!); 'he will beg for any little favours, some trifle, it may
+be, made by your own hand' (master's always a-asking if I've got any of
+those doughnuts to give away); 'and, if granted, he will treasure them
+in secret with pride and rapture' (I don't think master kep' any of them
+doughnuts though, Eliza. I saw him swaller five; but you couldn't
+treasure a doughnut, not to mention&mdash;&mdash; I'll make him a pincushion when
+I've time, and see what he does with it). 'If you detect all these
+indications of liking in the person you suspect of paying his addresses
+to you, you may safely reckon upon bringing him to your feet in a very
+short space of time. (2) Yes, fuller's earth will make them exquisitely
+white.'"</p>
+
+<p>"There, Eliza!" said cook, with some pride, when she had finished; "if
+it had been meant for me it couldn't have been clearer. Ain't it written
+nice? And on'y to think of my bringing master to my feet! It seems
+almost too much for a cook to expect!"</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't say so, cook; I wouldn't. Have some proper pride. Don't let
+him think he's only to ask and have! Why, in the <i>London Journal</i> last
+week there was a dook as married a governess; and I should 'ope as a
+cook ranked above a governess. Nor yet master ain't a dook; he's only in
+the City! But are you sure he's not only a-trifling with your
+affections, cook? He's bin very affable and pleasant with all of us
+lately."</p>
+
+<p>"It ain't for me to speak too positive, Eliza," said cook almost
+bashfully, "nor to lay bare the feelings of a bosom, beyond what's right
+and proper. You're young yet, Eliza, and don't understand these
+things&mdash;leastways, it's to be hoped not" (Eliza having apparently tossed
+her head); "but do you remember that afternoon last week as master
+stayed at home a-playin' games with the children? I was a-goin' upstairs
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> fetch my thimble, and there, on the bedroom landin', was master all
+alone, with one of Master Dick's toy-guns in his 'and, and a old slouch
+'at on his head.</p>
+
+<p>"'Have you got a pass, cook?' he says, and my 'art came right up into my
+mouth, he looked that severe and lofty at me. I thought he was put out
+about something."</p>
+
+<p>"I said I didn't know as it was required, but I could get one, I says,
+not knowing what he was alludin' to all the same."</p>
+
+<p>"But he says, quite soft and tender-like," (here Paul shivered with
+shame), "'No, you needn't do that, cook, there ain't any occasion for
+it; only,' he says, 'if you haven't got no pass, you'll have to give me
+a kiss, you know, cook!' I thought I should have sunk through the
+stairs, I was that overcome. I saw through his rouge with half an eye."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, he said the same to me," said Eliza, "only I had a pass, as luck
+had it, which Miss Barbara give me. I'd ha' boxed his ears if he'd tried
+it, too, master or no master!"</p>
+
+<p>"You talk light, Eliza," said the cook sentimentally, "but you weren't
+there to see. It wasn't only the words, it was the way he said it, and
+the 'ug he gave me at the time. It was as good as a proposial. And, I
+tell you, whatever you may say&mdash;and mark my words&mdash;I 'ave 'opes!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then, if I was you, cook," said Eliza, "I'd try if I could get him to
+speak out plain in writing; then, whatever came of it, there'd be as
+good as five hundred pounds in your pockets."</p>
+
+<p>"Love-letters!" cried the cook, "why, Lord love you, Eliza&mdash;&mdash; Why,
+William, how you made me jump! I thought you was up seein' to the
+supper-table."</p>
+
+<p>"The pastrycook's man is looking after all that, Jane," said Boaler's
+voice. "I've been up outside the droring-room all this time, lookin' at
+the games goin' on in there. It's as good as a play to see the way as
+master<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> is a unbendin' of himself, and such a out and out stiff-un as he
+used to be, too! But it ain't what I like to see in a respectable house.
+I'm glad I give warning. It doesn't do for a man in my position to
+compromise his character by such goings on. I never see anything like it
+in any families I lived with before. Just come up and see for yourself.
+You needn't mind about cleanin' of yourself&mdash;they won't see you."</p>
+
+<p>So the cook allowed herself to be persuaded by Boaler, and the two went
+up to the hall, and, to Mr. Bultitude's intense relief, forgot to close
+the glazed door which cut him off from the staircase.</p>
+
+<p>As he followed them upstairs at a cautious interval, and thought over
+what he had just so unwillingly overheard, he felt as one who had just
+been subjected to a moral showerbath. "That dreadful woman!" he groaned.
+"Who would have dreamed that she would get such horrible ideas into her
+head? I shall never be able to look either of those women in the face
+again: they will both have to go&mdash;and she made such excellent soup, too.
+I do hope that miserable Dick has not been fool enough to write to
+her&mdash;but no, that's too absurd."</p>
+
+<p>But more than ever he began to wish that he had stayed in the
+playground.</p>
+
+<p>When he reached the hall he stood there for some moments in anxious
+deliberation over his best course of proceeding. His main idea was to
+lie in wait somewhere for Dick, and try the result of an appeal to his
+better feelings to acknowledge his outcast parent and abdicate
+gracefully.</p>
+
+<p>If that failed, and there was every reason to expect that it would fail,
+he must threaten to denounce him before the whole party. It would cause
+a considerable scandal no doubt, and be extremely repugnant to his own
+feelings, but still he must do it, or frighten Dick by threatening to do
+it, and at all hazards he must contrive during the interview to snatch
+or purloin the magic stone; without that he was practically helpless.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p><p>He looked round him: the study was piled up with small boys' hats and
+coats, and in one corner was a kind of refined bar, where till lately a
+trim housemaid had been dispensing coffee and weak lemonade; she might
+return at any moment, he would not be safe there.</p>
+
+<p>Nor would the dining-room be more secluded, for in it there was an
+elaborate supper being laid out by the waiters which, as far as he could
+see through the crack in the door, consisted chiefly of lobsters,
+trifle, and pink champagne. He felt a grim joy at the sight, more than
+he would suffer for this night's festivities.</p>
+
+<p>As he stole about, with a dismal sense of the unfitness of his sneaking
+about his own house in this guilty fashion, he became gradually aware of
+the scent of a fine cigar, one of his own special Caba&ntilde;as. He wondered
+who had the impudence to trespass on his cigar-chest; it could hardly be
+one of the children.</p>
+
+<p>He traced the scent to a billiard room which he had built out at the
+side of the house, which was a corner one, and going down to the door
+opened it sharply and walked in.</p>
+
+<p>Comfortably imbedded in the depths of a long well-padded lounging chair,
+with a spirit case and two or three bottles of soda water at his elbow,
+sat a man who was lazily glancing through the <i>Field</i> with his feet
+resting on the mantelpiece, one on each side of the blazing fire. He was
+a man of about the middle size, with a face rather bronzed and reddened
+by climate, a nose slightly aquiline and higher in colour, quick black
+eyes with an uneasy glance in them, bushy black whiskers, more like the
+antiquated "Dundreary" type than modern fashion permits, and a wide
+flexible mouth.</p>
+
+<p>Paul knew him at once, though he had not seen him for some years; it was
+Paradine, his disreputable brother-in-law&mdash;the "Uncle Marmaduke" who, by
+importing the mysterious Garud&acirc; Stone, had brought all these woes upon
+him; he noticed at once that his appearance was unusually prosperous,
+and that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> braided smoking coat he wore over his evening clothes was
+new and handsome. "No wonder," he thought bitterly, "the fellow has been
+living on me for a week!" He stood by the cue-rack looking at him for
+some time, and then he said with a cold ironic dignity that (if he had
+known it) came oddly from his boyish lips: "I hope you are making
+yourself quite comfortable?"</p>
+
+<p>Marmaduke put down his cigar and stared: "Uncommonly attentive and
+polite of you to inquire," he said at last, with a dubious smile, which
+showed a row of very white teeth, "whoever you are. If it will relieve
+your mind at all to know, young man, I'm happy to say I am tolerably
+comfortable, thanks."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I concluded as much," said Paul, nearly choked with rage.</p>
+
+<p>"You've been very nicely brought up," said Uncle Marmaduke, "I can see
+that at a glance. So you've come in here, like me, eh? because the
+children bore you, and you want a quiet gossip over the world in
+general? Sit down then, take a cigar, if you don't think it will make
+you very unwell. I shouldn't recommend it myself, you know, before
+supper&mdash;but you're a man of the world and know what's good for you. Come
+along, enjoy yourself till you find yourself getting queer&mdash;then drop
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude had always detested the man&mdash;there was an underbred
+swagger and familiarity in his manner that made him indescribably
+offensive; just now he seemed doubly detestable, and yet Paul by a
+strong effort succeeded in controlling his temper.</p>
+
+<p>He could not afford to make enemies just then, and objectionable as the
+man was, his astuteness made him a valuable ally; he determined, without
+considering the risk of making such a confident, to tell him all and ask
+his advice and help.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know me, Paradine?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I have the privilege&mdash;you're one of Miss Barbara's
+numerous young friends, I suppose?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> and yet, now I look at you, you
+don't seem to be exactly got up for an evening party; there's something
+in your voice, too, I ought to know."</p>
+
+<p>"You ought," said Paul, with a gulp. "My name is Paul Bultitude!"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure!" cried Marmaduke. "By Jove, then, you're my young nephew,
+don't you know; I'm your long-lost uncle, my boy, I am indeed (I'll
+excuse you from coming to my arms, however; I never was good at family
+embraces). But, I say, you little rascal, you've never been asked to
+these festivities, you ought to be miles away, fast asleep in your bed
+at school. What in the name of wonder are you doing here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've&mdash;left school," said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"So I perceive. Sulky because they left you out of all this, eh? Thought
+you'd turn up in the middle of the banquet, like the spectre
+bridegroom&mdash;'the worms they crawled in, and the worms they crawled out,'
+eh? Well, I like your pluck, but, ahem&mdash;I'm afraid you'll find they've
+rather an unpleasant way of laying your kind of apparitions."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind about that," said Paul hurriedly; "I have something I must
+tell you&mdash;I've no time to lose. I'm a desperate man!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are," Paradine assented with a loud laugh, "oh, you are indeed! 'a
+desperate man.' Capital! a stern chase, eh? the schoolmaster close
+behind with the birch! It's quite exciting, you know, but, seriously,
+I'm very much afraid you'll catch it!"</p>
+
+<p>"If," began Mr. Bultitude in great embarrassment, "if I was to tell you
+that I was not myself at all&mdash;but somebody else, a&mdash;in fact, an entirely
+different person from what I seem to you to be&mdash;I suppose you would
+laugh?"</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," said his brother-in-law politely, "I don't think I
+quite catch the idea."</p>
+
+<p>"When I assure you now, solemnly, as I stand here before you, that I am
+not the miserable boy whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> form I am condemned to&mdash;to wear, you'll say
+it is incredible?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all&mdash;by no means, I quite believe you. Only (really it's a mere
+detail), but I should rather like to know, if you're not that particular
+boy, what other boy you may happen to be. You'll forgive my curiosity."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not a boy at all&mdash;I'm your own unhappy brother-in-law, Paul! You
+don't believe me, I see."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, pardon me, it's perfectly clear! you're not your own son, but your
+own father&mdash;it's a little confusing at first, but no doubt common
+enough. I'm glad you mentioned it, though."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," said Paul bitterly, "make light of it&mdash;you fancy you are being
+very clever, but you will find out the truth in time!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not without external assistance, I'm afraid," said Paradine calmly. "A
+more awful little liar for your age I never saw!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm tired of this," said Paul. "Only listen to reason and common
+sense!"</p>
+
+<p>"Only give me a chance."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you," protested Paul earnestly, "it's the sober awful truth&mdash;I'm
+not a boy, it's years since I was a boy&mdash;I'm a middle-aged man, thrust
+into this, this humiliating form."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say that," murmured the other; "it's an excellent fit&mdash;very
+becoming, I assure you."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want to drive me mad with your clumsy jeers?" cried Paul. "Look
+at me. Do I speak, do I behave, like an ordinary schoolboy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I really hope not&mdash;for the sake of the rising generation," said Uncle
+Marmaduke, chuckling at his own powers of repartee.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very jaunty to-day&mdash;you look as if you were well off," said
+Paul slowly. "I remember a time when a certain bill was presented to me,
+drawn by you, and appearing to be accepted (long before I ever saw it)
+by me. I consented to meet it for my poor Maria's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> sake, and because to
+disown my signature would have ruined you for life. Do you remember how
+you went down on your knees in my private room and swore you would
+reform and be a credit to your family yet? You weren't quite so well
+off, or so jaunty then, unless I am very much mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>These words had an extraordinary effect upon Uncle Marmaduke; he turned
+ashy white, and his quick eyes shifted restlessly as he half rose from
+his chair and threw away his unfinished cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"You young hound!" he said, breathing hard and speaking under his
+breath. "How did you get hold of that&mdash;that lying story? Your father
+must have let it out! Why do you bring up bygones like this? You&mdash;you're
+a confounded, disagreeable little prig! Who told you to play an
+ill-natured trick of this sort on an uncle, who may have been wild and
+reckless in his youth&mdash;was in fact&mdash;but who never, never misused his
+relation towards you as&mdash;as an uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"How did I get hold of the story?" said Paul, observing the impression
+he had made. "Do you think if I were really a boy of thirteen I should
+know as much about you as I do? Do you want to know more? Ask, if you
+dare! Shall I tell you how it was you left your army coach without going
+up for examination? Will you have the story of your career in my old
+friend Parkinson's counting-house, or the real reason of your trip to
+New York, or what it was that made your father add that codicil, cutting
+you off with a set of engravings of the 'Rake's Progress,' and a guinea
+to pay for framing them? I can tell you all about it, if you care to
+hear."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" shrieked Paradine, "I won't listen. When you grow up, ask your
+father to buy you a cheap Society journal. You're cut out for an editor
+of one. It doesn't interest me."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you believe my story or not?" asked Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. Who could believe it?" said the other sullenly. "How can
+you possibly account for it?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p><p>"Do you remember giving Maria a little sandal-wood box with a small
+stone in it?" said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"I have some recollection of giving her something of that kind. A
+curiosity, wasn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had never seen it. That infernal stone, Paradine, has done all
+this to me. Did no one tell you it was supposed to have any magic
+power?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, now I think of it, that old black rascal, Bindabun Doss, did try
+to humbug me with some such story; said it was believed to be a
+talisman, but the secret was lost. I thought it was just his stingy way
+of trying to make the rubbish out as something priceless, as it ought to
+have been, considering all I did for the old ruffian."</p>
+
+<p>"You told Maria it was a talisman. Bindabun what's-his-name was right.
+It is a talisman of the deadliest sort. I'll soon convince you, if you
+will only hear me out."</p>
+
+<p>And then, in white-hot wrath and indignation, Mr. Bultitude began to
+tell the story I have already attempted to sketch here, dwelling
+bitterly on Dick's heartless selfishness and cruelty, and piteously on
+his own incredible sufferings, while Uncle Marmaduke, lolling back in
+his armchair with an attempt (which was soon abandoned) to retain a
+smile of amused scepticism on his face, heard him out in complete
+silence and with all due gravity.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Paul's manner left him no room for further unbelief. His tale,
+wild and improbable as it was, was too consistent and elaborate for any
+schoolboy to have invented, and, besides, the imposture would have been
+so entirely purposeless.</p>
+
+<p>When his brother-in-law had come to the end of his sad history, Paradine
+was silent for some time. It was some relief to know that the darkest
+secrets of his life had not been ferreted out by a phenomenally sharp
+nephew; but the change in the situation was not without its
+drawbacks&mdash;it remained to be seen how it might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> affect himself. He
+already saw his reign in Westbourne Terrace threatened with a speedy
+determination unless he played his cards well.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said at last, with a swift, keen glance at Paul, who sat
+anxiously waiting for his next words; "suppose I were to say that I
+think there may be something in this story of yours, what then? What is
+it you want me to do for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why," said Paul, "with all you owe to me, now you know the horrible
+injustice I have had to bear, you surely don't mean to say that you
+won't help me to right myself?"</p>
+
+<p>"And if I did help you, what then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I should be able to recover all I have lost, of course," said Mr.
+Bultitude. He thought his brother-in-law had grown very dull.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but I mean, what's to become of <i>me</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"You?" repeated Paul (he had not thought of that). "Well, hum, from what
+I know and what you know that I know about your past life, you can't
+expect me to encourage you to remain here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Uncle Marmaduke. "Of course not; very right and proper."</p>
+
+<p>"But," said Paul, willing to make all reasonable concessions, "anything
+I can do to advance your prospects&mdash;such as paying your passage out to
+New York, you know, and so on&mdash;I should be very ready to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you!" said the other.</p>
+
+<p>"And even, if necessary, provide you with a small fund to start afresh
+upon&mdash;honestly," said Paul; "you will not find me difficult to deal
+with."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a dazzling proposition," remarked Paradine drily. "You have such
+an alluring way of putting things. But the fact, is, you'll hardly
+believe it, but I'm remarkably well off here. I am indeed. Your son, you
+know, though not you (except as a mere matter of form), really makes, as
+they say of the marmalade in the advertisements, an admirable
+substitute. I doubt, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> do assure you, whether you yourself would have
+received me with quite the same warmth and hospitality I have met with
+from him."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I," said Paul; "very much."</p>
+
+<p>"Just so; for, without your admirable business capacity and
+extraordinary firmness of character, you know, he has, if you'll excuse
+my saying so, a more open guileless nature, a more entire and touching
+faith in his fellow-man and brother-in-law, than were ever yours."</p>
+
+<p>"To say that to me," said Paul hotly, "is nothing less than sheer
+impudence."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Paul (it does seem deuced odd to be talking to a little shrimp
+like you as a grown-up brother-in-law. I shall get used to it presently,
+I daresay). I flatter myself I am a man of the world. We're dealing with
+one another now, as the lawyers have it, at arm's length. Just put
+yourself in my place (you're so remarkably good at putting yourself in
+other people's places, you know). Look at the thing from my point of
+view. Accidentally dropping in at your offices to negotiate (if I could)
+a small temporary loan from anyone I chanced to meet on the premises, I
+find myself, to my surprise, welcomed with effusion into what I then
+imagined to be your arms. More than that, I was invited here for an
+indefinite time, all my little eccentricities unmentioned, overlooked. I
+was deeply touched (it struck me, I confess, at one time that you must
+be touched too), but I made the best use of my opportunities. I made hay
+while the sun shone."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to make me lose my temper?" interrupted Paul. "It will not
+take much more."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no objection. I find men as a rule easier to deal with when they
+have once lost their temper, their heads so often go too. But to return:
+a man with nerve and his fair share of brains, like myself, only wants a
+capitalist (he need not be a millionaire) at his back to conquer the
+world. It's not by any means my first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> campaign, and I've had my
+reverses, but I see victory in my grasp, sir, in my grasp at last!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul groaned.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you&mdash;it's not your fault, I know, a mere defect of constitution;
+but you, as a speculator, were, if I may venture to put it so, not worth
+your salt; no boldness, no dash, all caution. But your promising son is
+a regular whale on speculation, and I may tell you that we stand in
+together in some little ventures that would very probably make your hair
+stand on end&mdash;<i>you</i> wouldn't have touched them. And yet there's money in
+every one of them."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>My</i> money!" said Paul savagely; "and it won't come out again."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know much about these things, you see," said Marmaduke; "I
+tell you I have my eye on some fine openings for capital."</p>
+
+<p>"Your pockets always were very fine openings for capital," retorted
+Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha, deuced sharp that! But, to come to the point, you were always a
+sensible practical kind of a fellow, and you must see, that, for me to
+back you up and upset this young rascal who has stepped into your
+slippers, might be morally meritorious enough, but, treating it from a
+purely pecuniary point of view, it's not business."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said Mr. Bultitude heavily; "then you side against me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did I ever say I would side against you? Let us hear first what you
+propose to do."</p>
+
+<p>Paul, upon this, explained that, as he believed the Stone still retained
+its power of granting one wish to any other person who happened to get
+hold of it, his idea was to get possession of it somehow from Dick, who
+probably would have it about him somewhere, and then pass it on to some
+one whom he could trust not to misuse it so basely.</p>
+
+<p>"A good idea that, Paul, my boy," said Paradine,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> smiling; "but you
+don't imagine our young friend would be quite such an idiot as not to
+see your game! Why, he would pitch the Stone in the gutter or stamp it
+to powder, rather than let you get hold of it."</p>
+
+<p>"He's quite capable of it," said Paul; "in fact, he threatened to do
+worse than that. I doubt if I shall ever be able to manage it myself;
+but what am I to do? I must try, and I've no time to lose about it
+either."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you this," said Marmaduke, "if you let him see you here, it's
+all up with you. What you want is some friend to manage this for you,
+some one he won't suspect. Now, suppose I were willing to risk it for
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You!" cried Paul, with involuntary distrust.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" said Marmaduke, with a touch of feeling. "Ah, I see, you
+can't trust me. You've got an idea into your head that I'm a
+thorough-paced rascal, without a trace of human feeling about me. I
+daresay I deserve it, I daresay I do; but it's not generous, my boy, for
+all that. I hope to show you your mistake yet, if you give me the
+chance. You allow yourself to be prejudiced by the past, that's where
+you make your mistake. I only put before you clearly and plainly what it
+was I was giving up in helping you. A fellow may have a hard cynical
+kind of way of putting things, and yet, take my word for it, Paul, have
+a heart as tender as a spring chicken underneath. I believe I'm
+something like that myself. I tell you I'm sorry for you. I don't like
+to see a family man of your position in such a regular deuce of a hole.
+I feel bound to give you a lift out of it, and let my prospects take
+their own chance. I leave the gratitude to you. When I've done, kick me
+down the doorsteps if you like. I shall go out into the world with the
+glow of self-approval (and rapid motion) warming my system. Take my
+advice, don't attempt to tackle Master Dick yourself. Leave him to me."</p>
+
+<p>"If I could only make up my mind to trust you!" muttered Paul.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p><p>"The old distrust!" cried Marmaduke; "you can't forget. You won't
+believe a poor devil like me can have any gratitude, any
+disinterestedness left in him. Never mind, I'll go. I'll leave it to
+you. I'll send Dick in here, and we shall see whether he's such a fool
+as you think him."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Paul, "no; I feel you're right; that would never do."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be for my advantage, I think," said the other, "but you had
+better take me while I am in a magnanimous mood, the opportunity may
+never occur again. Come, am I to help you or not? Yes or no?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must accept," said Paul reluctantly; "I can't find Boaler now, and it
+might take hours to make him see what I wanted. I'll trust to your
+honour. What shall I do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do? Get away from this, he'll be coming in here very soon to see me.
+Run away and play with the children or hide in the china
+closet&mdash;anything but stay here."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I must be here while you are managing him," objected Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" said Paradine angrily. "I tell you it will spoil all, unless
+you&mdash;who's that? it's his step&mdash;too late now&mdash;dash it all! Behind that
+screen, quick&mdash;don't move for your life till I tell you you may come
+out!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude had no choice; there was just time to set up an old
+folding screen which stood in a corner of the room and slip behind it
+before the door opened.</p>
+
+<p>It might not be the highest wisdom to trust everything to his new ally
+in this manner; but what else could he do, except stand by in forced
+inactivity while the momentous duel was being fought out? Just then, at
+all events, he saw no other course.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="Run_to_Earth" id="Run_to_Earth"></a>18. <i>Run to Earth</i></h2>
+
+<div class="block2">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"The is noon in this hous schuld bynde me this night."</div>
+<div class="i13">&mdash;<i>The Coke's Tale of Gamelyn.</i></div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Dick burst open the door of the billiard-room rather suddenly, and then
+stood holding on to the handle and smiling down upon his relative in a
+happy and affectionate but rather weak manner.</p>
+
+<p>"So here you are!" he said. "Been lookin' for you everywhere. What's
+good of shutting 'self in here? Come up and play gamesh. No? Come in and
+have shupper. I've had shupper."</p>
+
+<p>"So I perceive," observed Uncle Marmaduke; and the fact was certainly
+obvious enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell y'what I did," giggled the wretched Dick. "You know I never did
+get what I call regular good blow out&mdash;always some one to shay 'had
+quite 'nough' 'fore I'd begun. So I thought this time I would have a
+tuck-in till&mdash;till I felt tired, and I&mdash;he-he-he&mdash;I got down 'fore
+anybody elsh and helped myshelf. Had first go-in. No one to help to
+thingsh. No girlsh to bother. It was prime! When they've all gone up
+again you and me'll go in and have shome more, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"You're a model host," said his uncle.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a good shupper," Dick went on. "I ought to know. I've had some of
+everything. It'sh almost too good for kids. But it'sh a good thing I
+went in first. After I'd been in a little time I saw a sponge-cake on
+the table, and when I tried it, what d'ye think I found? It was as full
+inside of brandy-an'-sherry as it could be. All it could do to shtand! I
+saw d'rectly it washn't in condition come to table, and I said, 'Take it
+away! take it away! It'sh drunk; it'sh a dishgraceful sight for
+children!' But they wouldn't take it away; sho I had to take it away.
+But you can't take away a whole tipshy-cake!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite sure you did your best," murmured Paradine.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p><p>"Been having such gamesh upstairs!" said Dick, with another giggle.
+"That lil' Dolly Merridew's jolly girl. Not sho nice as Dulcie, though.
+Here, you, let'sh go up and let off fireworksh on balcony, eh? Letsh
+have jolly lark!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said his uncle. "You and I are too old for that sort of thing.
+You should leave the larks to the young fellows."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know I'm too old for sorterthing?" said Dick, with an
+offended air.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you're not a young man any longer, you know. You ought to behave
+like the steady old buffer you look."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" demanded Dick; "why should I behave like shteady ole buffer, when
+I don't feel shteady ole buffer? What do you want shpoil fun for? Tell
+you I shall do jus' zackly wharriplease. And, if you shay any more, I'll
+punch y' head!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said his uncle, slightly alarmed at this intimation. "Come,
+you're not going to quarrel with me, I'm sure!"</p>
+
+<p>"All ri'," said Dick. "No; I won' quarrel. Don' wanter quarrel anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right," said Paradine. "I knew you were a noble fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sho I am," said Dick, shaking hands with effusion. "Sho are you. Nearly
+ash noble 'sh me. There, you're jolly good fellow. I say, I've goo' mind
+tell you something. Make you laugh. But I won't; not now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you can tell me," said Marmaduke. "No secrets between friends, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"Shan't tell you now," said Dick. "Keep shecret little longer."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, my friend, that there's something very odd about you I've
+noticed lately? Something that makes me almost fancy sometimes you're
+not what you pretend to be."</p>
+
+<p>Dick sat down heavily on one of the leather benches placed against the
+wall.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p><p>"Eh, what d'you shay?" he gasped. "Shay tharragain."</p>
+
+<p>"You look to me," said Marmaduke slowly, "like some one excellently made
+up for the part of heavy father, without a notion how to play it. Dick,
+you young dog, you see I know you! You can't take me in with all this.
+You'd better tell me all about it."</p>
+
+<p>Dick seemed almost sobered by this shock.</p>
+
+<p>"You've found me out," he repeated dully. "Then it's all up. If you've
+found me out, everybody elsh can find me out!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; it's not so bad as that, my boy. I've better eyes than most
+people, and then I had the privilege of knowing your excellent father
+rather well once upon a time. You haven't studied his little
+peculiarities closely enough; but you'll improve. By the way, where <i>is</i>
+your excellent father all this time?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's all right," said Dick, beginning to chuckle. "He-he. He's at
+school, he is!"</p>
+
+<p>"At school. You mean to say you've put him to school at his time of
+life! He's rather old for that sort of thing, isn't he? They don't take
+him on the ordinary terms, do they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said Dick, "that'sh where it is. He isn't old, you see, now, to
+look at."</p>
+
+<p>"Not old to look at! Then how on earth&mdash;&mdash; I should like to know how you
+managed all that. What have you been doing to the poor gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>"That'sh my affair," said Dick. "An' if I don' tell you you won' find
+that out anyway!"</p>
+
+<p>"There's only one way you could have done it," said Paradine, pretending
+to hesitate. "It must have been done by some meddling with magic. Now
+what&mdash;&mdash; Let me see&mdash;yes&mdash;&mdash; Surely the Stone I brought your poor mother
+from India was given to me as a talisman of some sort? You can't have
+been sharp enough to get hold of that!"</p>
+
+<p>"How did you know?" cried Dick sharply. "Who told you?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p><p>"I am right, then? Well, you are a clever fellow. I should like to know
+how you did it, now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did it with the Shtone," said Dick, evidently discomposed by such
+unexpected penetration, but unable to prevent a little natural
+complacency. "All my own idea. No one helped me. It&mdash;it washn't sho bad
+for me, wash it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bad! it was capital!" cried Marmaduke enthusiastically. "It was a
+stroke of genius! And so my Indian Stone has done all this for you.
+Sounds like an Arabian Night, by Jove! By-the-by, you don't happen to
+have it about you, do you? I should rather like to look at it again.
+It's a real curiosity after this."</p>
+
+<p>Paul trembled with anxiety. Would Dick be induced to part with it? If
+so, he was saved! But Dick looked at his uncle's outstretched hand, and
+wagged his head with tipsy cunning.</p>
+
+<p>"I dareshay you would," he said, "but I'm not sho green as all that.
+Don't let that Stone out of my hands for anyone."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I only wanted to look at it for a minute or two," said Marmaduke;
+"I wouldn't hurt it or lose it."</p>
+
+<p>"You won' get chance," said Dick.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well," said Paradine carelessly, "just as you please, it
+doesn't matter; though when we come to talk things over a little, you
+may find it better to trust me more than that."</p>
+
+<p>"Wha' do you mean?" said Dick uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll try to explain as well as I can, my boy (drink a little of
+this soda water first, it's an excellent thing after supper); there,
+you're better now, aren't you? Now, I've found you out, as you see; but
+only because I knew something of the powers of this Stone of yours, and
+guessed the rest. It doesn't at all follow that other people, who know
+nothing at all, will be as sharp; if you're more careful about your
+behaviour in future&mdash;unless, unless, young fellow&mdash;&mdash;" and here he
+paused meaningly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p><p>"Unless what?" asked Dick suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Unless I chose to tell them what I've found out."</p>
+
+<p>"What would you tell them?" said Dick.</p>
+
+<p>"What? Why, what I know of this talisman; tell them to use their eyes;
+they wouldn't be very long before they found out that something was
+wrong. And when one or two of your father's friends once get hold of the
+idea, your game will be very soon over&mdash;you know that as well as I do."</p>
+
+<p>"But," stammered Dick, "you wouldn't go and do beastly mean thing like
+that? I've not been bad fellow to you."</p>
+
+<p>"The meanness, my dear boy, depends entirely upon the view you take of
+it. Now, the question with me, as a man of honour (and I may tell you an
+over-nice sense of honour has been a drawback I've had to struggle
+against all my life), the question with me is this: Is it not my plain
+duty to step in and put a stop to this topsy-turvy state of things, to
+show you up as the barefaced young impostor you are, and restore my
+unhappy brother-in-law to his proper position?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well expressed," thought Paul, who had been getting uncomfortable;
+"he has a heart, as he said, after all!"</p>
+
+<p>"How does that seem to strike you?" added Paradine.</p>
+
+<p>"It shtrikes me as awful rot," said Dick, with refreshing candour.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the language of conscience, but I don't expect you to see it in
+the same light. I don't mind confessing to you, either, that I'm a poor
+devil to whom money and a safe and respectable position (all of which I
+have here) are great considerations. But whenever I see the finger of
+duty and honour and family affection all beckoning me along a particular
+road, I make a point of obeying their monitions&mdash;occasionally. I don't
+mean to say that I never have bolted down a back way, instead, when it
+was made worth my while, or that I never will."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what he's driving at now," thought Paul.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p><p>"I don't know about duty and honour, and all that," said Dick; "my head
+aches, it's the noise they're making upstairs. Are you goin' to tell?"</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is, my dear boy, that when one has had a keen sense of honour
+in constant use for several years, it's like most other articles, apt to
+become a little the worse for wear. Mine is not what it used to be,
+Dicky (that's your name, isn't it?). Our powers fail as we grow old."</p>
+
+<p>"I don' know what you're talking about!" said Dick helplessly. "Do tell
+me what you mean to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Well then, your head's clear enough to understand this much, I hope,"
+said Paradine a little impatiently, "that, if I did my duty and exposed
+you, you wouldn't be able to keep up the farce for a single hour, in
+spite of all your personal advantages&mdash;you know that, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shpose I know that," said Dick feebly.</p>
+
+<p>"You know too, that if I could be induced&mdash;mind, I don't say I can&mdash;to
+hold my tongue and stay on here and look after you and keep you from
+betraying yourself by any more of these schoolboy follies, there's not
+much fear that anyone else will ever find out the secret&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Which are you going to do, then?" said Dick.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose I say that I like you, that you have shown me more kindness in
+a single week than ever your respectable father has since I first made
+his acquaintance? Suppose I say that I am willing to let the sense of
+honour and duty, and all the rest of it, go overboard together; that we
+two together are a match for Papa, wherever he may be and whatever he
+chooses to say and do?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a veiled defiance in his voice that seemed meant for more than
+Dick, and alarmed Mr. Bultitude; however, he tried to calm his
+uneasiness and persuade himself that it was part of the plot.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you say that?" cried Dick excitedly.</p>
+
+<p>"On one condition, which I'll tell you by-and-by.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> Yes, I'll stand by
+you, my boy, I'll coach you till I make you a man of business every bit
+as good as your father, and a much better man of the world. I'll show
+you how to realise a colossal fortune if you only take my advice. And
+we'll pack Papa off to some place abroad where he'll have no holidays
+and give no trouble!"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Dick firmly; "I won't have that. After all, he's my
+governor."</p>
+
+<p>"Do what you like with him then, he can't do much harm. I tell you, I'll
+do all this, on one condition&mdash;it's a very simple one&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked Dick.</p>
+
+<p>"This. You have, somewhere or other, the Stone that has done all this
+for you&mdash;you may have it about you at this very moment&mdash;ah!" (as Dick
+made a sudden movement towards his white waistcoat) "I thought so! Well,
+I want that Stone. You were afraid to leave it in my hands for a minute
+or two just now; you must trust me with it altogether."</p>
+
+<p>Paul was relieved; of course this was merely an artifice to recover the
+Garud&acirc; Stone, and Marmaduke was not playing him false after all&mdash;he
+waited breathlessly for Dick's answer.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Dick, "I can't do that; I want it too."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, man, what use is it to you? it only gives you one wish, you can't
+use it again."</p>
+
+<p>Dick mumbled something about his being ill, and Barbara wishing him well
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I can do that as well as Barbara," said his uncle. "Come,
+don't be obstinate, give me the Stone; it's very important that it
+should be in safe hands."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Dick obstinately; he was fumbling all the time irresolutely
+in his pockets; "I mean to keep it myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well then, I have done with you. To-morrow morning I shall step up
+to Mincing Lane, and then to your father's solicitor. I think his
+offices are in Bedford Row, but I can easily find out at your father's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>
+place. After that, young man, you'll have a very short time to amuse
+yourself in, so make the best of it."</p>
+
+<p>"No, don't leave me, let me alone for a minute," pleaded Dick, still
+fumbling.</p>
+
+<p>At this a sudden suspicion of his brother-in-law's motives for wishing
+to get the Stone into his own hands overcame all Paul's prudence. If he
+was so clever in deceiving Dick, might he not be cheating <i>him</i>, too,
+just as completely? He could wait no longer, but burst from behind the
+screen and rushed in between the pair.</p>
+
+<p>"Go back!" screamed Paradine. "You infernal old idiot, you've ruined
+everything!"</p>
+
+<p>"I won't go back," said Paul, "I don't believe in you. I'll hide no
+longer. Dick, I forbid you to trust that man."</p>
+
+<p>Dick had risen in horror at the sudden apparition, and staggered back
+against the wall, where he stood staring stupidly at his unfortunate
+father with fixed and vacant eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Badly as you've treated me, I'd rather trust you than that shifty
+plausible fellow there. Just look at me, Dick, and then say if you can
+let this cruelty go on. If you knew all I've suffered since I have been
+among those infernal boys, you would pity me, you would indeed.... If
+you send me back there again, it will kill me.... You know as well as I
+do that it is worse for me than ever it could be for you.... You can't
+really justify yourself because of a thoughtless wish of mine, spoken
+without the least intention of being taken at my word. Dick, I may not
+have shown as much affection for you as I might have done, but I don't
+think I deserve all this. Be generous with me now, and I swear you will
+never regret it."</p>
+
+<p>Dick's lips moved; there really was something like pity and repentance
+in his face, muddled and dazed as his general expression was by his
+recent over-indulgence, but he said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Give papa the Stone by all means," sneered Paradine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> "If you do, he
+will find some one to wish the pair of you back again, and then, back
+you go to school again, the laughing-stock of everybody, you silly young
+cub!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't listen to him, Dick," urged Paul. "Give it to me, for Heaven's
+sake; if you let him have it, he'll use it to ruin us all."</p>
+
+<p>But Dick turned his white face to the rival claimants and said, getting
+the words out with difficulty: "Papa, I'm shorry. It is a shame. If I
+had the Shtone, I really would give it you, upon my word-an'-honour I
+would. But&mdash;but, now I can't ever give it up to you. It'sh gone. Losht!"</p>
+
+<p>"Lost!" cried Marmaduke. "When, where? When do you last recollect seeing
+it? you must know!"</p>
+
+<p>"In the morning," said Dick, twirling his chain, where part of the cheap
+gilt fastening still hung.</p>
+
+<p>"No; afternoon. I don't know," he added helplessly.</p>
+
+<p>Paul sank down on a chair with a heartbroken groan; a moment ago he had
+felt himself very near his goal, he had regained something of his old
+influence over Dick, he had actually managed to touch his heart&mdash;and now
+it was all in vain!</p>
+
+<p>Paradine's jaw fell; he, too, had had his dreams of doing wonderful
+things with the talisman after he had cajoled Dick to part with it.
+Whether the restoration of his brother-in-law formed any part of his
+programme, it is better, perhaps, not to inquire. His dreams were
+scattered now; the Stone might be anywhere, buried in London mud, lying
+on railway ballast, or ground to powder by cartwheels. There was little
+chance, indeed, that even the most liberal rewards would lead to
+discovery. He swore long and comprehensively.</p>
+
+<p>As for Mr. Bultitude, he sat motionless in his chair, staring in dull,
+speechless reproach at the conscience-stricken Dick, who stood in the
+corner blinking and whimpering with an abject penitence, odd and painful
+to see in one of his portly form. The children had now apparently
+finished supper, for there were sounds above<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> as of dancing, and "Sir
+Roger de Coverley," with its rollicking, never-wearying repetition, was
+distinctly audible above the din and laughter. Once before, a week ago
+that very day, had that heartless piano mocked him with its untimely
+gaiety.</p>
+
+<p>But things were not at their worst even yet, for, while they sat like
+this, there was a sharp, short peal at the house-bell, followed by loud
+and rather angry knocking, for carriages being no longer expected, the
+servants and waiters had now closed the front-door, and left the passage
+for the supper-room.</p>
+
+<p>"The visitors' bell!" cried Paul, roused from his apathy; and he rushed
+to the window which commanded a side-view of the portico; it might be
+only a servant calling for one of the children, but he feared the worst,
+and could not rest till he knew it.</p>
+
+<p>It was a rash thing to do, for as he drew the blind, he saw a large
+person in a heavy Inverness cloak standing on the steps, and (which was
+worse) the person both saw and recognised <i>him</i>!</p>
+
+<p>With fascinated horror, Mr. Bultitude saw the Doctor's small grey eyes
+fixed angrily on him, and knew that he was hunted down at last.</p>
+
+<p>He turned to the other two with a sort of ghastly composure: "It's all
+over now," he said. "I've just seen Dr. Grimstone standing on my
+doorstep; he has come after me."</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Marmaduke gave a malicious little laugh: "I'm sorry for you, my
+friend," he said, "but I really can't help it."</p>
+
+<p>"You can," said Paul; "you can tell him what you know. You can save me."</p>
+
+<p>"Very poor economy that," said Marmaduke airily. "I prefer spending to
+saving, always did. I have my own interests to consider, my dear Paul."</p>
+
+<p>"Dick," said poor Mr. Bultitude, disgusted at this exhibition of
+selfishness, "you said you were sorry just now. Will you tell him the
+truth?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p><p>But Dick was quite unnerved, he cowered away, almost crying; "I
+daren't, I daren't," he stammered; "I&mdash;I can't go back to the fellows
+like this. I'm afraid to tell him. I&mdash;I want to hide somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>And certainly he was in no condition to convince an angry schoolmaster
+of anything whatever, except that he was in a state very unbecoming to
+the head of a family.</p>
+
+<p>It was all over; Paul saw that too well, he dashed frantically from the
+fatal billiard-room, and in the hall met Boaler preparing to admit the
+visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't open the door!" he screamed. "Keep him out, you mustn't let him
+in. It's Dr. Grimstone."</p>
+
+<p>Boaler, surprised as he naturally was at his young master's
+unaccountable appearance and evident panic, nevertheless never moved a
+muscle of his face; he was one of those perfectly bred servants, who, if
+they chanced to open the door to a ghoul or a skeleton, would merely
+inquire, "What name, if you please?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must go and ask your Par, then, Master Dick; there's time to 'ook it
+upstairs while I'm gone. I won't say nothing," he added compassionately.</p>
+
+<p>Paul lost no time in following this suggestion, but rushed upstairs, two
+or three steps at the time, stumbling at every flight, with a hideous
+nightmare feeling that some invisible thing behind was trying to trip up
+his heels.</p>
+
+<p>He rushed blindly past the conservatory, which was lit up by Chinese
+lanterns and crowded with little "Kate Greenaway" maidens crowned with
+fantastic headdresses out of the crackers, and comparing presents with
+boy-lovers; he upset perspiring waiters with glasses and trays, and
+scattered the children sitting on the stairs, as he bounded on in his
+reckless flight, leaving crashes of glass behind him.</p>
+
+<p>He had no clear idea of what he meant to do; he thought of barricading
+himself in his bedroom and hiding in the wardrobe; he had desperate
+notions of getting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> on to the housetop by means of a step-ladder and the
+sky-light above the nursery landing; on one point he was resolved&mdash;he
+would not be retaken <i>alive</i>!</p>
+
+<p>Never before in this commonplace London world of ours was an unfortunate
+householder hunted up his own staircase in this distressing manner; even
+his terror did not blind him to the extreme ignominy and injustice of
+his position.</p>
+
+<p>And below he heard the bell ringing more and more impatiently, as the
+Doctor still remained on the wrong side of the door. In another minute
+he must be admitted&mdash;and then!</p>
+
+<p>Who will not sympathise with Mr. Bultitude as he approaches the crisis
+of his misfortunes? I protest, for my own part, that as I am compelled
+to describe him springing from step to step in wild terror, like a
+highly respectable chamois before some Alpine marksman, my own heart
+bleeds for him, and I hasten to end my distressing tale, and make the
+rest of it as little painful as I may with honesty.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="The_Reckoning" id="The_Reckoning"></a>19. <i>The Reckoning</i></h2>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div><span class="smcap">Montr.</span> The father is victorious.</div>
+<div><span class="smcap">Belf.</span><span class="s12">&nbsp;</span>Let us haste</div>
+<div><span class="s3">&nbsp;</span>To gratulate his conquest.</div>
+<div><span class="smcap">1st Capt.</span><span class="s12">&nbsp;</span>We to mourn</div>
+<div><span class="s3">&nbsp;</span>The fortune of the son.</div>
+<div class="i8"><span class="smcap">Massinger.</span> <i>The Unnatural Combat.</i></div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Poor Mr. Bultitude, springing wildly upstairs in a last desperate effort
+to avoid capture, had now almost reached his goal. Just above him was
+the nursery landing, with its little wooden gate, and near it, leaning
+against the wall, was a pair of kitchen steps, with which he had hopes
+of reaching the roof, or the cistern loft, or some other safe and
+inaccessible place. Better a night spent on the slates amongst the
+chimney-pots than a bed in that terrible No. 6 Dormitory!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p><p>But here, too, fate was against him. He was not more than half-a-dozen
+steps from the top, when, to his unspeakable horror, he saw a small form
+in a white frock and cardinal-red sash come running out of the nursery,
+and begin to descend slowly and cautiously, clinging to the banisters
+with one chubby little hand.</p>
+
+<p>It was his youngest son, Roly, and as soon as he saw this, he lost hope
+once and for all; he could not escape being recognised, the child would
+probably refuse to leave him, and even if he did contrive to get away
+from him, it would be hopeless to make Roly understand that he was not
+to betray his hiding-place.</p>
+
+<p>So he stopped on the stairs, aghast at this new misfortune, and feeling
+himself at the end of all his resources. Roly knew him at once, and
+began to dance delightedly up and down on the stair in his little bronze
+shoes. "Buzzer Dicky," he cried, "dear buzzer Dicky, tum 'ome to party!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's not brother Dicky," said Paul miserably; "it's all a mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but it is though," said Roly; "and you don't know what Roly's
+found."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said Paul, trying to pass (which, as Roly persisted in leaping
+joyously from side to side of the narrow stair, was difficult); "you
+shall show me another time. I'm in a hurry, my boy, I've got an
+appointment."</p>
+
+<p>"Roly's got something better than that," observed the child.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude, in spite of his terror, was too much afraid of hurting
+him by brushing roughly past to attempt such a thing, so he tried
+diplomacy. "Well, what has Roly found&mdash;a cracker?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, better than a cwacker&mdash;you guess."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't guess," said Paul; "never mind, I don't want to know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well then," said Roly, "there." And he slowly unclosed a fat little
+fist, and in it Paul saw, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> revulsion of feeling that turned him
+dizzy and faint, the priceless talisman itself, the identical Garud&acirc;
+Stone, with part of the frail gilt ring still attached to it.</p>
+
+<p>The fastening had probably given way during Master Dick's uproarious
+revels in the drawing-room, and Roly must have picked it up on the
+carpet shortly afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it a pitty sing?" said Roly, insisting that his treasure should
+be duly admired.</p>
+
+<p>"A very pretty thing," said his father, hoarse and panting; "but it's
+mine, Roly, it's mine!"</p>
+
+<p>And he tried to snatch it, but Roly closed his fist over it and pouted,
+"It isn't yours," he said, "it's Roly's. Roly found it."</p>
+
+<p>Paul's fears rose again; would he be wrecked in port after all? His ear,
+unnaturally strained, caught the sound of the front door being opened,
+he heard the Doctor's deep voice booming faintly below, then the noise
+of persons ascending.</p>
+
+<p>"Roly shall have it, then," he said perfidiously, "if he will say after
+me what I tell him. Say, 'I wish Papa and Brother Dick back as they were
+before,' Roly."</p>
+
+<p>"Ith it a game?" asked Roly, his face clearing and evidently delighted
+with his eccentric brother Dick, who had run all the way home from
+school to play games with him on the staircase.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;yes!" cried Paul, "it's a very funny game; only do what I tell you.
+Now say, 'I wish Papa and Brother Dick back again as they were before.'
+I'll give you a sugar-plum if you say it nicely."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of sugar-plum?" demanded Roly, who inherited business
+instincts.</p>
+
+<p>"Any sort you like best!" almost shrieked Paul; "oh, do get on!"</p>
+
+<p>"Lots of sugar-plums, then. 'I with'&mdash;I forget what you told me&mdash;oh, 'I
+with Papa and&mdash;&mdash;' there'th thomebody tummin' upsthairs!" he broke off
+suddenly; "it'h nurth tummin' to put me to bed. I don't want to go to
+bed yet."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p><p>"And you shan't go to bed!" cried Paul, for he too thought he heard
+some one. "Never mind nurse, finish the&mdash;the game."</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;'Papa and Buzzy Dicky back again as&mdash;as they were before,' repeated
+Roly at last. "What a funny&mdash;ow, ow, it'h Papa! it'h Papa! and he told
+me it wath Dicky. I'm afwaid! Whereth Dicky gone to? I want Bab, take me
+to Bab!"</p>
+
+<p>For the Stone had done its work once more, and this time with happier
+results; with a supreme relief and joy, which no one who has read this
+book can fail to understand, Mr. Bultitude felt that he actually was his
+old self again.</p>
+
+<p>Just when all hope seemed cut off and relief was most unlikely, the
+magic spell that had caused him such intolerable misery for one hideous
+week was reversed by the hand of his innocent child.</p>
+
+<p>He caught Roly up in his arms and kissed him as he had never been kissed
+in his whole life before, at least by his father, and comforting him as
+well as he could, for the poor child had naturally received rather a
+severe shock, he stepped airily down the staircase, which he had mounted
+with such different emotions five minutes before.</p>
+
+<p>On his way he could not resist going into his dressing-room and assuring
+himself by a prolonged examination before the cheval-glass that the
+Stone had not played him some last piece of jugglery; but he found
+everything quite correct; he was the same formal, precise and portly
+person, wearing the same morning dress even as on that other Monday
+evening, and he went on with greater confidence.</p>
+
+<p>He took care, however, to stop at the first window, when he managed,
+after some coaxing, to persuade Roly to give up the Garud&acirc; Stone. As
+soon as he had it in his hands again, he opened the window wide and
+flung the dangerous talisman far out into the darkness. Not till then
+did he feel perfectly secure.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p><p>He passed the groups of little guests gathered about the conservatory,
+and lower down he met Boaler, the nurse, and one or two servants and
+waiters, rushing up in a state of great anxiety and flurry; even
+Boaler's usual composure seemed shaken. "Please, sir," he asked, "the
+schoolmaster gentleman, Master Dick&mdash;he've run upstairs, haven't you
+seen him?"</p>
+
+<p>Paul had almost forgotten Dick in his new happiness; there would be a
+heavy score to settle with him; he had the upper hand once more, and
+yet, somehow, he did not feel as much righteous wrath and desire for
+revenge as he expected to do.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be alarmed," he said, waving them back with more benignity than
+he thought he had in him. "Master Dick is safe enough. I know all about
+it. Where is Dr. Grimstone? In the library, eh? Very well, I will see
+him there."</p>
+
+<p>And leaving Roly with the nurse, he went down to the library; not, if
+the truth must be told, without a slight degree of nervousness,
+unreasonable and unaccountable enough now, but quite beyond his power to
+control.</p>
+
+<p>He entered the room, and there, surrounded by piles of ticketed hats and
+coats, under the pale light of one gas-burner, he saw the terrible man
+before whom he had trembled for the last seven horrible days.</p>
+
+<p>A feeling of self-defence made Paul assume rather more than his old
+stiffness as he shook hands. "I am very glad to see you, Dr. Grimstone,"
+he said, "but your coming at this time forces me to ask if there is any
+unusual reason for, for my having the&mdash;a&mdash;pleasure of seeing you here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am exceedingly distressed to have to say that there is," said the
+Doctor solemnly, "or I should not have troubled you at this hour. Try to
+compose yourself, my dear sir, to bear this blow."</p>
+
+<p>"I will," said Paul, "I will try."</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is then, and I know how sad a story it must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> be for a parent's
+ear, but the fact is, that your unhappy boy has had the inconceivable
+rashness to quit my roof." And the Doctor paused to watch the effect of
+his announcement.</p>
+
+<p>"God bless my soul!" cried Paul. "You don't say so!"</p>
+
+<p>"I do indeed; he has, in short, run away. But don't be alarmed, my dear
+Mr. Bultitude, I think I can assure you he is quite safe at the present
+moment" ("Thank Heaven, he is!" thought Paul, thinking of his own
+marvellous escape). "I should certainly have recaptured him before he
+could have left the railway station, where he seems to have gone at
+once, only, acting on information (which I strongly suspect now was
+intentionally misleading), I drove on to the station on the up-line,
+thinking to find him there. He was not there, sir, I believe he never
+went there at all; but, guessing how matters were, I searched the train,
+carriage by carriage, compartment by compartment, when it came up."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry you should have had so much trouble," said Paul, with a
+vivid recollection of the exploring stick; "and so you found him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said the Doctor passionately, "I did not find him, but he was
+there; he must have been there! but the shameless connivance of two
+excessively ill-bred persons, who positively refused to allow me access
+to their compartment, caused him to slip through my fingers."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude observed, rather ungratefully, that, if this was so, it
+was a most improper thing for them to do.</p>
+
+<p>"It was, indeed, but it is of no consequence fortunately. I was forced
+to wait for the next train, but that was not a very slow one, and so I
+was able to come on here before a very late hour and acquaint you with
+what had taken place."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you very much," said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a painful thing to occur in a school," observed the Doctor after a
+pause.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p><p>"Most unfortunate," agreed Paul, coughing.</p>
+
+<p>"So apt to lead persons who are not acquainted with the facts to imagine
+that the boy was unhappy under my care," continued the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"In this case, I assure you, I have no doubts," protested Paul with
+politeness and (seldom a possible combination) perfect truth.</p>
+
+<p>"Very kind of you to say so; really, it's a great mystery to me. I
+certainly, as I felt it my duty to inform you at the time, came very
+near inflicting corporal punishment upon him this morning&mdash;very near.
+But then he was pardoned on your intercession; and, besides, the boy
+would never have run away for fear of a flogging."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, perfectly absurd!" agreed Paul again.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a merry, high-spirited lad, too," said the Doctor, sincerely
+enough; "popular with his schoolfellows; a favourite (in spite of his
+faults) with his teachers."</p>
+
+<p>"No, was he though?" said Paul with more surprise, for he had not been
+fortunate enough to reap much vicarious benefit from his son's
+popularity, as he could not help remembering.</p>
+
+<p>"All this, added to the comforts (or, may I say, the luxuries?) he
+enjoyed under my supervision, does make it seem very strange and
+ungrateful in the boy to take this sudden and ill-considered step."</p>
+
+<p>"Very, indeed; but do you know, Dr. Grimstone, I can't help
+thinking&mdash;and pray do not misunderstand me if I speak plainly&mdash;that,
+perhaps, he had reasons for being unhappy you can have no idea of?"</p>
+
+<p>"He would have found me ready to hear any complaints and prompt to
+redress them, sir," said the Doctor. "But, now I think of it, he
+certainly did appear to have something on his mind which he wished to
+tell me; but his manner was so strange and he so persistently refused to
+come to the point, that I was forced to discourage him at last."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p><p>"You did discourage him, indeed!" said Paul inwardly, thinking of those
+attempted confidences with a shudder. "Perhaps some of his schoolfellows
+may have&mdash;eh?" he said aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir," exclaimed the Doctor, "quite out of the question!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think so?" said Paul, not being able to resist the suggestion.
+"And yet, do you know, some of them did not appear to me to look
+very&mdash;very good-natured, now."</p>
+
+<p>"A more manly, pleasant, and gentlemanly set of youths never breathed!"
+said the Doctor, taking up the cudgels for his boys, and, to do him
+justice, probably with full measure of belief in his statement. "Curious
+now that they should have struck you so differently!"</p>
+
+<p>"They certainly did strike me very differently," said Paul. "But I may
+be mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>"You are, my dear sir. And, pardon me, but you had no opportunity of
+testing your opinion."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, pardon me," retorted Paul grimly, "I had indeed!"</p>
+
+<p>"A cursory visit," said the Doctor, "a formal inspection&mdash;you cannot
+fairly judge boys by that. They will naturally be reserved and
+constrained in the presence of an elder. But you should observe them
+without their knowledge&mdash;you want to know them, my dear Mr. Bultitude,
+you want to go among them!"</p>
+
+<p>It was the very last thing Paul did want&mdash;he knew them quite well
+enough, but it was of no use to say so, and he merely assented politely.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," said the Doctor, "with regard to your misguided boy. I have
+to tell you that he is here, in this very house. I tracked him here,
+and, ten minutes ago, saw him with my own eyes at one of your windows.</p>
+
+<p>"Here!" cried Paul, with a well-executed start; "you astonish me!"</p>
+
+<p>"It has occurred to me within the last minute," said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> the Doctor, "that
+there may be a very simple explanation of his flight. I observe you are
+giving a&mdash;a juvenile entertainment on a large scale."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I am," Paul admitted. "And so you think&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think that your son, who doubtless knew of your intention, was hurt
+at being excluded from the festivities and, in a fit of mad wilful
+folly, resolved to be present at them in spite of you."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Doctor," cried Paul, who saw the conveniences of this theory,
+"that must be it, of course&mdash;that explains it all!"</p>
+
+<p>"So grave an act of insubordination," said the Doctor, "an act of double
+disobedience&mdash;to your authority and mine&mdash;deserves the fullest
+punishment. You agree with me, I trust?"</p>
+
+<p>The memory of his wrongs overcame Mr. Bultitude for the moment: "Nothing
+can be too bad for the little scoundrel!" he said, between his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"He shall have it, sir, I swear to you; he shall be made to repent this
+as long as he lives. This insult to me (and of course to you also) shall
+be amply atoned for. If you will have the goodness to deliver him over
+to my hands, I will carry him back at once to Market Rodwell, and
+to-morrow, sir, to-morrow, I will endeavour to awaken his conscience in
+a way he will remember!"</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor was more angry than an impartial lover of justice might
+perhaps approve of, but then it must be remembered that he had seen
+himself completely outwitted and his authority set at nought in a very
+humiliating fashion.</p>
+
+<p>However, his excessive wrath cooled Paul's own resentment instead of
+inflaming it; it made him reflect that, after all, it was he who had the
+best right to be angry.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, rather coldly, "we must find him first, and then
+consider what shall be done to him. If you will allow me I will ring
+and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p><p>But before he could lay his hand upon the bell the library door opened,
+and Uncle Marmaduke made his appearance, dragging with him the unwilling
+Dick: the unfortunate boy was effectually sobered now, pale and
+trembling and besmirched with coal-dust&mdash;in fact, in very much the same
+plight as his ill-used father had been in only three hours ago.</p>
+
+<p>There was a brazen smile of triumph on Mr. Paradine's face as he met
+Paul's eyes with a knowing wink, which the latter did not at all
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>Such audacity astonished him, for he could hardly believe that Paradine,
+after his perfidious conduct in the billiard-room, could have the clumsy
+impudence to try to propitiate him now.</p>
+
+<p>"Here he is, my boy," shouted Paradine; "here's the scamp who has given
+us all this trouble! He came into the billiard-room just now and told me
+who he was, but I would have nothing to do with him of course. Not my
+business, as I told him at the time. Then&mdash;(I think I have the pleasure
+of seeing Dr. Grimstone? just so) well, then you, sir, arrived&mdash;and he
+made himself scarce. But when I saw him in the act of making a bolt up
+the area, where he had been taking shelter apparently in the
+coal-cellar, I thought it was time to interfere, and so I collared him.
+I have much pleasure in handing him over now to the proper authorities."</p>
+
+<p>And, letting Dick go, he advanced towards his brother-in-law, still with
+the same odd expression of having a secret understanding with him, which
+made Paul's blood boil.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand where you are, sir," said Paul to his son. "No, Dr. Grimstone,
+allow me&mdash;leave him to me for the present, please."</p>
+
+<p>"That's much better," whispered Paradine approvingly; "capital. Keep it
+up, my boy; keep it up! Papa's as quiet as a lamb now. Go on."</p>
+
+<p>Then Paul understood; his worthy brother-in-law had not been present at
+the last transformation and was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> under a slight misapprehension: he
+evidently imagined that he had by this last stroke made himself and Dick
+masters of the situation&mdash;it was time to undeceive him.</p>
+
+<p>"Have the goodness to leave my house at once, will you!" he said
+sternly.</p>
+
+<p>"You young fool!" said Marmaduke, under his breath, "after all I have
+done for you, too! Is this your gratitude? You know you can't get on
+without me. Take care what you're about!"</p>
+
+<p>"If you can't see that the tables are turned at last," said Paul slowly,
+"you're a duller knave than I take you to be."</p>
+
+<p>Marmaduke started back with an oath: "It's a trick," he said savagely;
+"you want to get rid of me."</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly intend to," said Paul. "Are you satisfied? Do you want
+proofs&mdash;shall I give them&mdash;I did just now in the billiard-room?"</p>
+
+<p>Paradine went to Dick and shook him angrily: "You young idiot!" he said,
+in a furious aside, "why didn't you tell me? What did you let me make a
+fool of myself like this for, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did tell you," muttered Dick, "only you wouldn't listen. It just
+serves you right!"</p>
+
+<p>Marmaduke soon collected himself after this unexpected shock; he tried
+to shake Paul's hands with an airy geniality. "Only my little joke," he
+said, laughing; "ha, ha, I thought I should take you in!... Why, I knew
+it directly.... I've been working for you all the time&mdash;but it wouldn't
+have done to let you see my line."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Paul; "it was not a very straight one, as usual."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Marmaduke, "I shouldn't have stopped Master Dick there if I
+hadn't been on your side, should I now? I knew you'd come out of it all
+right, but I had a difficult game to play, don't you know? I don't
+wonder that you didn't follow me just at first."</p>
+
+<p>"You've lost your game," said Paul; "it's no use to say any more. So
+now, perhaps, you'll go?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p><p>"Go, eh?" said Paradine, without showing much surprise at the failure
+of so very forlorn a hope, "oh, very well, just as you please, of
+course. Let your poor wife's only brother go from your doors without a
+penny in the world!&mdash;but I warn you that a trifle or so laid out in
+stopping my mouth would not be thrown away. Some editors would be glad
+enough of a sensation from real life just now, and I could tell some
+very odd tales about this little affair!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell them, if a character for sanity is of no further use to you," said
+Paul. "Tell them to anyone you can get to believe you&mdash;tell the
+crossing-sweeper and the policemen, tell your grandmother, tell the
+horse-marines&mdash;it will amuse them. Only, you shall tell them on the
+other side of my front door. Shall I call anyone to show you out?"</p>
+
+<p>Paradine saw his game was really played out, and swaggered insolently to
+the door: "Not on my account, I beg," he said. "Good-bye, Paul, my boy,
+no more dissolving views. Good-bye, my young friend Richard, it was good
+fun while it lasted, eh? like the Servian crown&mdash;always a pleasant
+reminiscence! Good evening to you, Doctor. By the way, for educational
+purposes let me recommend a 'Penang lawyer'&mdash;buy one as you go back for
+the boys&mdash;just to show them you haven't forgotten them!"</p>
+
+<p>And, having little luggage to impede him, the front door closed upon him
+shortly afterwards&mdash;this time for ever.</p>
+
+<p>When he had gone, Dick looked imploringly at his father and then at the
+Doctor, who, until Paradine's parting words had lashed him into fury
+again, had been examining the engravings on the walls with a studied
+delicacy during the recent painful scene, and was now leaning against
+the chimney-piece with his arms folded and a sepulchral gloom on his
+brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Richard," said Mr. Bultitude, in answer to the look, "you have not done
+much to deserve consideration at my hands."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p><p>"Or at mine!" added the Doctor ominously.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Dick, "I know I haven't. I've been a brute. I deserve a jolly
+good licking."</p>
+
+<p>"You do," said his father, but in spite of his indignation, the
+broken-down look of the boy, and the memory of his own sensations when
+waiting to be caned that morning, moved him to pity. And then Dick had
+shown some compunction in the billiard-room: he was not entirely lost to
+feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said at last, "you've acted very wrongly. Because I thought
+it best that you should not&mdash;ahem, leave your studies for this party,
+you chose to disobey me and alarm your master by defying my orders and
+coming home by stealth&mdash;that was your object, I presume?"</p>
+
+<p>"Y&mdash;yes," said Dick, looking rather puzzled, but seeing that he was
+expected to agree; "that was it."</p>
+
+<p>"You know as well as I do what good cause I have to be angry; but, if I
+consent to overlook your conduct this time, if I ask Dr. Grimstone to
+overlook it too" (the Doctor made an inarticulate protest, while Dick
+stared, incredulous), "will you undertake to behave better for the
+future&mdash;will you?"</p>
+
+<p>Dick's voice broke at this, and his eyes swam&mdash;he was effectually
+conquered. "Oh, I will!" he cried, "I will, really. I never meant to go
+so far when I began."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, Dr. Grimstone," said Paul, "you will do me a great favour if you
+will take no further notice of this. You see the boy is sorry, and I am
+sure he will apologise to you amply for the grave slight he has done
+you. And by the way&mdash;I should have mentioned it before&mdash;but he will have
+to leave your care at the end of the term for a public school&mdash;I intend
+to send him to Harrow, so he will require some additional preparation,
+perhaps: I may leave that in your hands?"</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grimstone looked deeply offended, but he only said, "I will see to
+that myself, my dear sir. I am sorry you did not tell me this earlier.
+But, may I suggest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> that a large public school has its pitfalls for a
+boy of your son's disposition? And I trust this leniency may not have
+evil consequences, but I doubt it&mdash;I greatly doubt it."</p>
+
+<p>As for Dick, he ran to his father, and hung gratefully on to his arm
+with a remorseful hug, a thing he had never dared to do, or thought of
+attempting, in his life till then.</p>
+
+<p>"Dad," he said in a choked voice, "you're a brick! I don't deserve any
+of it, but I'll never forget this as long as I live."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude too, felt something spring up in his heart which drew him
+towards the boy in an altogether novel manner, but no one will say that
+either was the worse for it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said mildly, "prove to me that I have made no mistake. Go
+back to Crichton House now, work and play well, and try to keep out of
+mischief for the rest of the term. I trust to you," he added, in a lower
+tone, "while you remain at Market Rodwell, to keep my&mdash;my connection
+with it a secret; you owe that at least to me. You may probably
+have&mdash;ahem, some inconveniences to put up with&mdash;inconveniences you are
+not prepared for. You must bear them as your punishment."</p>
+
+<p>And soon afterwards a cab was called, and Dr. Grimstone prepared to
+return to Market Rodwell, with the deserter, by the last train.</p>
+
+<p>As Paul shook hands through the cab window with his prodigal son, he
+repeated his warning. "Mind," he said, "<i>you</i> have been at school all
+this past week; you have run away to attend this party, you understand?
+Good-bye, my boy, and here's something to put in your pocket, and
+another for Jolland; but he need not know it comes from me." And when
+Dick opened his hand afterwards, he found two half-sovereigns in it.</p>
+
+<p>So the cab rolled away, and Paul went up to the drawing-room, where,
+although he certainly allowed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> fireworks on the balcony and in the
+garden to languish forgotten on their sticks, he led all the other
+revels up to an advanced hour with jovial <i>abandon</i> quite worthy of
+Dick, and none of his little guests ever suspected the change of host.</p>
+
+<p>When it was all over, and the sleepy children had driven off, Paul sat
+down in an easy chair by the bright fire which sparkled frostily in his
+bedroom, to think gratefully over all the events of the day&mdash;events
+which were beginning already to take an unreal and fantastic shape.</p>
+
+<p>Bitterly as he had suffered, and in spite of the just anger and thirst
+for revenge with which he had returned, I am glad to say he did not
+regret the spirit of mildness that had stayed his hand when his hour of
+triumph came.</p>
+
+<p>His experiences, unpleasant as they had been, had had their advantages:
+they had drawn him and his family closer together.</p>
+
+<p>In his daughter Barbara, as she wished him good-night (knowing nothing,
+of course, of the escape), he had suddenly become aware of a girlish
+freshness and grace he had never looked for or cared to see before. Roly
+after this, too, had a claim upon him he could never wish to forget, and
+even with the graceless Dick there was a warmer and more natural feeling
+on both sides&mdash;a strange result, no doubt, of such unfilial behaviour,
+but so it was.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bultitude would never after this consider his family as a set of
+troublesome and thankless incumbrances; thanks to Dick's offices during
+the interregnum, they would henceforth throw off their reserve and
+constraint in their father's presence, and in so doing, open his eyes to
+qualities of which he had hitherto been in contented ignorance.</p>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<p>It would be pleasanter perhaps to take leave of Mr. Bultitude thus, as
+he sits by his bedroom fire in the first flush of supreme and unalloyed
+content.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p><p>But I feel almost bound to point out a fact which few will find any
+difficulty in accepting, namely, that, although the wrong had been
+retrieved without scandal or exposure, for which Paul could not be too
+thankful, there were many consequences which could not but survive it.</p>
+
+<p>Neither father nor son found himself exactly in the same position as
+before their exchange of characters.</p>
+
+<p>It took Mr. Bultitude considerable time and trouble to repair all the
+damage his son's boyish excesses had wrought both at Westbourne Terrace
+and in the City. He found the discipline of his clerks' room and
+counting-house sorely relaxed, and his office-boy in particular
+attempted a tone towards him of such atrocious familiarity that he was
+indignantly dismissed, much to his astonishment, the very first day. And
+probably Paul will never quite clear himself of the cloud that hangs
+over a man of business who, in the course of however well regulated a
+career, is known to have been at least once "a little odd."</p>
+
+<p>And his home, too, was distinctly demoralised: his cook was an artist,
+unrivalled at soups and entr&eacute;es; but he had to get rid of her
+notwithstanding.</p>
+
+<p>It was only too evident that she looked upon herself as the prospective
+mistress of his household, and he did not feel called upon as a parent
+to fulfil any expectations which Dick's youthful cupboard love had
+unintentionally excited.</p>
+
+<p>For some time, as fresh proof of Dick's extravagances came home to him,
+Paul found it cost him no little effort to restrain a tendency to his
+former bitterness and resentment, but he valued the new understanding
+between himself and his son too highly to risk losing it again by any
+open reproach, and so with each succeeding discovery the victory over
+his feelings became easier.</p>
+
+<p>As for Dick, he found the inconveniences at which his father had hinted
+anything but imaginary, as will perhaps be easily understood.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p><p>It was an unpleasant shock to discover that in one short week his
+father had contrived somehow to procure him a lasting unpopularity. He
+was obviously looked upon by all, masters and boys, as a confirmed
+coward and sneak. And although some of his companions could not fairly
+reproach him on the latter score, the imputation was particularly
+galling to Dick, who had always treated such practices with sturdy
+contempt.</p>
+
+<p>He was sorely tempted at times to right himself by declaring the real
+state of the case; but he remembered his promise and his father's
+unexpected clemency and his gratitude always kept him silent.</p>
+
+<p>He never quite understood how it was that the whole school seemed to
+have an impression that they could kick and assault him generally with
+perfect impunity; but a few very unsuccessful experiments convinced them
+that this was a popular error on their part.</p>
+
+<p>Although, however, in everything else he did gradually succeed in
+recovering all the ground his father had lost him, yet there was one
+respect in which, I am sorry to say, he found all his efforts to
+retrieve himself hopeless.</p>
+
+<p>His little sweetheart, with the grey eyes and soft brown hair, cruelly
+refused to have anything more to do with him. For Dulcie's pride had
+been wounded by what she considered his shameless perfidy on that
+memorable Saturday by the parallel bars; the last lingering traces of
+affection had vanished before Paul's ingratitude on the following
+Monday, and she never forgave him.</p>
+
+<p>She did not even give him an opportunity of explaining himself, never by
+word or sign up to the last day of the term showing that she was even
+aware of his return. What was worse, in her resentment she transferred
+her favour to Tipping, who became her humble slave for a too brief
+period; after which he was found wanting in polish, and was
+ignominiously thrown over for the shy new boy Kiffin, whose head Dick
+found a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> certain melancholy pleasure in punching in consequence.</p>
+
+<p>This was Dick's punishment, and a very real and heavy one he found it.
+He is at Harrow now, where he is doing fairly well; but I think there
+are moments even yet when Dulcie's charming little face, her pretty
+confidences, and her chilling disdain, are remembered with something as
+nearly resembling a heartache as a healthy unsentimental boy can allow
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps, if some day he goes back once more to Crichton House "to see
+the fellows," this time with the mysterious glamour of a great public
+school about him, he may yet obtain forgiveness, for she is getting
+horribly tired of Kiffin, who, to tell the truth, is something of a
+milksop.</p>
+
+<p>As for the Garud&acirc; Stone, I really cannot say what has become of it.
+Perhaps it was dashed to pieces on the cobble-stones of the stables
+behind the terrace, and a good thing too. Perhaps it was not, and is
+still in existence, with all its dangerous powers as ready for use as
+ever it was; and in that case the best I can wish my readers is, that
+they may be mercifully preserved from finding it anywhere, or if they
+are unfortunate enough to come upon it, that they may at least be more
+careful with it than Mr. Paul Bultitude, by whose melancholy example I
+trust they will take timely warning.</p>
+
+<p>And with these very sincere wishes I beg to bid them a reluctant
+farewell.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Vice Versa, by F. Anstey
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+</body>
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@@ -0,0 +1,11249 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Vice Versa, by F. Anstey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Vice Versa
+       or A Lesson to Fathers
+
+Author: F. Anstey
+
+Release Date: October 9, 2008 [EBook #26853]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VICE VERSA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Clarke, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+VICE VERSA
+
+OR
+
+A LESSON TO FATHERS
+
+BY F. ANSTEY
+
+LONDON
+
+JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
+
+
+     FIRST EDITION (_Smith, Elder & Co._)               _June 1882_
+
+     FIFTIETH IMPRESSION                                 _May 1915_
+
+     _Reprinted_ (_F'cap 8vo_) (_John Murray_)       _October 1917_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                       _March 1918_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                     _January 1920_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                      _August 1924_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                        _June 1926_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                      _August 1928_
+
+     _Reprinted_ (_Cr. 8vo_)                       _September 1929_
+
+     _Reprinted_ (_F'cap 8vo_)                      _December 1931_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                    _November 1937_
+
+     _Reprinted_ (_Cr. 8vo_)                            _June 1949_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                     _October 1954_
+
+     _Reprinted_                                       _March 1962_
+
+
+PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY LOWE AND BRYDONE (PRINTERS) LIMITED, LONDON,
+N.W.10
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                      PAGE
+
+    PREFACE                              1
+
+ 1. BLACK MONDAY                         3
+
+ 2. A GRAND TRANSFORMATION SCENE        15
+
+ 3. IN THE TOILS                        31
+
+ 4. A MINNOW AMONGST TRITONS            48
+
+ 5. DISGRACE                            69
+
+ 6. LEARNING AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS        87
+
+ 7. CUTTING THE KNOT                   104
+
+ 8. UNBENDING THE BOW                  120
+
+ 9. A LETTER FROM HOME                 133
+
+10. THE COMPLETE LETTER-WRITER         146
+
+11. A DAY OF REST                      155
+
+12. AGAINST TIME                       169
+
+13. A RESPITE                          185
+
+14. AN ERROR OF JUDGMENT               195
+
+15. THE RUBICON                        207
+
+16. HARD PRESSED                       221
+
+17. A PERFIDIOUS ALLY                  240
+
+18. RUN TO EARTH                       258
+
+19. THE RECKONING                      269
+
+
+
+
+_PREFACE_
+
+
+There is an old story of a punctiliously polite Greek, who, while
+performing the funeral of an infant daughter, felt bound to make his
+excuses to the spectators for "bringing out such a ridiculously small
+corpse to so large a crowd."
+
+The Author, although he trusts that the present production has more
+vitality than the Greek gentleman's child, still feels that in these
+days of philosophical fiction, metaphysical romance, and novels with a
+purpose, some apology may perhaps be needed for a tale which has the
+unambitious and frivolous aim of mere amusement.
+
+However, he ventures to leave the tale to be its own apology, merely
+contenting himself with the entreaty that his little fish may be spared
+the rebuke that it is not a whale.
+
+In submitting it with all possible respect to the Public, he conceives
+that no form of words he could devise would appeal so simply and
+powerfully to their feelings as that which he has ventured to adopt from
+a certain Anglo-Portuguese Phrase-Book of deserved popularity.
+
+Like the compilers of that work, he--"expects then who the little book,
+for the care what he wrote him and her typographical corrections, will
+commend itself to the--_British Paterfamilias_--at which he dedicates
+him particularly."
+
+
+
+
+1. _Black Monday_
+
+     "In England, where boys go to boarding schools, if the holidays
+     were not long there would be no opportunity for cultivating the
+     domestic affections."--_Letter of Lord Campbell's, 1835_.
+
+
+On a certain Monday evening late in January, 1881, Paul Bultitude, Esq.
+(of Mincing Lane, Colonial Produce Merchant), was sitting alone in his
+dining-room at Westbourne Terrace after dinner.
+
+The room was a long and lofty one, furnished in the stern uncompromising
+style of the Mahogany Age, now supplanted by the later fashions of
+decoration which, in their outset original and artistic, seem fairly on
+the way to become as meaningless and conventional.
+
+Here were no skilfully contrasted shades of grey or green, no dado, no
+distemper on the walls; the woodwork was grained and varnished after the
+manner of the Philistines, the walls papered in dark crimson, with heavy
+curtains of the same colour, and the sideboard, dinner-waggon, and row
+of stiff chairs were all carved in the same massive and expensive style
+of ugliness. The pictures were those familiar presentments of dirty
+rabbits, fat white horses, bloated goddesses, and misshapen boors, by
+masters who, if younger than they assume to be, must have been quite old
+enough to know better.
+
+Mr. Bultitude was a tall and portly person, of a somewhat pompous and
+overbearing demeanour; not much over fifty, but looking considerably
+older. He had a high shining head, from which the hair had mostly
+departed, what little still remained being of a grizzled auburn,
+prominent pale blue eyes with heavy eyelids and fierce, bushy
+whitey-brown eyebrows. His general expression suggested a conviction of
+his own extreme importance, but, in spite of this, his big underlip
+drooped rather weakly and his double chin slightly receded, giving a
+judge of character reason for suspecting that a certain obstinate
+positiveness observable in Mr. Bultitude's manner might possibly be due
+less to the possession of an unusually strong will than to the
+circumstance that, by some fortunate chance, that will had hitherto
+never met with serious opposition.
+
+The room, with all its aesthetic shortcomings, was comfortable enough,
+and Mr. Bultitude's attitude--he was lying back in a well-wadded leather
+arm-chair, with a glass of claret at his elbow and his feet stretched
+out towards the ruddy blaze of the fire--seemed at first sight to imply
+that happy after-dinner condition of perfect satisfaction with oneself
+and things in general, which is the natural outcome of a good cook, a
+good conscience, and a good digestion.
+
+At first sight; because his face did not confirm the impression--there
+was a latent uneasiness in it, an air of suppressed irritation, as if he
+expected and even dreaded to be disturbed at any moment, and yet was
+powerless to resent the intrusion as he would like to do.
+
+At the slightest sound in the hall outside he would half rise in his
+chair and glance at the door with a mixture of alarm and resignation,
+and as often as the steps died away and the door remained closed, he
+would sink back and resettle himself with a shrug of evident relief.
+
+Habitual novel readers on reading thus far will, I am afraid, prepare
+themselves for the arrival of a faithful cashier with news of
+irretrievable ruin, or a mysterious and cynical stranger threatening
+disclosures of a disgraceful nature.
+
+But all such anticipations must at once be ruthlessly dispelled. Mr.
+Bultitude, although he was certainly a merchant, was a fairly successful
+one--in direct defiance of the laws of fiction, where any connection
+with commerce seems to lead naturally to failure in one of the three
+volumes.
+
+He was an elderly gentleman, too, of irreproachable character and
+antecedents; no Damocles' sword of exposure was swinging over his bald
+but blameless head; he had no disasters to fear and no indiscretions to
+conceal. He had not been intended for melodrama, with which, indeed, he
+would not have considered it a respectable thing to be connected.
+
+In fact, the secret of his uneasiness was so absurdly simple and
+commonplace that I am rather ashamed to have made even a temporary
+mystery of it.
+
+His son Dick was about to return to school that evening, and Mr.
+Bultitude was expecting every moment to be called upon to go through a
+parting scene with him; that was really all that was troubling him.
+
+This sounds very creditable to the tenderness of his feelings as a
+father--for there are some parents who bear such a bereavement at the
+close of the holidays with extraordinary fortitude, if they do not
+actually betray an unnatural satisfaction at the event.
+
+But it was not exactly from softness of heart that he was restless and
+impatient, nor did he dread any severe strain upon his emotions. He was
+not much given to sentiment, and was the author of more than one of
+those pathetically indignant letters to the papers, in which the British
+parent denounces the expenses of education and the unconscionable length
+and frequency of vacations.
+
+He was one of those nervous and fidgety persons who cannot understand
+their own children, looking on them as objectionable monsters whose next
+movements are uncertain--much as Frankenstein must have felt towards
+_his_ monster.
+
+He hated to have a boy about the house, and positively writhed under the
+irrelevant and irrepressible questions, the unnecessary noises and
+boisterous high spirits which nothing would subdue; his son's society
+was to him simply an abominable nuisance, and he pined for a release
+from it from the day the holidays began.
+
+He had been a widower for nearly three years, and no doubt the loss of a
+mother's loving tact, which can check the heedless merriment before it
+becomes intolerable, and interpret and soften the most peevish and
+unreasonable of rebukes, had done much to make the relations between
+parent and children more strained than they might otherwise have been.
+
+As it was, Dick's fear of his father was just great enough to prevent
+any cordiality between them, and not sufficient to make him careful to
+avoid offence, and it is not surprising if, when the time came for him
+to return to his house of bondage at Dr. Grimstone's, Crichton House,
+Market Rodwell, he left his father anything but inconsolable.
+
+Just now, although Mr. Bultitude was so near the hour of his
+deliverance, he still had a bad quarter of an hour before him, in which
+the last farewells must be said, and he found it impossible under these
+circumstances to compose himself for a quiet half-hour's nap, or retire
+to the billiard-room for a cup of coffee and a mild cigar, as he would
+otherwise have done--since he was certain to be disturbed.
+
+And there was another thing which harassed him, and that was a haunting
+dread lest at the last moment some unforeseen accident should prevent
+the boy's departure after all. He had some grounds for this, for only a
+week before, a sudden and unprecedented snowstorm had dashed his hopes,
+on the eve of their fulfilment, by forcing the Doctor to postpone the
+day on which his school was to re-assemble, and now Mr. Bultitude sat on
+brambles until he had seen the house definitely rid of his son's
+presence.
+
+All this time, while the father was fretting and fuming in his
+arm-chair, the son, the unlucky cause of all this discomfort, had been
+standing on the mat outside the door, trying to screw up enough courage
+to go in as if nothing was the matter with him.
+
+He was not looking particularly boisterous just then. On the contrary,
+his face was pale, and his eyelids rather redder than he would quite
+care for them to be seen by any of the "fellows" at Crichton House. All
+the life and spirit had gone out of him for the time; he had a
+troublesome dryness in his throat, and a general sensation of chill
+heaviness, which he himself would have described--expressively enough,
+if not with academical elegance--as "feeling beastly."
+
+The stoutest hearted boy, returning to the most perfect of schools,
+cannot always escape something of this at that dark hour when the sands
+of the holidays have run out to their last golden grain, when the boxes
+are standing corded and labelled in the hall, and some one is going to
+fetch the fatal cab.
+
+Dick had just gone the round of the house, bidding dreary farewells to
+all the servants; an unpleasant ordeal which he would gladly have
+dispensed with, if possible, and which did not serve to raise his
+spirits.
+
+Upstairs, in the bright nursery, he had found his old nurse sitting
+sewing by the high wire fender. She was a stern, hard-featured old lady,
+who had systematically slapped him through infancy into boyhood, and he
+had had some stormy passages with her during the past few weeks; but she
+softened now in the most unexpected manner as she said good-bye, and
+told him he was a "pleasant, good-hearted young gentleman, after all,
+though that aggravating and contrairy sometimes." And then she
+predicted, with some of the rashness attaching to irresponsibility, that
+he would be "the best boy this next term as ever was, and work hard at
+all his lessons, and bring home a prize"--but all this unusual
+gentleness only made the interview more difficult to come out of with
+any credit for self-control.
+
+Then downstairs, the cook had come up in her evening brown print and
+clean collar, from her warm spice-scented kitchen, to remark cheerily
+that "Lor bless his heart, what with all these telegrafts and things,
+time flew so fast nowadays that they'd be having him back again before
+they all knew where they were!" which had a certain spurious consolation
+about it, until one saw that, after all, it put the case entirely from
+her own standpoint.
+
+After this Dick had parted from his elder sister Barbara and his young
+brother Roly, and had arrived where we found him first, at the mat
+outside the dining-room door, where he still lingered shivering in the
+cold foggy hall.
+
+Somehow, he could not bring himself to take the next step at once; he
+knew pretty well what his father's feelings would be, and a parting is a
+very unpleasant ceremony to one who feels that the regret is all on his
+own side.
+
+But it was no use putting it off any longer; he resolved at last to go
+in and get it over, and opened the door accordingly. How warm and
+comfortable the room looked--more comfortable than it had ever seemed to
+him before, even on the first day of the holidays!
+
+And his father would be sitting there in a quarter of an hour's time,
+just as he was now, while he himself would be lumbering along to the
+station through the dismal raw fog!
+
+How unspeakably delightful it must be, thought Dick enviously, to be
+grown up and never worried by the thoughts of school and lesson-books;
+to be able to look forward to returning to the same comfortable house,
+and living the same easy life, day after day, week after week, with no
+fear of a swiftly advancing Black Monday.
+
+Gloomy moralists might have informed him that we cannot escape school by
+simply growing up, and that, even for those who contrive this and make
+a long holiday of their lives, there comes a time when the days are
+grudgingly counted to a blacker Monday than ever made a school-boy's
+heart quake within him.
+
+But then Dick would never have believed them, and the moralists would
+only have wasted much excellent common sense upon him.
+
+Paul Bultitude's face cleared as he saw his son come in. "There you are,
+eh?" he said, with evident satisfaction, as he turned in his chair,
+intending to cut the scene as short as possible. "So you're off at last?
+Well, holidays can't last for ever--by a merciful decree of Providence,
+they don't last quite for ever! There, good-bye, good-bye, be a good boy
+this term, no more scrapes, mind. And now you'd better run away, and put
+on your coat--you're keeping the cab waiting all this time."
+
+"No, I'm not," said Dick, "Boaler hasn't gone to fetch one yet."
+
+"Not gone to fetch a cab yet!" cried Paul, with evident alarm, "why, God
+bless my soul, what's the man thinking about? You'll lose your train! I
+know you'll lose the train, and there will be another day lost, after
+the extra week gone already through that snow! I must see to this
+myself. Ring the bell, tell Boaler to start this instant--I insist on
+his fetching a cab this instant!"
+
+"Well, it's not my fault, you know," grumbled Dick, not considering so
+much anxiety at all flattering, "but Boaler has gone now. I just heard
+the gate shut."
+
+"Ah!" said his father, with more composure, "and now," he suggested,
+"you'd better shake hands, and then go up and say good-bye to your
+sister--you've no time to spare."
+
+"I've said good-bye to them," said Dick. "Mayn't I stay here till--till
+Boaler comes?"
+
+This request was due, less to filial affection than a faint desire for
+dessert, which even his feelings could not altogether stifle. Mr.
+Bultitude granted it with a very bad grace.
+
+"I suppose you can if you want to," he said impatiently, "only do one
+thing or the other--stay outside, or shut the door and come in and sit
+down quietly. I cannot sit in a thorough draught!"
+
+Dick obeyed, and applied himself to the dessert with rather an injured
+expression.
+
+His father felt a greater sense of constraint and worry than ever; the
+interview, as he had feared, seemed likely to last some time, and he
+felt that he ought to improve the occasion in some way, or, at all
+events, make some observation. But, for all that, he had not the
+remotest idea what to say to this red-haired, solemn boy, who sat
+staring gloomily at him in the intervals of filling his mouth. The
+situation grew more embarrassing every moment.
+
+At last, as he felt himself likely to have more to say in reproof than
+on any other subject, he began with that.
+
+"There's one thing I want to talk to you about before you go," he began,
+"and that's this. I had a most unsatisfactory report of you this last
+term; don't let me have that again. Dr. Grimstone tells me--ah, I have
+his letter here--yes, he says (and just attend, instead of making
+yourself ill with preserved ginger)--he says, 'Your son has great
+natural capacity, and excellent abilities; but I regret to say that,
+instead of applying himself as he might do, he misuses his advantages,
+and succeeds in setting a mischievous example to--if not actually
+misleading--his companions.' That's a pleasant account for a father to
+read! Here am I, sending you to an expensive school, furnishing you with
+great natural capacity and excellent abilities, and--and--every other
+school requisite, and all you do is to misuse them! It's disgraceful!
+And misleading your companions, too! Why, at your age, they ought to
+mislead _you_--No, I don't mean that--but what I may tell you is that
+I've written a very strong letter to Dr. Grimstone, saying what pain it
+gave me to hear you misbehaved yourself, and telling him, if he ever
+caught you setting an example of any sort, mind that, _any_ sort, in the
+future--he was to, ah, to remember some of Solomon's very sensible
+remarks on the subject. So I should strongly advise you to take care
+what you're about in future, for your own sake!"
+
+This was not a very encouraging address, perhaps, but it did not seem to
+distress Dick to any extent; he had heard very much the same sort of
+thing several times before, and had been fully prepared for it then.
+
+He had been seeking distraction in almonds and raisins, but now they
+only choked instead of consoling him, and he gave them up and sat
+brooding silently over his hard lot instead, with a dull, blank
+dejection which those only who have gone through the same thing in their
+boyhood will understand. To others, whose school life has been one
+unchequered course of excitement and success, it will be
+incomprehensible enough--and so much the better for them.
+
+He sat listening to the grim sphinx clock on the black marble
+chimneypiece, as it remorselessly ticked away his last few moments of
+home-life, and he ingeniously set himself to crown his sorrow by
+reviving recollections of happier days.
+
+In one of the corners of the overmantel there was still a sprig of
+withered laurel left forgotten, and his eye fell on it now with grim
+satisfaction. He made his thoughts travel back to that delightful
+afternoon on Christmas Eve, when they had all come home riotous through
+the brilliant streets, laden with purchases from the Baker Street
+Bazaar, and then had decorated the rooms with such free and careless
+gaiety.
+
+And the Christmas dinner too! He had sat just where he was sitting now,
+with, ah, such a difference in every other respect--the time had not
+come then when the thought of "only so many more weeks and days left"
+had begun to intrude its grisly shape, like the skull at an ancient
+feast.
+
+And yet he could distinctly recollect now, and with bitter remorse, that
+he had not enjoyed himself then as much as he ought to have done; he
+even remembered an impious opinion of his that the proceedings were
+"slow." Slow! with plenty to eat, and three (four, if he had only known
+it) more weeks of holiday before him; with Boxing Day and the brisk
+exhilarating drive to the Crystal Palace immediately following, with all
+the rest of a season of licence and varied joys to come, which he could
+hardly trust himself to look back upon now! He must have been mad to
+think such a thing.
+
+Overhead his sister Barbara was playing softly one of the airs from "The
+Pirates" (it was Frederic's appeal to the Major-General's daughters),
+and the music, freed from the serio-comic situation which it
+illustrates, had a tenderness and pathos of its own which went to Dick's
+heart and intensified his melancholy.
+
+He had gone (in secret, for Mr. Bultitude disapproved of such
+dissipations) to hear the Opera in the holidays, and now the piano
+conjured the whole scene up for him again--there would be no more
+theatre-going for him for a very long time!
+
+By this time Mr. Bultitude began to feel the silence becoming once more
+oppressive, and roused himself with a yawn. "Heigho!" he said, "Boaler's
+an uncommonly long time fetching that cab!"
+
+Dick felt more injured than ever, and showed it by drawing what he
+intended for a moving sigh.
+
+Unfortunately it was misunderstood.
+
+"I do wish, sir," said his parent testily, "you would try to break
+yourself of that habit of breathing hard. The society of a grampus (for
+it's no less) delights no one and offends many--including me--and for
+Heaven's sake, Dick, don't kick the leg of the table in that way; you
+know it simply maddens me. What do you do it for? Why can't you learn to
+sit at table like a gentleman?"
+
+Dick mumbled some apology, and then, having found his tongue and
+remembered his necessities, said, with a nervous catch in his voice,
+"Oh, I say, father, will you--can you let me have some pocket-money,
+please, to go back with?"
+
+Mr. Bultitude looked as if his son had petitioned for a latch-key.
+
+"Pocket-money!" he repeated, "why, you can't want money. Didn't your
+grandmother give you a sovereign as a Christmas-box? And I gave you ten
+shillings myself!"
+
+"I do want it, though," said Dick; "that's all spent. And you know you
+always _have_ given me money to take back."
+
+"If I do give you some, you'll only go and spend it," grumbled Mr.
+Bultitude, as if he considered money an object of art.
+
+"I shan't spend it all at once, and I shall want some to put in the
+plate on Sundays. We always have to put in the plate when it's a
+collection. And there's the cab to pay."
+
+"Boaler has orders to pay your cab--as you know well enough," said his
+father, "but I suppose you must have some, though you cost me enough,
+Heaven knows, without this additional expense."
+
+And at this he brought up a fistful of loose silver and gold from one of
+his trouser-pockets, and spread it deliberately out on the table in
+front of him in shining rows.
+
+Dick's eyes sparkled at the sight of so much wealth; for a moment or two
+he almost forgot the pangs of approaching exile in the thought of the
+dignity and credit which a single one of those bright new sovereigns
+would procure for him.
+
+It would ensure him surreptitious luxuries and open friendships as long
+as it lasted. Even Tipping, the head boy of the school, who had gone
+into tails, brought back no more, and besides, the money would bring
+him handsomely out of certain pecuniary difficulties to which an
+unexpected act of parental authority had exposed him; he could easily
+dispose of all claims with such a sum at command, and then his father
+could so easily spare it out of so much!
+
+Meanwhile Mr. Bultitude, with great care and precision, selected from
+the coins before him a florin, two shillings, and two sixpences, which
+he pushed across to his son, who looked at them with a disappointment he
+did not care to conceal.
+
+"An uncommonly liberal allowance for a young fellow like you," he
+observed. "Don't buy any foolishness with it, and if, towards the end of
+the term you want a little more, and write an intelligible letter asking
+for it, and I think proper to let you have it--why, you'll get it, you
+know."
+
+Dick had not the courage to ask for more, much as he longed to do so, so
+he put the money in his purse with very qualified expressions of
+gratitude.
+
+In his purse he seemed to find something which had escaped his memory,
+for he took out a small parcel and unfolded it with some hesitation.
+
+"I nearly forgot," he said, speaking with more animation than he had yet
+done, "I didn't like to take it without asking you, but is this any use?
+May I have it?"
+
+"Eh?" said Mr. Bultitude, sharply, "what's that? Something else--what is
+it you want now?"
+
+"It's only that stone Uncle Duke brought mamma from India; the thing, he
+said, they called a 'Pagoda stone,' or something, out there."
+
+"Pagoda stone? The boy means Garuda Stone. I should like to know how you
+got hold of that; you've been meddling in my drawers, now, a thing I
+will not put up with, as I've told you over and over again."
+
+"No, I haven't, then," said Dick, "I found it in a tray in the
+drawing-room, and Barbara said, perhaps, if I asked you, you might let
+me have it, as she didn't think it was any use to you."
+
+"Then Barbara had no right to say anything of the sort."
+
+"But may I have it? I may, mayn't I?" persisted Dick.
+
+"Have it? certainly not. What could you possibly want with a thing like
+that? It's ridiculous. Give it to me."
+
+Dick handed it over reluctantly enough. It was not much to look at,
+quite an insignificant-looking little square tablet of greyish green
+stone, pierced at one angle, and having on two of its faces faint traces
+of mysterious letters or symbols, which time had made very difficult to
+distinguish.
+
+It looked harmless enough as Mr. Bultitude took it in his hand; there
+was no kindly hand to hold him back, no warning voice to hint that there
+might possibly be sleeping within that small marble block the pent-up
+energy of long-forgotten Eastern necromancy, just as ready as ever to
+awake into action at the first words which had power to evoke it.
+
+There was no one; but even if there had been such a person, Paul
+Bultitude was a sober prosaic individual, who would probably have
+treated the warning as a piece of ridiculous superstition.
+
+As it was, no man could have put himself in a position of extreme peril
+with a more perfect unconsciousness of his danger.
+
+
+
+
+2. _A Grand Transformation Scene_
+
+     "Magnaque numinibus vota exaudita malignis."
+
+
+Paul Bultitude put on his glasses to examine the stone more carefully,
+for it was some time since he had last seen or thought about it. Then he
+looked up and said once more, "What use would a thing like this be to
+you?"
+
+Dick would have considered it a very valuable prize indeed; he could
+have exhibited it to admiring friends--during lessons, of course, when
+it would prove a most agreeable distraction; he could have played with
+and fingered it incessantly, invented astonishing legends of its powers
+and virtues; and, at last, when he had grown tired of it, have bartered
+it for any more desirable article that might take his fancy. All these
+advantages were present to his mind in a vague shifting form, but he
+could not find either courage or words to explain them.
+
+Consequently he only said awkwardly, "Oh, I don't know, I should like
+it."
+
+"Well, any way," said Paul, "you certainly won't have it. It's worth
+keeping, whatever it is, as the only thing your uncle Marmaduke was ever
+known to give to anybody."
+
+Marmaduke Paradine, his brother-in-law, was not a connection of whom he
+had much reason to feel particularly proud. One of those persons endowed
+with what are known as "insinuating manners and address," he had, after
+some futile attempts to enter the army, been sent out to Bombay as agent
+for a Manchester firm, and in that capacity had contrived to be mixed up
+in some more than shady transactions with rival exporters and native
+dealers up the country, which led to an unceremonious dismissal by his
+employers.
+
+He had brought home the stone from India as a propitiatory token of
+remembrance, more portable and less expensive than the lacquered
+cabinets, brasses, stuffs and carved work which are expected from
+friends at such a distance, and he had been received with pardon and
+started once more, until certain other proceedings of his, shadier
+still, had obliged Paul to forbid him the house at Westbourne Terrace.
+
+Since then little had been heard of him, and the reports which reached
+Mr. Bultitude of his disreputable relative's connection with the
+promotion of a series of companies of the kind affected by the widow and
+curate, and exposed in money articles and law courts, gave him no
+desire to renew his acquaintance.
+
+"Isn't it a talisman, though?" said Dick, rather unfortunately for any
+hopes he might have of persuading his father to entrust him with the
+coveted treasure.
+
+"I'm sure I can't tell you," yawned Paul, "how do you mean?"
+
+"I don't know, only Uncle Duke once said something about it. Barbara
+heard him tell mamma. I say, perhaps it's like the one in Scott, and
+cures people of things, though I don't think it's that sort of talisman
+either, because I tried it once on my chilblains, and it wasn't a bit of
+good. If you would only let me have it, perhaps I might find out, you
+know."
+
+"You might," said his father drily, apparently not much influenced by
+this inducement, "but you won't have the chance. If it has a secret, I
+will find it out for myself" (he little knew how literally he was to be
+taken at his word), "and, by the way, there's your cab--at last."
+
+There was a sound of wheels outside, and, as Dick heard them, he grew
+desperate in his extremity; a wish he had long secretly cherished
+unspoken, without ever hoping for courage to give it words, rose to his
+lips now; he got up and moved timidly towards his father.
+
+"Father," he said, "there's something I want to say to you so much
+before I go. Do let me ask you now."
+
+"Well, what is it?" said Paul. "Make haste, you haven't much time."
+
+"It's this. I want you to--to let me leave Grimstone's at the end of the
+term."
+
+Paul stared at him, angry and incredulous, "Let you leave Dr.
+Grimstone's (oblige me by giving him his full title when you speak of
+him)," he said slowly. "Why, what do you mean? It's an excellent
+school--never saw a better expressed prospectus in my life. And my old
+friend Bangle, Sir Benjamin Bangle, who's a member of the School Board,
+and ought to know something about schools, strongly recommended
+it--would have sent his own son there, if he hadn't entered him at Eton.
+And when I pay for most of the extras for you too. Dancing, by Gad, and
+meat for breakfast. I'm sure I don't know what you would have."
+
+"I'd like to go to Marlborough, or Harrow, or somewhere," whimpered
+Dick. "Jolland's going to Harrow at Easter. (Jolland's one of the
+fellows at Grimstone's--Dr. Grimstone's I mean.) And what does old
+Bangle know about it? He hasn't got to go there himself! And--and
+Grimstone's jolly enough to fellows he likes, but he doesn't like
+_me_--he's always sitting on me for something--and I hate some of the
+fellows there, and altogether it's beastly. Do let me leave! If you
+don't want me to go to a public school, I--I could stop at home and have
+a private tutor--like Joe Twitterley!"
+
+"It's all ridiculous nonsense, I tell you," said Paul angrily,
+"ridiculous nonsense! And, once for all, I'll put a stop to it. I don't
+approve of public schools for boys like you, and, what's more, I can't
+afford it. As for private tutors, that's absurd! So you will just make
+up your mind to stay at Crichton House as long as I think proper to keep
+you there, and there's an end of that!"
+
+At this final blow to all his hopes, Dick began to sob in a subdued
+hopeless kind of way, which was more than his father could bear. To do
+Paul justice, he had not meant to be quite so harsh when the boy was
+about to set out for school, and, a little ashamed of his irritation, he
+sought to justify his decision.
+
+He chose to do this by delivering a short homily on the advantages of
+school, by which he might lead Dick to look on the matter in the calm
+light of reason and common sense, and commonplaces on the subject began
+to rise to the surface of his mind, from the rather muddy depths to
+which they had long since sunk.
+
+He began to give Dick the benefit of all this stagnant wisdom, with a
+feeling of surprise as he went on, at his own powerful and original way
+of putting things.
+
+"Now, you know, it's no use to cry like that," he began. "It's--ah--the
+usual thing for boys at school, I'm quite aware, to go about fancying
+they're very ill-used, and miserable, and all the rest of it, just as if
+people in my position had their sons educated out of spite! It's one of
+those petty troubles all boys have to go through. And you mark my words,
+my boy, when they go out into the world and have real trials to put up
+with, and grow middle-aged men, like me, why, they see what fools
+they've been, Dick; they see what fools they've been. All the--hum, the
+innocent games and delights of boyhood, and that sort of thing, you
+know--come back to them--and then they look back to those hours passed
+at school as the happiest, aye, the very happiest time of their life!"
+
+"Well," said Dick, "then I hope it won't be the happiest time in mine,
+that's all! And you may have been happy at the school you went to,
+perhaps, but I don't believe you would very much care about being a boy
+again like me, and going back to Grimstone's, you know you wouldn't!"
+
+This put Paul on his mettle; he had warmed well to his subject, and
+could not let this open challenge pass unnoticed--it gave him such an
+opening for a cheap and easy effect.
+
+He still had the stone in his hand as he sank back into his chair,
+smiling with a tolerant superiority.
+
+"Perhaps you will believe me," he said, impressively, "when I tell you,
+old as I am and much as you envy me, I only wish, at this very moment, I
+could be a boy again, like you. Going back to school wouldn't make me
+unhappy, I can tell you."
+
+It is so fatally easy to say more than we mean in the desire to make as
+strong an impression as possible. Well for most of us that--more
+fortunate than Mr. Bultitude--we can generally do so without fear of
+being taken too strictly at our word.
+
+As he spoke these unlucky words, he felt a slight shiver, followed by a
+curious shrinking sensation all over him. It was odd, too, but the
+arm-chair in which he sat seemed to have grown so much bigger all at
+once. He felt a passing surprise, but concluded it must be fancy, and
+went on as comfortably as before.
+
+"I should like it, my boy, but what's the good of wishing? I only
+mention it to prove that I was not speaking at random. I'm an old man
+and you're a young boy, and, that being so, why, of course--What the
+dooce are you giggling about?"
+
+For Dick, after some seconds of half-frightened open-mouthed staring,
+had suddenly burst into a violent fit of almost hysterical giggling,
+which he seemed trying vainly to suppress.
+
+This naturally annoyed Mr. Bultitude, and he went on with immense
+dignity, "I--ah--I'm not aware that I've been saying anything
+particularly ridiculous. You seem to be amused?"
+
+"Don't!" gasped Dick. "It, it isn't anything you're saying--it's,
+it's--oh, can't you feel any difference?"
+
+"The sooner you go back to school the better!" said Paul angrily. "I
+wash my hands of you. When I do take the trouble to give you any advice,
+it's received with ridicule. You always were an ill-mannered little cub.
+I've had quite enough of this. Leave the room, sir!"
+
+The wheels must have belonged to some other cab, for none had stopped at
+the pavement as yet; but Mr. Bultitude was justly indignant, and could
+stand the interview no longer. Dick, however, made no attempt to move;
+he remained there, choking and shaking with laughter, while his father
+sat stiffly on his chair, trying to ignore his son's unmannerly conduct,
+but only partially succeeding.
+
+No one can calmly endure watching other people laughing at him like
+idiots, while he is left perfectly incapable of guessing what he has
+said or done to amuse them. Even when this is known, it requires a
+peculiarly keen sense of humour to see the point of a joke against
+oneself.
+
+At last his patience gave out, and he said coldly, "Now, perhaps, if you
+are quite yourself again, you will be good enough to let me know what
+the joke is?"
+
+Dick, looking flushed and half-ashamed, tried again and again to speak,
+but each time the attempt was too much for him. After a time he did
+succeed, but his voice was hoarse and shaken with laughter as he spoke.
+"Haven't you found it out yet? Go and look at yourself in the glass--it
+will make you roar!"
+
+There was the usual narrow sheet of plate glass at the back of the
+sideboard, and to this Mr. Bultitude walked, almost under protest, and
+with a cold dignity. It occurred to him that he might have a smudge on
+his face or something wrong with his collar and tie--something to
+account to some extent for his son's frivolous and insulting behaviour.
+No suspicion of the terrible truth crossed his mind as yet.
+
+Meanwhile Dick was looking on eagerly with a chuckle of anticipation, as
+one who watches the dawning appreciation of an excellent joke.
+
+But no sooner had Paul met the reflection in the glass than he started
+back in incredulous horror--then returned and stared again and again.
+
+Surely, surely, this could not be he!
+
+He had expected to see his own familiar portly bow-windowed presence
+there--but somehow, look as he would, the mirror insisted upon
+reflecting the figure of his son Dick. Could he possibly have become
+invisible and have lost the power of casting a reflection--or how was it
+that Dick, and only Dick, was to be seen there?
+
+How was it, too, when he looked round, there was the boy still sitting
+there? It could not be Dick, evidently, that he saw in the glass.
+Besides, the reflection opposite him moved when he moved, returned when
+he returned, copied his every gesture!
+
+He turned round upon his son with angry and yet hopeful suspicion. "You,
+you've been playing some of your infernal tricks with this mirror, sir,"
+he cried fiercely. "What have you done to it?"
+
+"Done! how could I do anything to it? As if you didn't know that!"
+
+"Then," stammered Paul, determined to know the worst, "then do you, do
+you mean to tell me you can see any--alteration in me? Tell me the truth
+now!"
+
+"I should just think I could!" said Dick emphatically. "It's very queer,
+but just look here," and he came up to the sideboard and placed himself
+by the side of his horrified father. "Why," he said, with another
+giggle, "we're--he-he--as like as two peas!"
+
+They were indeed; the glass reflected now two small boys, each with
+chubby cheeks and auburn hair, both dressed, too, exactly alike, in Eton
+jackets and broad white collars; the only difference to be seen between
+them was that, while one face wore an expression of intense glee and
+satisfaction, the other--the one which Mr. Bultitude was beginning to
+fear must belong to him--was lengthened and drawn with dismay and
+bewilderment.
+
+"Dick," said Paul faintly, "what is all this? Who has been, been taking
+these liberties with me?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know," protested Dick. "It wasn't me. I believe you
+did it all yourself."
+
+"Did it all myself!" repeated Paul indignantly. "Is it likely I should?
+It's some trickery, I tell you, some villainous plot. The worst of it
+is," he added plaintively, "I don't understand who I'm supposed to be
+now. Dick, who am I?"
+
+"You can't be me," said Dick, "because here I am, you know. And you're
+not yourself, that's very plain. You must be _somebody_, I suppose," he
+added dubiously.
+
+"Of course I am. What do you mean?" said Paul angrily. "Never mind who
+I am. I feel just the same as I always did. Tell me when you first began
+to notice any change. Could you see it coming on at all, eh?"
+
+"It was all at once, just as you were talking about school and all that.
+You said you only wished---- Why of course; look here, it must be the
+stone that did it!"
+
+"Stone! what stone?" said Paul. "I don't know what you're talking
+about."
+
+"Yes, you do--the Garuda Stone! You've got it in your hand still. Don't
+you see? It's a real talisman after all! How jolly!"
+
+"I didn't do anything to set it off; and besides, oh, it's perfectly
+absurd! How can there be such things as talismans nowadays, eh? Tell me
+that."
+
+"Well, something's happened to you, hasn't it? And it must have been
+done somehow," argued Dick.
+
+"I was holding the confounded thing, certainly," said Paul, "here it is.
+But what could I have said to start it? What has it done this to me
+for?"
+
+"I know!" cried Dick. "Don't you remember? You said you wished you were
+a boy again, like me. So you are, you see, exactly like me! What a lark
+it is, isn't it? But, I say, you can't go up to business like that, you
+know, can you? I tell you what, you'd better come to Grimstone's with me
+now, and see how you like it. I shouldn't mind so much if you came too.
+Grimstone's face would be splendid when he saw two of us. Do come!"
+
+"That's ridiculous nonsense you're talking," said Paul, "and you know
+it. What should I do at school at my age? I tell you I'm the same as
+ever inside, though I may have shrunk into a little rascally boy to look
+at. And it's simply an abominable nuisance, Dick, that's what it is! Why
+on earth couldn't you let the stone alone? Just see what mischief
+you've done by meddling now--put me to all this inconvenience!"
+
+"You shouldn't have wished," said Dick.
+
+"Wished!" echoed Mr. Bultitude. "Why, to be sure," he said, with a gleam
+of returning hopefulness, "of course--I never thought of that. The
+thing's a wishing stone; it must be! You have to hold it, I suppose, and
+then say what you wish aloud, and there you are. If that's the case, I
+can soon put it all right by simply wishing myself back again. I--I
+shall have a good laugh at all this by and by--I know I shall!"
+
+He took the stone, and got into a corner by himself where he began
+repeating the words, "I wish I was back again," "I wish I was the man I
+was five minutes ago," "I wish all this had not happened," and so on,
+until he was very exhausted and red in the face. He tried with the stone
+held in his left hand, as well as his right, sitting and standing, under
+all the various conditions he could think of, but absolutely nothing
+came of it; he was just as exasperatingly boyish and youthful as ever at
+the end of it.
+
+"I don't like this," he said at last, giving it up with a rather
+crestfallen air. "It seems to me that this diabolical invention has got
+out of order somehow; I can't make it work any more!"
+
+"Perhaps," suggested Dick, who had shown throughout the most
+unsympathetic cheerfulness, "perhaps it's one of those talismans that
+only give you one wish, and you've had it, you know?"
+
+"Then it's all over!" groaned Paul. "What the dooce am I to do? What
+shall I do? Suggest something, for Heaven's sake; don't stand cackling
+there in that unfeeling manner. Can't you see what a terrible, mess I've
+got into? Suppose--only suppose your sister or one of the servants were
+to come in, and see me like this!"
+
+This suggestion simply enchanted Dick. "Let's have 'em all up," he
+laughed; "it would be such fun! How they will laugh when we tell them!"
+And he rushed to the bell.
+
+"Touch that bell if you dare!" screamed Paul. "I won't be seen in this
+condition by anybody! What on earth could have induced that scoundrelly
+uncle of yours to bring such a horrible thing as this over I can't
+imagine! I never heard of such a situation as this in my life. I can't
+stay like this, you know--it's not to be thought of! I--I wonder whether
+it would be any use to send over to Dr. Bustard and ask him to step in;
+he might give me something to bring me round. But then the whole
+neighbourhood would hear about it! If I don't see my way out of this
+soon, I shall go raving mad!"
+
+And he paced restlessly up and down the room with his brain on fire.
+
+All at once, as he became able to think more coherently, there occurred
+to him a chance, slender and desperate enough, but still a chance, of
+escaping even yet the consequences of his folly.
+
+He was forced to conclude that, however improbable and fantastic it
+might appear in this rationalistic age, there must be some hidden power
+in this Garuda Stone which had put him in his present very unpleasant
+position. It was plain too that the virtues of the talisman refused to
+exert themselves any more at his bidding.
+
+But it did not follow that in another's hands the spell would remain as
+powerless. At all events, it was an experiment well worth the trial, and
+he lost no time in explaining the notion to Dick, who, by the sparkle in
+his eyes and suppressed excitement in his manner, seemed to think there
+might be something in it.
+
+"I may as well try," he said, "give it to me."
+
+"Take it, my dear boy," said Paul, with a paternal air that sorely tried
+Dick's recovered gravity, it contrasted so absurdly with his altered
+appearance. "Take it, and wish your poor old father himself again!"
+
+Dick took it, and held it thoughtfully for some moments, while Paul
+waited in nervous impatience. "Isn't it any use?" he said dolefully at
+last, as nothing happened.
+
+"I don't know," said Dick calmly, "I haven't wished yet."
+
+"Then do so at once," said Paul fussily, "do so at once. There's no time
+to waste, every moment is of importance--your cab will be here directly.
+Although, although I'm altered in this ridiculous way, I hope I still
+retain my authority as a father, and as a father, by Gad, I expect you
+to obey me, sir!"
+
+"Oh, all right," said Dick indifferently, "you may keep the authority if
+you like."
+
+"Then do what I tell you. Can't you see how urgent it is that a scandal
+like this shouldn't get about? I should be the laughing-stock of the
+city. Not a soul must ever guess that such a thing has happened. You
+must see that yourself."
+
+"Yes," said Dick, who all this time was sitting on a corner of the
+table, swinging his legs, "I see that. It will be all right. I'm going
+to wish in a minute, and no one will guess there has been anything the
+matter."
+
+"That's a good boy!" said Paul, much relieved, "I know your heart is in
+the right place--only do make haste."
+
+"I suppose," Dick asked, "when you are yourself again, things would go
+on just as usual?"
+
+"I--I hope so."
+
+"I mean you will go on sitting here, and I shall go off to Grimstone's?"
+
+"Of course, of course," said Paul; "don't ask so many questions. I'm
+sure you quite understand what has to be done, so get on. We might be
+found like this any minute."
+
+"That settles it," said Dick, "any fellow would do it after that."
+
+"Yes, yes, but you're so slow about it!"
+
+"Don't be in a hurry," said Dick, "you mayn't like it after all when
+I've done it."
+
+"Done what?" asked Mr. Bultitude sharply, struck by something sinister
+and peculiar in the boy's manner.
+
+"Well, I don't mind telling you," said Dick, "it's fairer. You see, you
+wished to be a boy just like me, didn't you?"
+
+"I didn't mean it," protested Paul.
+
+"Ah, you couldn't expect a stone to know that; at any rate, it made you
+into a boy like me directly. Now, if I wish myself a man just like you
+were ten minutes ago, before you took the stone, that will put things
+all right again, won't it?"
+
+"Is the boy mad?" cried Paul, horrified at this proposal. "Why, why,
+that would be worse than ever!"
+
+"I don't see that," objected Dick, stubbornly. "No one would know
+anything about it then."
+
+"But, you little blockhead, can't I make you understand? It wouldn't do
+at all. We should both of us be wrong then--each with the other's
+personal appearance."
+
+"Well," said Dick blandly, "I shouldn't mind that."
+
+"But I should--I mind very much. I object strongly to such a--such a
+preposterous arrangement. And what's more, I won't have it. Do you hear,
+I forbid you to think of any such thing. Give me back that stone. I
+can't trust you with it after this."
+
+"I can't help it," said Dick doggedly. "You've had your wish, and I
+don't see why I shouldn't have mine. I mean to have it, too."
+
+"Why, you unnatural little rascal!" cried the justly-enraged father, "do
+you mean to defy me? I tell you I will have that stone! Give it up this
+instant!" and he made a movement towards his son, as if he meant to
+recover the talisman by main force.
+
+But Dick was too quick for him. Slipping off the table with great
+agility, he planted himself firmly on the hearth-rug, with the hand that
+held the stone clenched behind his back, and the other raised in
+self-defence.
+
+"I'd much rather you wouldn't make me hit you, you know," he said,
+"because, in spite of what's happened, you're still my father, I
+suppose. But if you interfere with me before I've done with this stone,
+I'm afraid I shall have to punch your head."
+
+Mr. Bultitude retreated a few steps apprehensively, feeling himself no
+match for his son, except in size and general appearance; and for some
+moments of really frightful intensity they stood panting on the
+hearth-rug, each cautiously watching the other, on his guard against
+stratagem and surprise.
+
+It was one of those painful domestic scenes which are fortunately rare
+between father and son.
+
+Overhead, the latest rollicking French polka was being rattled out, with
+a savage irony of which pianos, even by the best makers, can at times be
+capable.
+
+Suddenly Dick drew himself up. "Stand out of my way!" he cried
+excitedly, "I am going to do it. I wish I was a man like you were just
+now!"
+
+And as he spoke, Mr. Bultitude had the bitterness of seeing his
+unscrupulous son swell out like the frog in the fable, till he stood
+there before him the exact duplicate of what Paul had so lately been!
+
+The transformed Dick began to skip and dance round the room in high
+glee, with as much agility as his increased bulk would allow. "It's all
+right, you see," he said. "The old stone's as good as ever. You can't
+say anyone would ever know, to look at us."
+
+And then he threw himself panting into a chair, and began to laugh
+excitedly at the success of his unprincipled manoeuvres.
+
+As for Paul, he was perfectly furious at having been so outwitted and
+overreached. It was a long time before he could command his voice
+sufficiently to say, savagely: "Well, you've had your way, and a pretty
+mess you've made of it. We're both of us in false positions now. I hope
+you're satisfied, I'm sure. Do you think you'll care about going back to
+Crichton House in that state?"
+
+"No," said Dick, very decidedly: "I'm quite sure I shouldn't."
+
+"Well, I can't help it. You've brought it on yourself; and, provided the
+Doctor sees no objection to take you back as you are and receive you as
+one of his pupils, I shall most certainly send you there."
+
+Paul did not really mean this, he only meant to frighten him; for he
+still trusted that, by letting Boaler into the secret, the charm might
+be set in motion once more, and the difficulty comfortably overcome. But
+his threat had a most unfortunate effect upon Dick; it hardened him to
+take a course he might otherwise have shrunk from.
+
+"Oh," he said, "you're going to do that? But doesn't it strike you that
+things are rather altered with us now?"
+
+"They are, to a certain extent, of course," said Paul, "through my folly
+and your wicked cunning; but a word or two of explanation from me----"
+
+"You'll find it will take more explanation than you think," said Dick;
+"but, of course, you can try, if you think it worth while--when you get
+to Grimstone's."
+
+"When I,--I don't understand. When I,--what did you say?" gasped Paul.
+
+"Why, you see," exclaimed Dick, "it would never have done for us both to
+go back; the chaps would have humbugged us so, and as I hate the place
+and you seem so fond of being a boy and going back to school and that, I
+thought perhaps it would be best for you to go and see how you liked
+it!"
+
+"I never will! I'll not stir from this room! I dare you to try to move
+me!" cried Paul. And just then there was the sound of wheels outside
+once more. They stopped before the house, the bell rang sharply--the
+long-expected cab had come at last.
+
+"You've no time to lose," said Dick, "get your coat on."
+
+Mr. Bultitude tried to treat the affair as a joke. He laughed a ghastly
+little laugh.
+
+"Ha! ha! you've fairly caught your poor father this time; you've proved
+him in the wrong. I admit I said more than I exactly meant. But that's
+enough. Don't drive a good joke too far; shake hands, and let us see if
+we can't find a way out of this!"
+
+But Dick only warmed his coat tails at the fire as he said, with a very
+ungenerous reminiscence of his father's manner: "You are going back to
+an excellent establishment, where you will enjoy all the comforts of
+home--I can specially recommend the stickjaw; look out for it on
+Tuesdays and Fridays. You will once more take part in the games and
+lessons of happy boyhood. (Did you ever play 'chevy' when you were a boy
+before? You'll enjoy chevy.) And you will find your companions easy
+enough to get on with, if you don't go giving yourself airs; they won't
+stand airs. Now good-bye, my boy, and bless you!"
+
+Paul stood staring stupidly at this outrageous assumption; he could
+scarcely believe yet that it was meant in cruel earnest. Before he could
+answer, the door opened and Boaler appeared.
+
+"Had a deal of trouble to find a keb, sir, on a night like this," he
+said to the false Dick, "but the luggage is all on top, and the man says
+there's plenty of time still."
+
+"Good-bye then, my boy," said Dick, with well-assumed tenderness, but a
+rather dangerous light in his eye. "My compliments to the Doctor,
+remember."
+
+Paul turned indignantly from him to the butler; he, at least, would
+stand by him. Boaler would not see a master who had always been fair, if
+not indulgent, to him driven from his home in this cold-blooded manner!
+
+He made two or three attempts to speak, for his brain whirled so with
+scathing, burning things to say. He would expose the fraud then and
+there, and defy the impudent usurper; he would warn every one against
+this spurious pinchbeck imitation of himself. The whole household should
+be summoned and called upon to judge between the two!
+
+No doubt, if he had had enough self-command to do all this effectually,
+while Dick had as yet not had the time thoroughly to adapt himself to
+his altered circumstances, he might have turned the situation at the
+outset, and spared himself some very painful experiences.
+
+But it is very often precisely those words which are the most vitally
+important to be said that refuse to pass our lips on a sudden emergency.
+We feel all the necessity of saying something at once, but the necessary
+words unaccountably desert us at the critical moment.
+
+Mr. Bultitude felt himself in this unfortunate position. He made more
+wild efforts to explain, but the sense of his danger only petrified his
+mind instead of stimulating it. Then he was spared further conflict. A
+dark mist rose before his eyes; the walls of the room receded into
+infinite space; and, with a loud singing in his ears, he fell, and
+seemed to himself to be sinking down, down, through the earth to the
+very crust of the antipodes. Then the blackness closed over him--and he
+knew no more.
+
+
+
+
+3. _In the Toils_
+
+     "I beseech you let his lack of years be no impediment to let him
+     lack a reverend estimation, for I never knew so young a body with
+     so old a head."--_Merchant of Venice_, Act iv.
+
+
+When Mr. Bultitude recovered his senses, which was not for a
+considerable time, he found that he was being jolted along through a
+broad well-lit thoroughfare, in a musty four-wheeler.
+
+His head was by no means clear yet, and for some minutes he could hardly
+be said to think at all; he merely lay back dreamily listening to the
+hard grinding jar of the cab windows vibrating in their grooves.
+
+His first distinct sensation was a vague wonder what Barbara might be
+intending to give him for dinner, for, oddly enough, he felt far from
+hungry, and was conscious that his palate would require the adroitest
+witching.
+
+With the thought of dinner his dining-room was almost inseparably
+associated, and then, with an instant rush of recollection, the whole
+scene there with the Garuda Stone surged into his brain. He shuddered as
+he did so; it had all been so real, so hideously vivid and coherent
+throughout. But all unpleasant impressions soon yielded to the delicious
+luxury of his present security.
+
+As his last conscious moment had been passed in his own dining-room, the
+fact that he opened his eyes in a cab, instead of confirming his worst
+fears, actually helped to restore the unfortunate gentleman's serenity;
+for he frequently drove home from the city in this manner, and believed
+himself now, instead of being, as was actually the case, in that
+marvellous region of cheap photography, rocking-horses, mild stone
+lions, and wheels and ladders--the Euston Road--to be bowling along
+Holborn.
+
+Now that he was thoroughly awake he found positive amusement in going
+over each successive incident of his nightmare experience with the
+talisman, and smiling at the tricks his imagination had played him.
+
+"I wonder now how the dickens I came to dream such outrageous nonsense!"
+he said to himself, for even his dreams were, as a rule, within the
+bounds of probability. But he was not long in tracing it to the devilled
+kidneys he had had at the club for lunch, and some curious old brown
+sherry Robinson had given him afterwards at his office.
+
+"Gad, what a shock the thing has given me!" he thought. "I can hardly
+shake off the feeling even now."
+
+As a rule, after waking up on the verge of a fearful crisis, the effect
+of the horror fades swiftly away, as one detail after another evades a
+memory which is never too anxious to retain them, and each moment
+brings a deeper sense of relief and self-congratulation.
+
+But in Paul's case, curiously enough, as he could not help thinking, the
+more completely roused he became, the greater grew his uneasiness.
+
+Perhaps the first indication of the truth was suggested to him by a
+lurking suspicion--which he tried to dismiss as mere fancy--that he
+filled rather less of the cab than he had always been accustomed to do.
+
+To reassure himself he set his thoughts to review all the proceedings of
+that day, feeling that if he could satisfactorily account for the time
+up to his taking the cab, that would be conclusive as to the unreality
+of any thing that appeared to have happened later in his own house. He
+got on well enough till he came to the hour at which he had left the
+office, and then, search his memory as he would, he could not remember
+hailing any cab!
+
+Could it be another delusion, too, or was it the fact that he had found
+himself much pressed for time and had come home by the Underground to
+Praed Street? It must have been the day before, but that was Sunday.
+Saturday, then? But the recollection seemed too recent and fresh; and
+besides, on Saturday, he had left at two, and had taken Barbara to see
+Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke's performance.
+
+Slowly, insidiously, but with irresistible force, the conviction crept
+upon him that he had dined, and dined well.
+
+"If I have dined already," he told himself, "I can't be going home to
+dinner; and if I am not going home to dinner, what--what am I doing in
+this cab?"
+
+The bare idea that something might be wrong with him after all made him
+impatient to put an end to all suspense. He must knock this scotched
+nightmare once for all on the head by a deliberate appeal to his senses.
+
+The cab had passed the lighted shops now, and was driving between
+squares and private houses, so that Mr. Bultitude had to wait until the
+sickly rays of a street lamp glanced into the cab for a moment, and, as
+they did so, he put his feet up on the opposite seat and examined his
+boots and trousers with breathless eagerness.
+
+It was not to be denied; they were not his ordinary boots, nor did he
+ever wear such trousers as he saw above them! Always a careful and
+punctiliously neat person, he was more than commonly exacting concerning
+the make and polish of his boots and the set of his trousers.
+
+These boots were clumsy, square-toed, and thick-soled; one was even
+patched on the side. The trousers were heavy and rough, of the kind
+advertised as "wear-resisting fabrics, suitable for youths at school,"
+frayed at the ends, and shiny--shamefully shiny--about the knees!
+
+In hot despair he rapidly passed his hands over his body. It felt
+unusually small and slim, Mr. Bultitude being endowed with what is
+euphemistically termed a "presence," and it was with an agony rarely
+felt at such a discovery that he realised that, for the first time for
+more than twenty years, he actually had a waist.
+
+Then, as a last resource, he took off his hat and felt for the broad,
+smooth, egg-like surface, garnished by scanty side patches of thin hair,
+which he knew he ought to find.
+
+It was gone--hidden under a crop of thick close curling locks!
+
+This last disappointment completely overcame him; he had a kind of short
+fit in the cab as the bitter truth was brought home to him unmistakably.
+
+Yes, this was no dream of a distempered digestion, but sober reality.
+The whole of that horrible scene in the dining-room had really taken
+place; and now he, Paul Bultitude, the widely-respected merchant of
+Mincing Lane, a man of means and position, was being ignominiously
+packed off to school as if he were actually the schoolboy some hideous
+juggle had made him appear!
+
+It was only with a violent effort that he could succeed in commanding
+his thoughts sufficiently to decide on some immediate action. "I must be
+cool," he kept muttering to himself, with shaking lips, "quite cool and
+collected. Everything will depend on that now!"
+
+It was some comfort to him in this extremity to recognise on the box the
+well-known broad back of Clegg, a cabman who stabled his two horses in
+some mews near Praed Street, and whom he had been accustomed to
+patronise in bad weather for several years.
+
+Clegg would know him, in spite of his ridiculous transformation.
+
+His idea was to stop the cab, and turn round and drive home again, when
+they would find that he was not to be got rid of again quite so easily.
+If Dick imagined he meant to put up tamely with this kind of treatment,
+he was vastly mistaken; he would return home boldly and claim his
+rights!
+
+No reasonable person could be perverse enough to doubt his identity when
+once matters came to the proof; though at first, of course, he might
+find a difficulty in establishing it. His children, his clerks, and his
+servants would soon get used to his appearance, and would learn to look
+below the mere surface, and then there was always the possibility of
+putting everything right by means of the magic stone.
+
+"I won't lose a minute!" he said aloud; and letting down the window,
+leaned out and shouted "Stop!" till he was hoarse.
+
+But Clegg either could not or would not hear; he drove on at full speed,
+a faster rate of progress than that adopted by most drivers of
+four-wheeled cabs being one of his chief recommendations.
+
+They were now passing Euston. It was a muggy, slushy night, with a thin
+brown fog wreathing the houses and fading away above their tops into a
+dull, slate-blue sky. The wet street looked like a black canal; the
+blurred forms, less like vehicles than nondescript boats, moving over
+its inky surface, were indistinctly reflected therein; the gas-lights
+flared redly through the murky haze. It was not a pleasant evening in
+which to be out-of-doors.
+
+Paul would have opened the cab-door and jumped out had he dared, but his
+nerve failed him, and, indeed, considering the speed of the cab, the
+leap would have been dangerous to a far more active person. So he was
+forced to wait resignedly until the station should be reached, when he
+determined to make Clegg understand his purpose with as little loss of
+time as possible.
+
+"I must pay him something extra," he thought; "I'll give him a sovereign
+to take me back." And he searched his pockets for the loose coin he
+usually carried about with him in such abundance; there was no gold in
+any of them.
+
+He found, however, a variety of minor and less negotiable articles,
+which he fished out one by one from unknown depths--a curious
+collection. There was a stumpy German-silver pencil case, a broken prism
+from a crystal chandelier, a gilded Jew's harp, a little book in which
+the leaves on being turned briskly, gave a semblance of motion to the
+sails of a black windmill drawn therein, a broken tin soldier, some
+Hong-Kong coppers with holes in them, and a quantity of little cogged
+wheels from the inside of a watch; while a further search was rewarded
+by an irregular lump of toffee imperfectly enfolded in sticky brown
+paper.
+
+He threw the whole of these treasures out of the window with
+indescribable disgust, and, feeling something like a purse in a side
+pocket, opened it eagerly.
+
+It held five shillings exactly, the coins corresponding to those he had
+pushed across to his son such a little while ago! It did not seem to him
+quite such a magnificent sum now as it had done then; he had shifted his
+point of view.
+
+It was too clear that the stone must have carried out his thoughtless
+wish with scrupulous and conscientious exactness in every detail. He had
+wanted, or said he wanted, to be a boy again like Dick, and accordingly
+he had become a perfect duplicate, even to the contents of the pockets.
+Evidently nothing on the face of things showed the slightest difference.
+Yet--and here lay the sting of the metamorphosis--he was conscious under
+it all of being his old original self, in utter discordance with the
+youthful form in which he was an unwilling prisoner.
+
+By this time the cab had driven up the sharp incline, and under the high
+pointed archway of St. Pancras terminus, and now drew up with a jerk
+against the steps leading to the booking office.
+
+Paul sprang out at once in a violent passion. "Here, you, Clegg!" he
+said, "why the devil didn't you pull up when I told you? eh?"
+
+Clegg was a burly, red-faced man, with a husky voice and a general
+manner which conveyed the impression that he regarded teetotalism, as a
+principle, with something more than disapproval.
+
+"Why didn't I pull up?" he said, bending stiffly down from his box.
+"'Cause I didn't want to lose a good customer, that's why I didn't pull
+up!"
+
+"Do you mean to say you don't know me?"
+
+"Know yer?" said Clegg, with an approach to sentiment: "I've knowed yer
+when you was a babby in frocks. I've knowed yer fust nuss (and a fine
+young woman she were till she took to drinking, as has been the ruin of
+many). I've knowed yer in Infancy's hour and in yer byhood's bloom! I've
+druv yer to this 'ere werry station twice afore. Know yer!"
+
+Paul saw the uselessness of arguing with him. "Then, ah--drive me back
+at once. Let those boxes alone. I--I've important business at home which
+I'd forgotten."
+
+Clegg gave a vinous wink. "Lor, yer at it agin," he said with
+admiration. "What a artful young limb it is! But it ain't what yer may
+call good enough, so to speak, it ain't. Clegg don't do that no more!"
+
+"Don't do what?" asked Paul.
+
+"Don't drive no young gents as is a-bein' sent to school back agin into
+their family's bosims," said Clegg sententiously. "You was took ill
+sudden in my cab the larst time. Offal bad you was, to be sure--to hear
+ye, and I druv' yer back; and I never got no return fare, I didn't, and
+yer par he made hisself downright nasty over it, said as if it occurred
+agin he shouldn't employ me no more. I durstn't go and offend yer par;
+he's a good customer to me, he is."
+
+"I'll give you a sovereign to do it," said Paul.
+
+"If yer wouldn't tell no tales, I might put yer down at the corner
+p'raps," said Clegg, hesitating, to Paul's joy; "not as it ain't cheap
+at that, but let's see yer suffering fust. Why," he cried with lofty
+contempt as he saw from Paul's face that the coin was not producible,
+"y'ain't got no suffering! Garn away, and don't try to tempt a pore
+cabby as has his livin' to make. What d'ye think of this, porter, now?
+'Ere's a young gent a tryin' to back out o' going to school when he
+ought to be glad and thankful as he's receivin' the blessin's of a good
+eddication. Look at me. I'm a 'ard-workin' man. I am. I ain't 'ad no
+eddication. The kids, they're a learnin' French, and free'and drorin,
+and the bones on a skellington at the Board School, and I pays my
+coppers down every week cheerful. And why, porter? Why, young master?
+'Cause I knows the vally on it! But when I sees a real young gent a
+despisin' of the oppertoonities as a bountiful Providence and a
+excellent par has 'eaped on his 'ed, it--it makes me sick, it inspires
+Clegg with a pity and a contemp' for such ingratitood, which he cares
+not for to 'ide from public voo!"
+
+Clegg delivered this harangue with much gesture and in a loud tone,
+which greatly edified the porters and disgusted Mr. Bultitude.
+
+"Go away," said the latter, "that's enough. You're drunk!"
+
+"Drunk!" bellowed the outraged Clegg, rising on the box in his wrath.
+"'Ear that. 'Ark at this 'ere young cock sparrer as tells a fam'ly man
+like Clegg as he's drunk! Drunk, after drivin' his par in this 'ere
+werry cab through frost and fine fifteen year and more! I wonder yer
+don't say the old 'orse is drunk; you'll be sayin' that next! Drunk! oh,
+cert'nly, by all means. Never you darken my cab doors no more. I shall
+take and tell your par, I shall. Drunk, indeed! A ill-conditioned young
+wiper as ever I see. Drunk! yah!"
+
+And with much cursing and growling, Clegg gathered up his reins and
+drove off into the fog, Boaler having apparently pre-paid the fare.
+
+"Where for, sir, please?" said a porter, who had been putting the
+playbox and portmanteau on a truck during the altercation.
+
+"Nowhere," said Mr. Bultitude. "I--I'm not going by this train; find me
+a cab with a sober driver."
+
+The porter looked round. A moment before there had been several cabs
+discharging their loads at the steps; now the last had rolled away
+empty.
+
+"You might find one inside the station by the arrival platform," he
+suggested; "but there'll be sure to be one comin' up here in another
+minute, sir, if you like to wait."
+
+Paul thought the other course might be the longer one, and decided to
+stay where he was. So he walked into the lofty hall in which the booking
+offices are placed and waited there by the huge fire that blazed in the
+stove until he should hear the cab arrive which could take him back to
+Westbourne Terrace.
+
+One or two trains were about to start, and the place was full. There
+were several Cambridge men "going up" after the Christmas vacation, in
+every variety of ulster; some tugging at refractory white terriers, one
+or two entrusting bicycles to dubious porters with many cautions and
+directions. There were burly old farmers going back to their quiet
+countryside, flushed with the prestige of a successful stand under
+cross-examination in some witness-box at the Law Courts; to tell and
+retell the story over hill and dale, in the market-place and
+bar-parlour, every week for the rest of their honest lives. There was
+the usual pantomime "rally" on a mild scale, with real frantic
+passengers, and porters, and trucks, and trays of lighted lamps.
+
+Presently, out of the crowd and confusion, a small boy in a thick pilot
+jacket and an immensely tall hat, whom Paul had observed looking at him
+intently for some time, walked up to the stove and greeted him
+familiarly.
+
+"Hallo, Bultitude!" he said, "I thought it was you. Here we are again,
+eh? Ugh!" and he giggled dismally.
+
+He was a pale-faced boy with freckles, very light green eyes, long,
+rather ragged black hair, a slouching walk, and a smile half-simpering,
+half-impudent.
+
+Mr. Bultitude was greatly staggered by the presumption of so small a boy
+venturing to address him in this way. He could only stare haughtily.
+
+"You might find a word to say to a fellow!" said the boy in an aggrieved
+tone. "Look here; come and get your luggage labelled."
+
+"I don't want it labelled," said Paul stiffly, feeling bound to say
+something. "I'm waiting for a cab to take me home again."
+
+The other gave a loud whistle. "That'll make it rather a short term,
+won't it, if you're going home for the holidays already? You're a cool
+chap, Bultitude! If I were to go back to my governor now, he wouldn't
+see it. It would put him in no end of a bait. But you're chaffing----"
+
+Paul walked away from him with marked coolness. He was not going to
+trouble himself to talk to his son's schoolfellows.
+
+"Aren't you well?" said the boy, not at all discouraged by his
+reception, following him and taking his arm. "Down in the mouth? It is
+beastly, isn't it, having to go back to old Grimstone's! The snow gave
+us an extra week, though--we've that much to be thankful for. I wish it
+was the first day of the holidays again, don't you? What's the matter
+with you? What have I done to put you in a wax?"
+
+"Nothing at present," said Paul. "I don't speak to you merely because I
+don't happen to have the--ah--pleasure of your acquaintance."
+
+"Oh, very well, then; I daresay you know best," said the other huffily.
+"Only I thought--considering we came the same half, and have been chums,
+and always sat next one another ever since--you might perhaps just
+recollect having met me before, you know."
+
+"Well, I don't," said Mr. Bultitude. "I tell you I haven't the least
+idea what your name is. The fact is there has been a slight mistake,
+which I can't stop to talk about now. There's a cab just driven up
+outside now. You must excuse me, really, my boy, I want to go."
+
+He tried to work his arm free from the close and affectionate grip of
+his unwelcome companion, who was regarding him with a sort of admiring
+leer.
+
+"What a fellow you are, Bultitude!" he said; "always up to something or
+other. You know me well enough. What is the use of keeping it up any
+longer? Let's talk, and stop humbugging. How much grub have you brought
+back this time?"
+
+To be advised to stop humbugging, and be persecuted with such idle
+questions as these, maddened the poor gentleman. A hansom really had
+rolled up to the steps outside. He must put an end to this waste of
+precious time, and escape from this highly inconvenient small boy.
+
+He forced his way to the door, the boy still keeping fast hold of his
+arm. Fortunately the cab was still there, and its late occupant, a tall,
+broad man, was standing with his back to them paying the driver. Paul
+was only just in time.
+
+"Porter!" he cried. "Where's that porter? I want my box put on that cab.
+No, I don't care about the luggage; engage the cab. Now, you little
+ruffian, are you going to let me go? Can't you see I'm anxious to get
+away?"
+
+Jolland giggled more impishly than ever. "Well, you _have_ got cheek!"
+he said. "Go on, I wish you may get that cab, I'm sure!"
+
+Paul, thus released, was just hurrying towards the cab, when the
+stranger who had got out of it settled the fare with satisfaction to
+himself and turned sharply round.
+
+The gas-light fell full on his face, and Mr. Bultitude recognised that
+the form and features were those of no stranger--he had stumbled upon
+the very last person he had expected or desired to meet just then--his
+flight was intercepted by his son's schoolmaster, Dr. Grimstone himself!
+
+The suddenness of the shock threw him completely off his balance. In an
+ordinary way the encounter would not of course have discomposed him, but
+now he would have given worlds for presence of mind enough either to
+rush past to the cab and secure his only chance of freedom before the
+Doctor had fully realised his intention, or else greet him affably and
+calmly, and, taking him quietly aside, explain his awkward position with
+an easy man-of-the-world air, which would ensure instant conviction.
+
+But both courses were equally impossible. He stood there, right in Dr.
+Grimstone's path, with terrified starting eyes and quivering limbs, more
+like an unhappy guinea-pig expecting the advances of a boa, than a
+British merchant in the presence of his son's schoolmaster! He was sick
+and faint with alarm, and the consciousness that appearances were all
+against him.
+
+There was nothing in the least extraordinary in the fact of the Doctor's
+presence at the station. Mr. Bultitude might easily have taken this
+into account as a very likely contingency and have provided accordingly,
+had he troubled to think, for it was Dr. Grimstone's custom, upon the
+first day of the term, to come up to town and meet as many of his pupils
+upon the platform as intended to return by a train previously specified
+at the foot of the school-bills; and Paul had even expressly insisted
+upon Dick's travelling under surveillance in this manner, thinking it
+necessary to keep him out of premature mischief.
+
+It makes a calamity doubly hard to bear when one looks back and sees by
+what a trivial chance it has come upon us, and how slight an effort
+would have averted it altogether; and Mr. Bultitude cursed his own
+stupidity as he stood there, rooted to the ground, and saw the hansom (a
+"patent safety" to him in sober earnest) drive off and abandon him to
+his fate.
+
+Dr. Grimstone bore down heavily upon him and Jolland, who had by this
+time come up. He was a tall and imposing personage, with a strong black
+beard and small angry grey eyes, slightly blood-tinged; he wore garments
+of a semi-clerical cut and colour, though he was not in orders. He held
+out a hand to each with elaborate geniality.
+
+"Ha, Bultitude, my boy, how are you? How are you, Jolland? Come back
+braced in body and mind by your vacation, eh? That's as it should be.
+Have you tickets? No? follow me then. You're both over age, I believe.
+There you are; take care of them."
+
+And before Paul could protest, he had purchased tickets for all three,
+after which he laid an authoritative hand upon Mr. Bultitude's shoulder
+and walked him out through the booking hall upon the platform.
+
+"This is awful," thought Paul, shrinking involuntarily; "simply awful.
+He evidently has no idea who I really am. Unless I'm very careful I
+shall be dragged off to Crichton House before I can put him right. If I
+could only get him away alone somewhere."
+
+As if in answer to the wish, the Doctor guided him by a slight pressure
+straight along by the end of the station, saying to Jolland as he did
+so, "I wish to have a little serious conversation with Richard in
+private. Suppose you go to the bookstall and see if you can find out any
+of our young friends. Tell them to wait for me there."
+
+When they were alone the Doctor paced solemnly along in silence for some
+moments, while Paul, who had always been used to consider himself a
+fairly prominent object, whatever might be his surroundings, began to
+feel an altogether novel sensation of utter insignificance upon that
+immense brown plain of platform and under the huge span of the arches
+whose girders were lost in wreaths of mingled fog and smoke.
+
+Still he had some hope. Was it not possible, after all, that the Doctor
+had divined his secret and was searching for words delicate enough to
+convey his condolences?
+
+"I wished to tell you, Bultitude," said the Doctor presently, and his
+first words dashed all Paul's rising hopes, "that I hope you are
+returning this term with the resolve to do better things. You have
+caused your excellent father much pain in the past. You little know the
+grief a wilful boy can inflict on his parent."
+
+"I think I have a very fair idea of it," thought Paul, but he said
+nothing.
+
+"I hope you left him in good health? Such a devoted parent,
+Richard--such a noble heart!"
+
+At any other time Mr. Bultitude might have felt gratified by these
+eulogies, but just then he was conscious that he could lay no claim to
+them. It was Dick who had the noble heart now, and he himself felt even
+less of a devoted parent than he looked.
+
+"I had a letter from him during the vacation," continued Dr. Grimstone,
+"a sweet letter, Richard, breathing in every line a father's anxiety and
+concern for your welfare."
+
+Paul was a little staggered. He remembered having written, but he would
+scarcely perhaps have described his letter as "sweet," as he had not
+done much more than enclose a cheque for his son's account and object to
+the items for pew-rent and scientific lectures with the diorama as
+excessive.
+
+"But--and this is what I wanted to say to you, Bultitude--his is no
+blind doting affection. He has implored me, for your own sake, if I see
+you diverging ever so slightly from the path of duty, not to stay my
+hand. And I shall not forget his injunctions."
+
+A few minutes ago, and it would have seemed to Paul so simple and easy a
+matter to point out to the Doctor the very excusable error into which he
+had fallen. It was no more than he would have to do repeatedly upon his
+return, and here was an excellent opportunity for an explanation.
+
+But, somehow the words would not come. The schoolmaster's form seemed so
+tremendous and towering, and he so feeble and powerless before him, that
+he soon persuaded himself that a public place, like a station platform,
+was no scene for domestic revelations of so painful a character.
+
+He gave up all idea of resistance at present. "Perhaps I had better
+leave him in his error till we get into the train," he thought; "then we
+will get rid of that other boy, and I can break it to him gradually in
+the railway carriage as I get more accustomed to him."
+
+But in spite of his determination to unbosom himself without further
+delay, he knew that a kind of fascinated resignation was growing upon
+him and gaining firmer hold each minute.
+
+Something must be done to break the spell and burst the toils which were
+being woven round him before all effort became impossible.
+
+"And now," said the Doctor, glancing up at the great clock-face on which
+a reflector cast a patch of dim yellow light, "we must be thinking of
+starting. But don't forget what I have said."
+
+And they walked back towards the book-stalls with their cheery warmth
+of colour, past the glittering buffet, and on up the platform, to a part
+where six boys of various sizes were standing huddled forlornly together
+under a gaslight.
+
+"Aha!" said Dr. Grimstone, with a slight touch of the ogre in his tone,
+"more of my fellows, eh? We shall be quite a party. How do you do, boys?
+Welcome back to your studies."
+
+And the six boys came forward, all evidently in the lowest spirits, and
+raised their tall hats with a studied politeness.
+
+"Some old friends here, Bultitude," said the Doctor, impelling the
+unwilling Paul towards the group. "You know Tipping, of course; Coker,
+too, you've met before--and Coggs. How are you, Siggers? You're looking
+well. Ah, by the way, I see a new face--Kiffin, I think? Kiffin, this is
+Bultitude, who will make himself your mentor, I hope, and initiate you
+into our various manners and customs."
+
+And, with a horrible dream-like sense of unreality, Mr. Bultitude found
+himself being greeted by several entire strangers with a degree of
+warmth embarrassing in the extreme.
+
+He would have liked to protest and declare himself there and then in his
+true colours, but if this had been difficult alone with the Doctor under
+the clock, it was impossible now, and he submitted ruefully enough to
+their unwelcome advances.
+
+Tipping, a tall, red-haired, raw-boned boy, with sleeves and trousers he
+had outgrown, and immense boots, wrung Paul's hand with misdirected
+energy, saying "how-de-do?" with a gruff superiority, mercifully
+tempered by a touch of sheepishness.
+
+Coggs and Coker welcomed him with open arms as an equal, while Siggers,
+a short, slight, sharp-featured boy, with a very fashionable hat and
+shirt-collars, and a horse-shoe pin, drawled, "How are you, old boy?"
+with the languor of a confirmed man about town.
+
+The other two were Biddlecomb, a boy with a blooming complexion and a
+singularly sweet voice, and the new-comer, Kiffin, who did not seem much
+more at home in the society of other boys than Mr. Bultitude himself,
+for he kept nervously away from them, shivering with the piteous
+self-abandonment of an Italian greyhound.
+
+Paul was now convinced that unless he exerted himself considerably, his
+identity with his son would never even be questioned, and the danger
+roused him to a sudden determination.
+
+However his face and figure might belie him, nothing in his speech or
+conduct should encourage the mistake. Whatever it might cost him to
+overcome his fear of the Doctor, he would force himself to act and talk
+ostentatiously, as much like his own ordinary self as possible, during
+the journey down to Market Rodwell, so as to prepare the Doctor's mind
+for the disclosures he meant to make at the earliest opportunity. He was
+beginning to see that the railway carriage, with all those boys sitting
+by and staring, would be an inconvenient place for so delicate and
+difficult a confession.
+
+The guard having warned intending passengers to take their seats, and
+Jolland, who had been unaccountably missing all this time, having
+appeared from the direction of the refreshment buffet, furtively
+brushing away some suspicious-looking flakes and crumbs from his coat,
+and contrived to join the party unperceived, they all got into a
+first-class compartment--Paul with the rest.
+
+He longed for moral courage to stand out boldly and refuse to leave
+town, but, as we have seen, it was beyond his powers, and he temporised.
+Very soon the whistle had sounded and the train had begun to glide
+slowly out beyond the platform and arch, past the signal boxes and long
+low sheds and offices which are the suburbs of a large terminus--and
+then it was too late.
+
+
+
+
+4. _A Minnow amongst Tritons_
+
+     "Boys are capital fellows in their own way among their mates; but
+     they are unwholesome companions for grown people."--_Essays of
+     Elia._
+
+
+For some time after they were fairly started the Doctor read his evening
+paper with an air of impartial but severe criticism, and Mr. Bultitude
+as he sat opposite him next to the window, found himself overwhelmed
+with a new and very unpleasant timidity.
+
+He knew that, if he would free himself, this utterly unreasonable
+feeling must be wrestled with and overcome; that now, if ever, was the
+time to assert himself, and prove that he was anything but the raw youth
+he was conscious of appearing. He had merely to speak and act, too, in
+his ordinary everyday manner; to forget as far as possible the change
+that had affected his outer man, which was not so very difficult to do
+after all--and yet his heart sank lower and lower as each fresh
+telegraph post flitted past.
+
+"I will let him speak first," he thought; "then I shall be able to feel
+my way." But there was more fear than caution in the resolve.
+
+At last, however, the Doctor laid down his paper, and, looking round
+with the glance of proprietorship on his pupils, who had relapsed into a
+decorous and gloomy silence, observed: "Well, boys, you have had an
+unusually protracted vacation this time--owing to the unprecedented
+severity of the weather. We must try to make up for it by the zest and
+ardour with which we pursue our studies during the term. I intend to
+reduce the Easter holidays by a week by way of compensation."
+
+This announcement (which by no means relieved the general
+depression--the boys receiving it with a sickly interest) was good news
+to Paul, and even had the effect of making him forget his position for
+the time.
+
+"I'm uncommonly glad to hear it, Dr. Grimstone," he said heartily, "an
+excellent arrangement. Boys have too many holidays as it is. There's no
+reason, to my mind, why parents should be the sufferers by every
+snowstorm. It's no joke, I can assure you, to have a great idle boy
+hanging about the place eating his empty head off!"
+
+A burglar enlarging upon the sanctity of the law of property, or a sheep
+exposing the fallacies of vegetarianism, could hardly have produced a
+greater sensation.
+
+Every boy was roused from his languor to stare and wonder at these
+traitorous sentiments, which, from the mouth of any but a known and
+tried companion, would have roused bitter hostility and contempt. As it
+was, their wonder became a rapturous admiration, and they waited for the
+situation to develop with a fearful and secret joy.
+
+It was some time before the Doctor quite recovered himself; then he said
+with a grim smile, "This is indeed finding Saul amongst the prophets;
+your sentiments, if sincere, Bultitude--I repeat, if sincere--are very
+creditable. But I am obliged to look upon them with suspicion!" Then, as
+if to dismiss a doubtful subject, he inquired generally, "And how have
+you all been spending your holidays, eh!"
+
+There was no attempt to answer this question, it being felt probably
+that it was, like the conventional "How do you do?" one to which an
+answer is neither desired nor expected, especially as he continued
+almost immediately, "I took my boy Tom up to town the week before
+Christmas to see the representation of the 'Agamemnon' at St. George's
+Hall. The 'Agamemnon,' as most of you are doubtless aware, is a drama by
+AEschylus, a Greek poet of established reputation. I was much pleased by
+the intelligent appreciation Tom showed during the performance. He
+distinctly recognised several words from his Greek Grammar in the course
+of the dialogue."
+
+No one seemed capable of responding except Mr. Bultitude, who dashed
+into the breach with an almost pathetic effort to maintain his
+accustomed stiffness.
+
+"I may be old-fashioned," he said, "very likely I am; but
+I--ah--decidedly disapprove of taking children to dramatic exhibitions
+of any kind. It unsettles them, sir--unsettles them!"
+
+Dr. Grimstone made no answer, but he put a hand on each knee, and glared
+with pursed lips and a leonine bristle of the beard at his youthful
+critic for some moments, after which he returned to his _Globe_ with a
+short ominous cough.
+
+"I've offended him now," thought Paul. "I must be more careful what I
+say. But I'll get him into conversation again presently."
+
+So he began at the first opportunity: "You have this evening's paper, I
+see. No telegrams of importance, I suppose?"
+
+"No, sir," said the Doctor shortly.
+
+"I saw a report in to-day's _Times_," said poor Mr. Bultitude, with a
+desperate attempt at his most conversational and instructive manner, "I
+saw a report that the camphor crop was likely to be a failure this
+season. Now, it's a very singular thing about camphor, that the
+Japanese----" (he hoped to lead the conversation round to colonial
+produce, and thus open the Doctor's eyes by the extent of his
+acquaintance with the subject).
+
+"I am already acquainted with the method of obtaining camphor, thank
+you, Bultitude," said the Doctor, with dangerous politeness.
+
+"I was about to observe, when you interrupted me," said Paul, "(and this
+is really a fact that I doubt if you are aware of), that the Japanese
+never----"
+
+"Well, well," said the Doctor, with some impatience, "probably they
+never do, sir, but I shall have other opportunities of finding out what
+you have read about the Japanese."
+
+But he glanced over the top of the paper at the indignant Paul, who was
+not accustomed to have his information received in this manner, with
+less suspicion and a growing conviction that some influence during the
+holidays had changed the boy from a graceless young scapegrace into a
+prig of the first water.
+
+"He's most uncivil"--Mr. Bultitude told himself--"almost insulting, but
+I'll go on. I'm rousing his curiosity. I'm making way with him; he sees
+a difference already." And so he applied himself once more.
+
+"You're a smoker, of course, Dr. Grimstone?" he began. "We don't stop
+anywhere, I think, on the way, and I must confess myself, after dinner,
+a whiff or two--I think I can give you a cigar you'll appreciate."
+
+And he felt for his cigar-case, really forgetting that it was gone, like
+all other incidents of his old self; while Jolland giggled with
+unrestrained delight at such charming effrontery.
+
+"If I did not know, sir," said the Doctor, now effectually roused, "that
+this was ill-timed buffoonery, and not an intentional insult, I should
+be seriously angry. As it is, I can overlook any exuberance of mirth
+which is, perhaps, pardonable when the mind is elated by the return to
+the cheerful bustle and activity of school-life. But be very careful."
+
+"He needn't be so angry," thought Paul, "how could I know he doesn't
+smoke? But I'm afraid he doesn't quite know me, even now."
+
+So he began again: "Did I hear you mention the name of Kiffin amongst
+those of your pupils here, Doctor? I thought so. Not the son of Jordan
+Kiffin, of College Hill, surely? Yes? Why, bless my soul, your father
+and I, my little fellow, were old friends in days before you were born
+or thought of--born or thought of. He was in a very small way then, a
+very small---- Eh, Dr. Grimstone, don't you feel well?"
+
+"I see what you're aiming at, sir. You wish to prove to me that I'm
+making a mistake in my treatment of you."
+
+"That was my idea, certainly," said Paul, much pleased. "I'm very glad
+you take me, Doctor."
+
+"I shall take you in a way you won't appreciate soon, if this goes on,"
+said the Doctor under his breath.
+
+"When the time comes I shall know how to deal with you. Till then
+you'll have the goodness to hold your tongue," he said aloud.
+
+"It's not a very polite way of putting it," Paul said to himself, "but,
+at any rate, he sees how the case stands now, and after all, perhaps, he
+only speaks like that to put the boys off the scent. If so, it's
+uncommonly considerate and thoughtful of him, by Gad. I won't say any
+more."
+
+But by-and-by, the open window made him break his resolution. "I'm sorry
+to inconvenience you, Dr. Grimstone," he said, with the air of one used
+to having his way in these matters, "but I positively must ask you
+either to allow me to have this window up or to change places with you.
+The night air, sir, at this time of the year is fatal, my doctor tells
+me, simply fatal to a man of my constitution."
+
+The Doctor pulled up the window with a frown, and yet a somewhat puzzled
+expression. "I warn you, Bultitude," he said, "you are acting very
+imprudently."
+
+"So I am," thought Paul, "so I am. Good of him to remind me. I must keep
+it up before all these boys. This unpleasant business mustn't get about.
+I'll hold my tongue till we get in. Then, I daresay, Grimstone will see
+me off by the next train up, if there is one, and lend me enough for a
+bed at an hotel for the night. I couldn't get to St. Pancras till very
+late, of course. Or he might offer to put me up at the school. If he
+does, I think I shall very possibly accept. It might be better."
+
+And he leant back in his seat in a much easier frame of mind; it was
+annoying, of course, to have been turned out of his warm dining-room,
+and sent all the way down to Market Rodwell on a fool's errand like
+this; but still, if nothing worse came of it, he could put up with the
+temporary inconvenience, and it was a great relief to be spared the
+necessity of an explanation.
+
+The other boys watched him furtively with growing admiration, which
+expressed itself in subdued whispers, varied by little gurgles and
+"squirks" of laughter; they tried to catch his eye and stimulate him to
+further feats of audacity, but Mr. Bultitude, of course, repulsed all
+such overtures with a coldness and severity which at once baffled and
+piqued them.
+
+At last his eccentricity took a shape which considerably lessened their
+enthusiasm. Kiffin, the new boy, occupied the seat next to Paul; he was
+a nervous-looking little fellow, with a pale face and big pathetic brown
+eyes like a seal's, and his dress bore plain evidence of a mother's
+careful supervision, having all the uncreased trimness and specklessness
+rarely to be observed except in the toilettes of the waxen prodigies in
+a shop-window.
+
+It happened that, as he lay back in the padded seat between the
+sheltering partitions, watching the sickly yellow dregs of oil surging
+dismally to and fro with the motion in the lamp overhead, or the black
+indistinct forms flitting past through the misty blue outside, the
+pathos of his situation became all at once too much for him.
+
+He was a home-bred boy, without any of that taste for the companionship
+and pursuits of his fellows, or capacity for adapting himself to their
+prejudices and requirements, which give some home-bred boys a ready
+passport into the roughest communities.
+
+His heart throbbed with no excited curiosity, no conscious pride, at
+this his first important step in life; he was a forlorn little stranger,
+in an unsympathetic strange land, and was only too well aware of his
+position.
+
+So that it is not surprising that as he thought of the home he had left
+an hour or two ago which now seemed so shadowy, so inaccessible and
+remote, his eyes began to smart and sting, and his chest to heave
+ominously, until he felt it necessary to do something to give a partial
+vent to his emotions and prevent a public and disgraceful exhibition of
+grief.
+
+Unhappily for him he found this safety-valve in a series of suppressed
+but distinctly audible sniffs.
+
+Mr. Bultitude bore this for some time with no other protest than an
+occasional indignant bounce or a lowering frown in the offender's
+direction, but at last his nerves, strung already to a high pitch by all
+he had undergone, could stand it no longer.
+
+"Dr. Grimstone," he said with polite determination, "I'm not a man to
+complain without good reason, but really I must ask you to interfere.
+Will you tell this boy here, on my right, either to control his feelings
+or to cry into his pocket-handkerchief, like an ordinary human being? A
+good honest bellow I can understand, but this infernal whiffling and
+sniffing, sir, I will not put up with. It's nothing less than unnatural
+in a boy of that size."
+
+"Kiffin," said the Doctor, "are you crying?"
+
+"N--no, sir," faltered Kiffin; "I--I think I must have caught cold,
+sir."
+
+"I hope you are telling me the truth, because I should be sorry to
+believe you were beginning your new life in a spirit of captiousness and
+rebellion. I'll have no mutineers in my camp. I'll establish a spirit of
+trustful happiness and unmurmuring content in this school, if I have to
+flog every boy in it as long as I can stand over him! As for you,
+Richard Bultitude, I have no words to express my pain and disgust at the
+heartless irreverence with which you persist in mimicking and
+burlesquing a fond and excellent parent. Unless I perceive, sir, in a
+very short time a due sense of your error and a lively repentance, my
+disapproval will take a very practical form."
+
+Mr. Bultitude fell back into his seat with a gasp. It was hard to be
+accused of caricaturing one's own self, particularly when conscious of
+entire innocence in that respect, but even this was slight in comparison
+with the discovery that he had been so blindly deceiving himself!
+
+The Doctor evidently had failed to penetrate his disguise, and the
+dreaded scene of elaborate explanation must be gone through after all.
+
+The boys (with the exception of Kiffin) still found exquisite enjoyment
+in this extraordinary and original exhibition, and waited eagerly for
+further experiment on the Doctor's patience.
+
+They were soon gratified. If there was one thing Paul detested more than
+another, it was the smell of peppermint--no less than three office boys
+had been discharged by him because, as he alleged, they made the clerks'
+room reek with it,--and now the subtle searching odour of the hated
+confection was gradually stealing into the compartment and influencing
+its atmosphere.
+
+He looked at Coggs, who sat on the seat opposite to him, and saw his
+cheeks and lips moving in slow and appreciative absorption of something.
+Coggs was clearly the culprit.
+
+"Do you encourage your boys to make common nuisances of themselves in a
+public place, may I ask, Dr. Grimstone?" he inquired, fuming.
+
+"Some scarcely seem to require encouragement, Bultitude," said the
+Doctor pointedly: "what is the matter now?"
+
+"If he takes it medicinally," said Paul, "he should choose some other
+time and place to treat his complaint. If he has a depraved liking for
+the abominable stuff, for Heaven's sake make him refrain from it on
+occasions when it is a serious annoyance to others!"
+
+"Will you explain? Who and what are you talking about?"
+
+"That boy opposite," said Paul, pointing the finger of denunciation at
+the astonished Coggs; "he's sucking an infernal peppermint lozenge
+strong enough to throw the train off the rails!"
+
+"Is what Bultitude tells me true, Coggs?" demanded the Doctor in an
+awful voice.
+
+Coggs, after making several attempts to bolt the offending lozenge, and
+turning scarlet meanwhile with confusion and coughing, stammered huskily
+something to the effect that he had "bought the lozenges at a
+chemist's," which he seemed to consider, for some reason, a mitigating
+circumstance.
+
+"Have you any more of this pernicious stuff about you?" said the Doctor.
+
+Very slowly and reluctantly Coggs brought out of one pocket after
+another three or four neat little white packets, made up with that
+lavish expenditure of time, string, and sealing-wax, by which the
+struggling chemist seeks to reconcile the public mind to a charge of two
+hundred and fifty per cent. on cost price, and handed them to Dr.
+Grimstone, who solemnly unfastened them one by one, glanced at their
+contents with infinite disgust, and flung them out of window.
+
+Then he turned to Paul with a look of more favour than he had yet shown
+him. "Bultitude," he said, "I am obliged to you. A severe cold in the
+head has rendered me incapable of detecting this insidious act of
+insubordination and self-indulgence, on which I shall have more to say
+on another occasion. Your moral courage and promptness in denouncing the
+evil thing are much to your credit."
+
+"Not at all," said Paul, "not at all, my dear sir. I mentioned it
+because I--ah--happen to be peculiarly sensitive on the subject and----"
+Here he broke off with a sharp yell, and began to rub his ankle. "One of
+these young savages has just given me a severe kick; it's that fellow
+over there, with the blue necktie. I have given him no provocation, and
+he attacks me in this brutal manner, sir; I appeal to you for
+protection!"
+
+"So, Coker" (Coker wore a blue necktie), said the Doctor, "you emulate
+the wild ass in more qualities than those of stupidity and stubbornness,
+do you? You lash out with your hind legs at an inoffensive
+school-fellow, with all the viciousness of a kangaroo, eh? Write out all
+you find in Buffon's Natural History upon those two animals a dozen
+times, and bring it to me by to-morrow evening. If I am to stable wild
+asses, sir, they shall be broken in!"
+
+Six pairs of sulky glowering eyes were fixed upon the unconscious Paul
+for the rest of the journey; indignant protests and dark vows of
+vengeance were muttered under cover of the friendly roar and rattle of
+tunnels. But the object of them heard nothing; his composure was
+returning once more in the sunshine of Dr. Grimstone's approbation, and
+he almost decided on declaring himself in the station fly.
+
+And now at last the train was grinding along discordantly with the
+brakes on, and, after a little preliminary jolting and banging over the
+points, drew up at a long lighted platform, where melancholy porters
+paced up and down, croaking "Market Rodwell!" like so many Solomon
+Eagles predicting woe.
+
+Paul got out with the others, and walked forward to the guard's van,
+where he stood shivering in the raw night air by a small heap of
+portmanteaux and white clamped boxes.
+
+"I should like to tell him all about it now," he thought, "if he wasn't
+so busy. I'll get him to go in a cab alone with me, and get it over
+before we reach the house."
+
+Dr. Grimstone certainly did not seem in a very receptive mood for
+confidences just then. No flys were to be seen, which he took as a
+personal outrage, and visited upon the station-master in hot
+indignation.
+
+"It's scandalous, I tell you," he was saying: "scandalous! No cabs to
+meet the train. My school reassembles to-day, and here I find no
+arrangements made for their accommodation! Not even an omnibus! I shall
+write to the manager and report this. Let some one go for a fly
+immediately. Boys, go into the waiting room till I come to you.
+Stay--there are too many for one fly. Coker, Coggs, and, let me see,
+yes, Bultitude, you all know your way. Walk on and tell Mrs. Grimstone
+we are coming."
+
+Paul Bultitude was perhaps more relieved than disappointed by this
+postponement of a disagreeable interview, though, if he had seen Coker
+dig Coggs in the side with a chuckle of exultant triumph, he might have
+had misgivings as to the prudence of trusting himself alone with them.
+
+As it was he almost determined to trust the pair with his secret. "They
+will be valuable witnesses," he said to himself, "that, whoever else I
+may be, I am not Dick."
+
+So he went on briskly ahead over a covered bridge and down some
+break-neck wooden steps, and passed through the wicket out upon the
+railed-in space, where the cabs and omnibuses should have been, but
+which was now a blank spectral waste with a white ground-fog lurking
+round its borders.
+
+Here he was joined by his companions, who, after a little whispering,
+came up one on either side and put an arm through each of his.
+
+"Well," said Paul, thinking to banter them agreeably; "here you are,
+young men, eh? Holidays all over now! Work while you're young, and
+then---- Gad, you're walking me off my legs. Stop; I'm not as young as I
+used to be----"
+
+"Grim can't see us here, can he, Coker?" said Coggs when they had
+cleared the gates and palings.
+
+"Not he!" said Coker.
+
+"Very well, then. Now then, young Bultitude, you used to be a decent
+fellow enough last term, though you _were_ coxy. So, before we go any
+further--what do you mean by this sort of thing?"
+
+"Because," put in Coker, "if you aren't quite right in your head,
+through your old governor acting like a brute all the holidays, as you
+said he does, just say so, and we won't be hard on you."
+
+"I--he--always an excellent father," stammered Paul. "What am I to
+explain?"
+
+"Why, what did you go and sneak of _him_ for bringing tuck back to
+school for, eh?" demanded Coker.
+
+"Yes, and sing out when he hacked your shin?" added Coggs; "and tell
+Grimstone that new fellow was blubbing? Where's the joke in all that,
+eh? Where's the joke?"
+
+"You don't suppose I was bound to sit calmly down and allow you to suck
+your villainous peppermints under my very nose, do you?" said Mr.
+Bultitude. "Why shouldn't I complain if a boy annoys me by sniffing, or
+kicks me on the ankle? Just tell me that? Suppose my neighbour has a
+noisy dog or a smoky chimney, am I not to venture to tell him of it? Is
+he to----"
+
+But his arguments, convincing as they promised to be, were brought to a
+sudden and premature close by Coker, who slipped behind him and
+administered a sharp jog below his back, which jarred his spine and
+caused him infinite agony.
+
+"You little brute!" cried Paul, "I could have you up for assault for
+that!"
+
+But upon this Coggs did the very same thing only harder. "Last term
+you'd have shown fight for much less, Bultitude," they both observed
+severely, as some justification for repeating the process.
+
+"Now, perhaps, you'll drop it for the future," said Coker. "Look here!
+we'll give you one more chance. This sneaking dodge is all very well for
+Chawner. Chawner could do that sort of thing without getting sat upon,
+because he's a big fellow; but we're not going to stand it from you.
+Will you promise on your sacred word of honour, now, to be a decent sort
+of chap again, as you were last term?"
+
+But Mr. Bultitude, though he longed for peace and quietness, dreaded
+doing or saying anything to favour the impression that he was the
+schoolboy he unluckily appeared to be, and he had not skill and tact
+enough to dissemble and assume a familiar genial tone of equality with
+these rough boys.
+
+"You don't understand," he protested feebly. "If I could only tell
+you----"
+
+"We don't want any fine language, you know," said the relentless Coggs.
+"Yes or no. Will you promise to be your old self again?"
+
+"I only wish I could," said poor Mr. Bultitude--"but I can't!"
+
+"Very well, then," said Coggs firmly, "we must try the torture. Coker,
+will you screw the back of his hand, while I show him how they make
+barley-sugar?"
+
+And he gave Paul an interesting illustration of the latter branch of
+industry by twisting his right arm round and round till he nearly
+wrenched it out of the socket, while Coker seized his left hand and
+pounded it vigorously with the first joint of his forefinger, causing
+the unfortunate Paul to yell for mercy.
+
+At last he could bear no more, and breaking away from his tormentors
+with a violent effort, he ran frantically down the silent road towards a
+house which he knew from former visits to be Dr. Grimstone's.
+
+He was but languidly pursued, and, as the distance was short, he soon
+gained a gate on the stuccoed posts of which he could read "Crichton
+House" by the light of a neighbouring gas-lamp.
+
+"This is a nice way," he thought, as he reached it breathless and
+trembling, "for a father to visit his son's school!"
+
+He had hoped to reach sanctuary before the other two could overtake him;
+but he soon discovered that the gate was shut fast, and all his efforts
+would not bring him within reach of the bell-handle--he was too short.
+
+So he sat down on the doorstep in resigned despair, and waited for his
+enemies. Behind the gate was a large many-windowed house, with steps
+leading up to a portico. In the playground to his right the school
+gymnasium, a great gallows-like erection, loomed black and grim through
+the mist, the night wind favouring the ghastliness of its appearance by
+swaying the ropes till they creaked and moaned weirdly on the hooks, and
+the metal stirrups clinked and clashed against one another in irregular
+cadence.
+
+He had no time to observe more, as Coker and Coggs joined him, and, on
+finding he had not rung the bell, seized the occasion to pummel him at
+their leisure before announcing their arrival.
+
+Then the gate was opened, and the three--the revengeful pair assuming an
+air of lamb-like inoffensiveness--entered the hall and were met by Mrs.
+Grimstone.
+
+"Why, here you are!" she said, with an air of surprise, and kissing them
+with real kindness. "How cold you look! So you actually had to walk. No
+cabs as usual. You poor boys! come in and warm yourselves. You'll find
+all your old friends in the schoolroom."
+
+Mr. Bultitude submitted to be kissed with some reluctance, inwardly
+hoping that Dr. Grimstone might never hear of it.
+
+Mrs. Grimstone, it may be said here, was a stout, fair woman, not in the
+least intellectual or imposing, but with a warm heart, and a way of
+talking to and about boys that secured her the confidence of mothers
+more effectually, perhaps, than the most polished conversation and
+irreproachable deportment could have done.
+
+She did not reserve her motherliness for the reception room either, as
+some schoolmasters' wives have a tendency to do, and the smallest boy
+felt less homesick when he saw her.
+
+She opened a green baize outer door, and the door beyond it, and led
+them into a long high room, with desks and forms placed against the
+walls, and a writing table, and line of brown-stained tables down the
+middle. Opposite the windows there was a curious structure of shelves
+partitioned into lockers, and filled with rows of shabby schoolbooks.
+
+The room had been originally intended for a drawing-room, as was evident
+from the inevitable white and gold wall-paper and the tarnished gilt
+beading round the doors and window shutters; the mantelpiece, too, was
+of white marble, and the gaselier fitted with dingy crystal lustres.
+
+But sad-coloured maps hung on the ink-splashed walls, and a clock with a
+blank idiotic face (it is not every clock that possesses a decently
+intelligent expression) ticked over the gilt pier-glass. The boards were
+uncarpeted, and stained with patches of ink of all sizes and ages; while
+the atmosphere, in spite of the blazing fire, had a scholastic blending
+of soap and water, ink and slate-pencil in its composition, which
+produced a chill and depressing effect.
+
+On the forms opposite the fire some ten or twelve boys were sitting, a
+few comparing notes as to their holiday experiences with some approach
+to vivacity. The rest, with hands in pockets and feet stretched towards
+the blaze, seemed lost in melancholy abstraction.
+
+"There!" said Mrs. Grimstone cheerfully, "you'll have plenty to talk to
+one another about. I'll send Tom in to see you presently!" And she left
+them with a reassuring nod, though the prospect of Tom's company did not
+perhaps elate them as much as it was intended to do.
+
+Mr. Bultitude felt much as if he had suddenly been dropped down a
+bear-pit, and, avoiding welcome and observation as well as he could, got
+away into a corner, from which he observed his new companions with
+uneasy apprehension.
+
+"I say," said one boy, resuming the interrupted conversation, "did you
+go to Drury Lane? Wasn't it stunning! That goose, you know, and the lion
+in the forest, and all the wooden animals lumbering in out of the toy
+Noah's Ark!"
+
+"Why couldn't you come to our party on Twelfth-night?" asked another.
+"We had great larks. I wish you'd been there!"
+
+"I had to go to young Skidmore's instead," said a pale, spiteful-looking
+boy, with fair hair carefully parted in the middle. "It was like his
+cheek to ask me, but I thought I'd go, you know, just to see what it was
+like."
+
+"What was it like?" asked one or two near him languidly.
+
+"Oh, awfully slow! They've a poky little house in Brompton somewhere,
+and there was no dancing, only boshy games and a conjurer, without any
+presents. And, oh! I say, at supper there was a big cake on the table,
+and no one was allowed to cut it, because it was hired. They're so poor,
+you know. Skidmore's pater is only a clerk, and you should see his
+sisters!"
+
+"Why, are they pretty?"
+
+"Pretty! they're just like young Skidmore--only uglier; and just fancy,
+his mother asked me 'if I was Skidmore's favourite companion, and if he
+helped me in my studies?'"
+
+The unfortunate Skidmore, when he returned, soon found reason to regret
+his rash hospitality, for he never heard the last of the cake (which
+had, as it happened, been paid for in the usual manner) during the rest
+of the term.
+
+There was a slight laugh at the enormity of Mrs. Skidmore's presumption,
+and then a long pause, after which some one asked suddenly, "Does any
+one know whether Chawner really has left this time?"
+
+"I hope so," said a big, heavy boy, and his hope seemed echoed with a
+general fervour. "He's been going to leave every term for the last year,
+but I believe he really has done it this time. He wrote and told me he
+wasn't coming back."
+
+"Thank goodness!" said several, with an evident relief, and some one was
+just observing that they had had enough of the sneaking business, when a
+fly was heard to drive up, and the bell rang, whereupon everyone
+abandoned his easy attitude, and seemed to brace himself up for a trying
+encounter.
+
+"Look out--here's Grimstone!" they whispered under their breaths, as
+voices and footsteps were heard in the hall outside.
+
+Presently the door of the schoolroom opened, and another boy entered the
+room. Dr. Grimstone, it appeared, had not been the occupant of the fly,
+after all. The new-comer was a tall, narrow-shouldered, stooping fellow,
+with a sallow, unwholesome complexion, thin lips, and small sunken
+brown eyes. His cheeks were creased with a dimpling subsmile, half
+uneasy, half malicious, and his tread was mincing and catlike.
+
+"Well, you fellows?" he said.
+
+All rose at once, and shook hands effusively. "Why, Chawner!" they
+cried, "how are you, old fellow? We thought you weren't coming back!"
+
+There was a heartiness in their manner somewhat at variance with their
+recent expressions of opinion; but they had doubtless excellent reasons
+for any inconsistency.
+
+"Well," said Chawner, in a low, soft voice, which had a suggestion of
+feminine spitefulness, "I was going to leave, but I thought you'd be
+getting into mischief here without me to watch over you. Appleton, and
+Lench, and Coker want looking after badly, I know. So, you see, I've
+come back after all."
+
+He laughed with a little malevolent cackle as he spoke, and the three
+boys named laughed too, though with no great heartiness, and shifting
+the while uneasily on their seats.
+
+After this sally the conversation languished until Tom Grimstone's
+appearance. He strolled in with a semi-professional air, and shook hands
+with affability.
+
+Tom was a short, flabby, sandy-haired youth, not particularly beloved of
+his comrades, and his first remark was, "I say, you chaps, have you done
+your holiday task? Pa says he shall keep everyone in who hasn't. I've
+done mine;" which, as a contribution to the general liveliness, was a
+distinct failure.
+
+Needless to say, the work imposed as a holiday occupation had been first
+deferred, then forgotten, then remembered too late, and recklessly
+defied with the confidence begotten in a home atmosphere.
+
+Amidst a general silence Chawner happened to see Mr. Bultitude in his
+corner, and crossed over to him. "Why, there's Dicky Bultitude there all
+the time, and he never came to shake hands! Aren't you going to speak to
+me?"
+
+Paul growled something indistinctly, feeling strangely uncomfortable
+and confused.
+
+"What's the matter with him?" asked Chawner. "Does anyone know? Has he
+lost his tongue?"
+
+"He hadn't lost it coming down in the train," said Coker: "I wish he
+had. I tell you what, you fellows--He--here's Grim at last! I'll tell
+you all about it up in the bedroom."
+
+And Dr. Grimstone really did arrive at this point, much to Paul's
+relief, and looked in to give a grip of the hand and a few words to
+those of the boys he had not seen.
+
+Biddlecomb, Tipping, and the rest, came in with him, and the schoolroom
+soon filled with others arriving by later trains, amongst the later
+comers being the two house-masters, Mr. Blinkhorn and Mr. Tinkler; and
+there followed a season of bustle and conversation, which lasted until
+the Doctor touched a small hand-bell, and ordered them to sit down round
+the tables while supper was brought in.
+
+Mr. Bultitude was not sorry to hear the word "supper." He was faint and
+dispirited, and although he had dined not very long since, thought that
+perhaps a little cold beef and beer, or some warmed-up trifle, might
+give him courage to tell his misfortunes before bedtime.
+
+Of one thing he felt certain. Nothing should induce him to trust his
+person in a bedroom with any of those violent and vindictive boys;
+whether he succeeded in declaring himself that night or not, he would at
+least insist on a separate bedroom. Meantime he looked forward to supper
+as likely to restore geniality and confidence.
+
+But the supper announced so imposingly proved to consist of nothing more
+than two plates piled with small pieces of thinly-buttered bread, which
+a page handed round together with tumblers of water; and Paul, in his
+disappointment, refused this refreshment with more firmness than
+politeness, as Dr. Grimstone observed.
+
+"You got into trouble last term, Bultitude," he said sternly, "on
+account of this same fastidious daintiness. Your excellent father has
+informed me of your waste and gluttony at his own bountifully spread
+table. Don't let me have occasion to reprove you for this again."
+
+Mr. Bultitude, feeling the necessity of propitiating him, hastened to
+take the two largest squares of bread and butter on the plate. They were
+moist and thick, and he had considerable difficulty in disposing of
+them, besides the gratification of hearing himself described as a "pig"
+by his neighbours, who reproved him with a refreshing candour.
+
+"I must get away from here," he thought, ruefully. "Dick seems very
+unpopular. I wish I didn't feel so low-spirited and unwell. Why can't I
+carry it off easily as--as a kind of joke? How hard these forms are, and
+how those infernal boys did jog my back!"
+
+Bedtime came at length. The boys filed, one by one, out of the room, and
+the Doctor stood by the door to shake hands with them as they passed.
+
+Mr. Bultitude lingered until the others had gone, for he had made up his
+mind to seize this opportunity to open the Doctor's eyes to the mistake
+he was making. But he felt unaccountably nervous; the diplomatic and
+well-chosen introduction he had carefully prepared had left him at the
+critical moment; all power of thought was gone with it, and he went
+tremblingly up to the schoolmaster, feeling hopelessly at the mercy of
+anything that chose to come out of his mouth.
+
+"Dr. Grimstone," he began; "before retiring I--I must insist--I mean I
+must request---- What I wish to say is----"
+
+"I see," said the Doctor, catching him up sharply. "You wish to
+apologise for your extraordinary behaviour in the railway carriage?
+Well, though you made some amends afterwards, an apology is very right
+and proper. Say no more about it."
+
+"It's not that," said Paul hopelessly; "I wanted to explain----"
+
+"Your conduct with regard to the bread and butter? If it was simply
+want of appetite, of course there is no more to be said. But I have an
+abhorrence of----"
+
+"Quite right," said Paul, recovering himself; "I hate waste myself, but
+there is something I must tell you before----"
+
+"If it concerns that disgraceful conduct of Coker's," said the Doctor,
+"you may speak on. I shall have to consider his case to-morrow. Has any
+similar case of disobedience come to your knowledge? If so, I expect you
+to disclose it to me. You have found some other boy with sweetmeats in
+his possession?"
+
+"Good Heavens, sir!" said Mr. Bultitude, losing his temper; "I haven't
+been searching the whole school for sweetmeats! I have other things to
+occupy my mind, sir. And, once for all, I demand to be heard! Dr.
+Grimstone, there are, ahem, domestic secrets that can only be alluded to
+in the strictest privacy. I see that one of your assistants is writing
+at his table there. Cannot we go where there will be less risk of
+interruption? You have a study, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the Doctor with terrible grimness, "I have a study--and
+I have a cane. I can convince you of both facts, if you wish it. If you
+insult me again by this brazen buffoonery, I will! Be off to your
+dormitory, sir, before you provoke me to punish you. Not another word!
+Go!"
+
+And, incredible as it may appear to all who have never been in his
+position, Mr. Bultitude went. It was almost an abdication, it was
+treachery to his true self; he knew the vital importance of firmness at
+this crisis. But nevertheless his courage gave way all at once, and he
+crawled up the bare, uncarpeted stairs without any further protest!
+
+"Good night, Master Bultitude," said a housemaid, meeting him on the
+staircase: "you know your bedroom. No. 6, with Master Coker, and Master
+Biddlecomb, and the others."
+
+Paul dragged himself up to the highest landing-stage, and, with a sick
+foreboding, opened the door on which the figure 6 was painted.
+
+It was a large bare plainly papered room, with several curtainless
+windows, the blinds of which were drawn, a long deal stand of wash-hand
+basins, and eight little white beds against the walls.
+
+A fire was lighted in consideration of its being the first night, and
+several boys were talking excitedly round it. "Here he is! He's stayed
+behind to tell more tales!" they cried, as Paul entered nervously. "Now
+then, Bultitude, what have you got to say for yourself?"
+
+Mr. Bultitude felt powerless among all these young wolves. He had no
+knowledge of boys, nor any notion of acquiring an influence over them,
+having hitherto regarded them as necessary nuisances, to be rather
+repressed than studied. He could only stare hopelessly at them in
+fascinated silence.
+
+"You see he hasn't a word to say for himself!" said Tipping. "Look here,
+what shall we do to him? Shall we try tossing in a blanket? I've never
+tried tossing a fellow in one myself, but as long as you don't jerk him
+too high, or out on the floor, you can't hurt him dangerously."
+
+"No, I say, don't toss him in a blanket," pleaded Biddlecomb, and Paul
+felt gratefully towards him at the words; "anyone coming up would see
+what was going on. I vote we flick at him with towels."
+
+"Now just you understand this clearly," said Paul, thinking, not without
+reason, that this course of treatment was likely to prove painful; "I
+refuse to allow myself to be flicked at with towels. No one has ever
+offered me such an indignity in my life! Oh, do you think I've not
+enough on my mind as it is without the barbarities of a set of young
+brutes like you!"
+
+As this appeal was not of a very conciliatory nature they at once
+proceeded to form a circle round him and, judging their distance with
+great accuracy, jerked towels at his person with such diabolical
+dexterity that the wet corners cut him at all points like so many fine
+thongs, and he span round like a top, dancing, and, I regret to add,
+swearing violently, at the pain.
+
+When he was worked up almost to frenzy pitch Biddlecomb's sweet low
+voice cried, "_Cave_, you fellows! I hear Grim. Let him undress now, and
+we can lam it into him afterwards with slippers!"
+
+At this they all cast off such of their clothes as they still wore, and
+slipped modestly and peacefully into bed, just as Dr. Grimstone's large
+form appeared at the doorway. Mr. Bultitude made as much haste as he
+could, but did not escape a reprimand from the Doctor as he turned the
+gas out; and as soon as he had made the round of the bedrooms and his
+heavy tread had died away down the staircase, the light-hearted
+occupants of No. 6 "lammed" it into the unhappy Paul until they were
+tired of the exercise and left him to creep sore and trembling with rage
+and fright into his cold hard bed.
+
+Then, after a little desultory conversation, one by one sank from
+incoherence into silence, and rose from silence to snores, while Paul
+alone lay sleepless, listening to the creeping tinkle of the dying fire,
+drearily wondering at the marvellous change that had come over his life
+and fortunes in the last few hours, and feverishly composing impassioned
+appeals which were to touch the Doctor's heart and convince his reason.
+
+
+
+
+5. _Disgrace_
+
+     "Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace
+     The day's disasters in his morning's face."
+
+
+Sleep came at last, and brought too brief forgetfulness. It was not till
+the dull grey light of morning was glimmering through the blinds that
+Mr. Bultitude awoke to his troubles.
+
+The room was bitterly cold, and he remained shivering in bed for some
+time, trying to realise and prepare for his altered condition.
+
+He was the only one awake. Now and then from one of the beds around a
+boy would be heard talking in his sleep, or laughing with holiday
+glee--at the drolleries possibly of some pantomime performed for his
+amusement in the Theatre Royal, Dreamland--a theatre mercifully open to
+all boys free of charge, long after the holidays have come to an end,
+the only drawbacks being a certain want of definiteness in the plot and
+scenery, and a liability to premature termination of the vaguely
+splendid performance.
+
+Once Kiffin, the new boy, awoke with a start and a heavy sigh, but he
+cried himself to sleep again almost immediately.
+
+Mr. Bultitude could bear being inactive no longer. He thought, if he got
+up, he might perhaps see his misfortunes shrink to a more bearable, less
+hopeless scale, and besides, he judged it prudent, for many reasons, to
+finish his toilet before the sleepers began theirs.
+
+Very stealthily, dreading to rouse anyone and attract attention in the
+form of slippers, he broke the clinking crust of ice in one of the
+basins and, shuddering from the shock, bathed face and hands in the
+biting water. He parted his hair, which from natural causes he had been
+unable to accomplish for some years, and now found an awkwardness in
+accomplishing neatly, and then stole down the dark creaking staircase
+just as the butler in the hall began to swing the big railway bell which
+was to din stern reality into the sleepy ears above.
+
+In the schoolroom a yawning maid had just lighted the fire, from which
+turbid yellow clouds of sulphurous smoke were pouring into the room,
+making it necessary to open the windows and lower a temperature that was
+far from high originally.
+
+Paul stood shaking by the mantelpiece in a very bad temper for some
+minutes. If the Doctor had come in then, he might have been spurred by
+indignation to utter his woes, and even claim and obtain his freedom.
+But that was not to be.
+
+The door did open presently, however, and a little girl appeared; a very
+charming little maiden indeed, in a neat dark costume relieved by a
+fresh white pinafore. She had deep grey eyes and glossy brown hair
+falling over her forehead and down her back in soft straight masses, her
+face was oval rather than round, and slightly serious, though her smile
+was pretty and gay.
+
+She ran towards Mr. Bultitude with a glad little cry, stretching out her
+hands.
+
+"Dick! dear Dick!" she said, "I am so glad! I thought you'd be down
+early; as you used to be. I wanted to sit up last night so very much,
+but mamma wouldn't let me."
+
+Some might have been very glad to be welcomed in this way, even
+vicariously. As for boys, it must have been a very bad school indeed
+which Dulcie Grimstone could not have robbed of much of its terrors.
+
+Mr. Bultitude, however, as has been explained, did not appreciate
+children--being a family man himself. When one sees their petty
+squabbles and jealousies, hears their cruel din, and pays for their
+monkeyish mischief, perhaps the daintiest children seem but an earthly
+order of cherubim. He was only annoyed and embarrassed by the
+interruption, though he endured it.
+
+"Ah," he said with condescension, "and so you're Dr. Grimstone's little
+girl, are you? How d'ye do, my dear?"
+
+Dulcie stopped and looked at him, with drawn eyebrows and her soft mouth
+quivering. "What makes you talk like that?" she asked.
+
+"How ought I to talk?" said Paul.
+
+"You didn't talk like that before," said Dulcie plaintively. "I--I
+thought perhaps you'd be glad to see me. You were once. And--and--when
+you went away last you asked me to--to--kiss you, and I did, and I wish
+I hadn't. And you gave me a ginger lozenge with your name written on it
+in lead pencil, and I gave you a cough-lozenge with mine; and you said
+it was to show that you were my sweetheart and I was yours. But I
+suppose you've eaten the one I gave you?"
+
+"This is dreadful!" thought Mr. Bultitude. "What shall I do now? The
+child evidently takes me for that little scoundrel Dick." "Tut-tut," he
+said aloud, "little girls like you are too young for such nonsense. You
+ought to think about--about your dolls, and--ah, your needlework--not
+sweethearts!"
+
+"You say that now!" cried Dulcie indignantly. "You know I'm not a little
+girl, and I've left off playing with dolls--almost. Oh, Dick, don't be
+unkind! You haven't changed your mind, have you?"
+
+"No," said Paul dismally, "I've changed my body. But there--you wouldn't
+understand. Run away and play somewhere, like a good little girl!"
+
+"I know what it is!" said Dulcie. "You've been out to parties, or
+somewhere, and seen some horrid girl ... you like ... better than me!"
+
+"This is absurd, you know," said Mr. Bultitude. "You can't think how
+absurd it is! Now, you'll be a very foolish little girl if you cry.
+You're making a mistake. I'm not the Dick you used to know!"
+
+"I know you're not!" sobbed Dulcie. "But oh, Dick, you will be. Promise
+me you will be!" And, to Paul's horror and alarm, she put her arms round
+his neck, and cried piteously on his shoulder.
+
+"Good gracious!" he cried, "let me go. Don't do that, for Heaven's sake!
+I can hear some one coming. If it's your father, it will ruin me!"
+
+But it was too late. Over her head he saw Tipping enter the room, and
+stand glaring at them menacingly. Dulcie saw him too, and sprang away to
+the window, where she tried to dry her eyes unperceived, and then ran
+past him with a hurried good morning, and escaped, leaving Paul alone
+with the formidable Tipping.
+
+There was an awkward silence at first, which Tipping broke by saying,
+"What have you been saying to make her cry, eh?"
+
+"What's that to you, sir?" said Paul, trying to keep his voice firm.
+
+"Why, it's just this to me," said Tipping, "that I've been spoons on
+Dulcie myself ever since I came, and she never would have a word to say
+to me. I never could think why, and now it turns out to be you! What do
+you mean by cutting me out like this? I heard her call you 'dear Dick.'"
+
+"Don't be an ass, sir!" said Paul angrily.
+
+"Now, none of your cheek, you know!" said Tipping, edging up against him
+with a dangerous inclination first to jostle aggressively, and then maul
+his unconscious rival. "You just mind what I say. I'm not going to have
+Dulcie bothered by a young beggar in the second form; she deserves
+something better than that, anyway, and I tell you that if I once catch
+you talking to her in the way you did just now, or if I hear of her
+favouring you more than any other fellows, I'll give you the very
+juiciest licking you ever had in your life. So look out!"
+
+At this point the other boys began to straggle down and cluster round
+the fire, and Paul withdrew from the aggrieved Tipping, and looked
+drearily out of the window on the hard road and bare black trees
+outside.
+
+"I _must_ tell the Doctor how I'm situated!" he thought; "and yet
+directly I open my mouth, he threatens to flog me. If I stay here, that
+little girl will be always trying to speak to me, and I shall be
+thrashed by the red-haired boy. If I could only manage to speak out
+after breakfast!"
+
+It was not without satisfaction that he remembered that he paid extra
+for "meat for breakfast" in his son's school-bills, for he was beginning
+to look forward to meal-time with the natural desire of a young and
+healthy frame for nourishment.
+
+At eight o'clock the Doctor came in and announced breakfast, leading
+the way himself to what was known in the school as the "Dining Hall." It
+scarcely deserved so high-sounding a name perhaps, being a long low room
+on the basement floor, with a big fireplace, fitted with taps, and
+baking ovens, which provoked the suspicion that it had begun existence
+as a back kitchen.
+
+The Doctor took his seat alone at a cross table forming the top of one
+of the two rows of tables, set with white cups and saucers, and plates
+well heaped with the square pieces of bread and butter, while Mrs.
+Grimstone with Dulcie and Tom, sat at the foot of the same row, behind
+two ugly urns of dull block-tin.
+
+But when Mr. Bultitude, more hungry than he had felt for years, found
+his place at one of the tables, he was disgusted to find upon his
+plate--not, as he had confidently expected, a couple of plump poached
+eggs, with their appetising contrast of ruddy gold and silvery white,
+not a crisp and crackling sausage or a mottled omelette, not even the
+homely but luscious rasher, but a brace of chill forbidding sardines,
+lying grim and headless in bilious green oil!
+
+It was a fish he positively loathed, nor could it be reasonably expected
+that the confidence necessary for a declaration was to be forgotten by
+so sepulchral a form of nutriment.
+
+He roused himself, however, to swallow them, together with some of the
+thin and tin-flavoured coffee. But the meal as a whole was so different
+from the plentiful well-cooked breakfasts he had sat down before for
+years as a matter of course, that it made him feel extremely unwell.
+
+No talking was allowed during the meal. The Doctor now and then looked
+up from his dish of kidneys on toast (at which envious glances were
+occasionally cast) to address a casual remark to his wife across the
+long row of plates and cups, but, as a rule, the dull champing sound of
+boys solemnly and steadily munching was all that broke the silence.
+
+Towards the end, when the plates had been generally cleared, and the
+boys sat staring with the stolidity of repletion at one another across
+the tables, the junior house-master, Mr. Tinkler, made his appearance.
+He had lately left a small and little-known college at Cambridge, where
+he had contrived, contrary to expectation, to evade the uncoveted wooden
+spoon by just two places, which enabled the Doctor to announce himself
+as being "assisted by a graduate of the University of Cambridge who has
+taken honours in the Mathematical Tripos."
+
+For the rest, he was a small insignificant-looking person, who evidently
+disliked the notice his late appearance drew upon himself.
+
+"Mr. Tinkler," said the Doctor in his most awful voice, "if it were my
+custom to rebuke my assistants before the school (which it is not), I
+should feel forced to remind you that this tardiness in rising is a bad
+beginning of the day's work, and sets a bad example to those under your
+authority."
+
+Mr. Tinkler made no articulate reply, but sat down with a crushed
+expression, and set himself to devour bread and butter with an energy
+which he hoped would divert attention from his blushes; and almost
+immediately the Doctor looked at his watch and said, "Now, boys, you
+have half-an-hour for 'chevy'--make the most of it. When you come in I
+shall have something to say to you all. Don't rise, Mr. Tinkler, unless
+you have quite finished."
+
+Mr. Tinkler preferred leaving his breakfast to continuing it under the
+trying ordeal of his principal's inspection. So, hastily murmuring that
+he had "made an excellent breakfast"--which he had not--he followed the
+others, who clattered upstairs to put on their boots and go out into the
+playground.
+
+It was noticeable that they did so without much of the enthusiasm which
+might be looked for from boys dismissed to their sports. But the fact
+was that this particular sport, "chevy," commonly known as "prisoners'
+base," was by no means a popular amusement, being of a somewhat
+monotonous nature, and calling for no special skill on the part of the
+performers. Besides this, moreover, it had the additional disadvantage
+(which would have been fatal to a far more fascinating diversion) of
+being in a great measure compulsory.
+
+Football and cricket were of course reserved for half-holidays, and
+played in a neighbouring field rented by the Doctor, and in the
+playground he restricted them to "chevy," which he considered, rightly
+enough, both gave them abundant exercise and kept them out of mischief.
+Accordingly, if any adventurous spirit started a rival game, it was
+usually abandoned sooner or later in deference to suggestions from
+headquarters which were not intended to be disregarded.
+
+This, though undoubtedly well meant, did not serve to stimulate their
+affection for the game, an excellent one in moderation, but one which,
+if played "by special desire" two or three hours a day for weeks in
+succession is apt to lose its freshness and pall upon the youthful mind.
+
+It was a bright morning. There had been a hard frost during the night,
+and the ground was hard, sparkling with rime and ringing to the foot.
+The air was keen and invigorating, and the bare black branches of the
+trees were outlined clear and sharp against the pale pure blue of the
+morning sky.
+
+Just the weather for a long day's skating over the dark green glassy
+ice, or a bracing tramp on country roads into cheery red-roofed market
+towns. But now it had lost all power to charm. It was almost depressing
+by the contrast between the boundless liberty suggested, and the dull
+reality of a round of uninteresting work which was all it heralded.
+
+So they lounged listlessly about, gravitating finally towards the end of
+the playground, where a deep furrow marked the line of the base. There
+was no attempt to play. They stood gossiping in knots, grumbling and
+stamping their feet to keep warm. By-and-by the day-boarders began to
+drop in one by one, several of them, from a want of tact in adapting
+themselves to the general tone, earning decided unpopularity at once by
+a cheerful briskness and an undisguised satisfaction at having something
+definite to do once more.
+
+If Mr. Tinkler, who had joined one of the groups, had not particularly
+distinguished himself at breakfast, he made ample amends now, and by the
+grandeur and manliness of his conversation succeeded in producing a
+decided impression upon some of the smaller boys.
+
+"The bore of a place like this, you know," he was saying with
+magnificent disdain, "is that a fellow can't have his pipe of a morning.
+I've been used to it, and so, of course, I miss it. If I chose to insist
+on it Grimstone couldn't say anything; but with a lot of young fellows
+like you, you see, it wouldn't look well!"
+
+It could hardly have looked worse than little Mr. Tinkler himself would
+have done, if he had ventured upon more than the mildest of cigarettes,
+for he was a poor but pertinacious smoker, and his love for the weed was
+chastened by wholesome fear. There, however, he was in no danger of
+betraying this, and indeed it would have been injudicious to admit it.
+
+"Talking of smoking," he went on, with a soft chuckle, as at
+recollections of unspeakable devilry, "did I ever tell you chaps of a
+tremendous scrape I very nearly got into up at the 'Varsity? Well, you
+must know there's a foolish rule there against smoking in the streets.
+Not that that made any difference to some of us! Well, one night about
+nine, I was strolling down Petty Cury with two other men, smoking
+(Bosher of "Pothouse," and Peebles of "Cats," both pretty well known up
+there for general rowdiness, you know--great pals of mine!) and, just as
+we turned the corner, who should we see coming straight down on us but a
+Proctor with his bull-dogs (not dogs, you know, but the strongest 'gyps'
+in college). Bosher said, 'Let's cut it!' and he and Peebles bolted.
+(They were neither of them funks, of course, but they lost their heads.)
+I went calmly on, smoking my cigar as if nothing was the matter. That
+put the Proctor in a bait, I can tell you! He came fuming up to me.
+'What do you mean, sir,' says he, quite pale with anger (he was a great
+bull-headed fellow, one of the strongest dons of his year, that's why
+they made him a Proctor)--'what do you mean by breaking the University
+Statutes in this way?' 'It _is_ a fine evening,' said I (I was
+determined to keep cool). 'Do you mean to insult me?' said he. 'No, old
+boy,' said I, 'I don't; have a cigar?' He couldn't stand that, so he
+called up his bull-dogs. 'I give him in charge!' he screamed out. 'I'll
+have him sent down!' 'I'll send you down first,' said I, and I just gave
+him a push--I never meant to hurt the fellow--and over he went. I rolled
+over a bull-dog to keep him company, and, as the other fellow didn't
+want any more and stood aside to let me pass, I finished my stroll and
+my cigar."
+
+"Was the Proctor hurt, sir?" inquired a small boy with great respect.
+
+"More frightened than hurt, I always said," said Mr. Tinkler lightly,
+"but somehow he never would proctorise any more--it spoilt his nerve. He
+was a good deal chaffed about it, but of course no one ever knew I'd had
+anything to do with it!"
+
+With such tales of Homeric exploit did Mr. Tinkler inculcate a spirit of
+discipline and respect for authority. But although he had indeed once
+encountered a Proctor, and at night, he did himself great injustice by
+this version of the proceedings, which were, as a matter of fact, of a
+most peaceable and law-abiding character, and though followed by a
+pecuniary transaction the next day in which six-and-eightpence changed
+pockets, the Proctors continued their duties much as before, while Mr.
+Tinkler's feelings towards them, which had ever been reverential in the
+extreme, were, if anything, intensified by the experience.
+
+Upon this incident, however, he had gradually embroidered the above
+exciting episode, until he grew to believe at intervals that he really
+had been a devil of a fellow in his time, which, to do him justice, was
+far from the case.
+
+He might have gone on still further to calumniate himself, and excite
+general envy and admiration thereby, if at that moment Dr. Grimstone had
+not happened to appear at the head of the cast-iron staircase that led
+down into the playground; whereupon Mr. Tinkler affected to be intensely
+interested in the game, which, as a kind of involuntary compliment to
+the principal, about this time was galvanised into a sort of vigour.
+
+But the Doctor, after frowning gloomily down upon them for a minute or
+so, suddenly called "All in!"
+
+He had several ways of saying this. Sometimes he would do so in a
+half-regretful tone, as one himself obeying the call of duty; sometimes
+he would appear for some minutes, a benignant spectator, upon the
+balcony, and summon them to work at length with a lenient pity--for he
+was by no means a hard-hearted man; but at other times he would step
+sharply and suddenly out and shout the word of command with a grim and
+ominous expression. On these last occasions the school generally
+prepared itself for a rather formidable quarter of an hour.
+
+This was the case now and, as a further portent, Mr. Blinkhorn was
+observed to come down and, after a few words with Mr. Tinkler, withdrew
+with him through the school gate.
+
+"He's sent them out for a walk," said Siggers, who was skilled in omens.
+"It's a row!"
+
+Rows at Crichton House, although periodical, and therefore things to be
+forearmed against in some degree, were serious matters. Dr. Grimstone
+was a quick-tempered man, with a copious flow of words and a taste for
+indulging it. He was also strongly prejudiced against many breaches of
+discipline which others might have considered trifling, and whenever he
+had discovered any such breach he could not rest until by all the means
+in his power he had ascertained exactly how many were implicated in the
+offence, and to what extent.
+
+His usual method of doing this was to summon the school formally
+together and deliver an elaborate harangue, during which he worked
+himself by degrees into such a state of indignation that his hearers
+were most of them terrified out of their senses, and very often
+conscience-stricken offenders would give themselves up as hopelessly
+detected and reveal transgressions altogether unsuspected by him--much
+as a net brings up fish of all degrees of merit, or as heavy firing will
+raise drowned corpses to the surface.
+
+Paul naturally knew nothing of this peculiarity; he had kept himself as
+usual apart from the others, and was now trying to compel himself to
+brave the terrors of an avowal at the first opportunity. He followed the
+others up the steps with an uneasy wonder whether, after all, he would
+not find himself ignominiously set down to learn lessons.
+
+The boys filed into the schoolroom in solemn silence, and took their
+seats at the desks and along the brown tables. The Doctor was there
+before them, standing up with one elbow resting upon a reading-stand,
+and with a suggestion of coming thunder in his look and attitude that,
+combined with the oppressive silence, made some of the boys feel
+positively ill.
+
+Presently he began. He said that, since they had come together again, he
+had made a discovery concerning one among them which, astounding as it
+was to him, and painful as he felt it to be compelled to make it known,
+concerned them all to be aware of.
+
+Mr. Bultitude could scarcely believe his ears. His secret was
+discovered, then; the injury done him by Dick about to be repaired, and
+open restitution and apology offered him! It was not perhaps precisely
+delicate on the Doctor's part to make so public an affair of it, but so
+long as it ended well, he could afford to overlook that.
+
+So he settled himself comfortably on a form with his back against a
+desk and his legs crossed, his expression indicating plainly that he
+knew what was coming and, on the whole, approved of it.
+
+"Ever since I have devoted myself to the cause of tuition," continued
+the Doctor, "I have made it my object to provide boys under my roof with
+fare so abundant and so palatable that they should have no excuse for
+obtaining extraneous luxuries. I have presided myself at their meals, I
+have superintended their very sports with a fatherly eye----"
+
+Here he paused, and fixed one or two of those nearest him with the
+fatherly eye in such a manner that they writhed with confusion.
+
+"He's wandering from the point," thought Paul, a little puzzled.
+
+"I have done all this on one understanding--that the robustness of your
+constitutions, acquired by the plain, simple, but abundant regimen of my
+table, shall not be tampered with by the indulgence in any of the
+pampering products of confectionery. They are absolutely and
+unconditionally prohibited--as every boy who hears me now knows
+perfectly well!
+
+"And yet" (here he began gradually to relax his self-restraint and lash
+himself into a frenzy of indignation), "what do I find? There are some
+natures so essentially base, so incapable of being affected by kindness,
+so dead to honour and generosity, that they will not scruple to conspire
+or set themselves individually to escape and baffle the wise precautions
+undertaken for their benefit. I will not name the dastards at
+present--they themselves can look into their hearts and see their guilt
+reflected there----"
+
+At this every boy, beginning to see the tendency of his denunciations,
+tried hard to assume an air of conscious innocence and grieved interest,
+the majority achieving conspicuous failure.
+
+"I do not like to think," said Dr. Grimstone, "that the evil has a
+wider existence than I yet know of. It may be so; nothing will surprise
+me now. There may be some before me trembling with the consciousness of
+secret guilt. If so, let those boys make the only reparation in their
+power, and give themselves up in an honourable and straightforward
+manner!"
+
+To this invitation, which indeed resembled that of the duck-destroying
+Mrs. Bond, no one made any response. They had grown too wary, and now
+preferred to play a waiting game.
+
+"Then let the being--for I will not call him boy--who is known to me,
+step forth and confess his fault publicly, and sue for pardon!"
+thundered the Doctor, now warmed to his theme.
+
+But the being declined from a feeling of modesty, and a faint hope that
+somebody else might, after all, be the person aimed at.
+
+"Then I name him!" stormed Dr. Grimstone; "Cornelius Coggs--stand up!"
+
+Coggs half rose in a limp manner, whimpering feebly, "Me, sir? Oh,
+please sir--no, not me, sir!"
+
+"Yes, you, sir, and let your companions regard you with the contempt and
+abhorrence you so richly merit!" Here, needless to say, the whole school
+glared at poor Coggs with as much virtuous indignation as they could
+summon up at such short notice; for contempt is very infectious when
+communicated from high quarters.
+
+"So, Coggs," said the Doctor, with a slow and withering scorn, "so you
+thought to defy me; to smuggle compressed illness and concentrated
+unhealthiness into this school with impunity? You flattered yourself
+that after I had once confiscated your contraband poisons, you would
+hear no more of it! You deceived yourself, sir! I tell you, once for
+all, that I will not allow you to contaminate your innocent schoolmates
+with your gifts of surreptitious sweetmeats; they shall not be perverted
+with your pernicious peppermints, sir; you shall not deprave them by
+jujubes, or enervate them with Turkish Delight! I will not expose
+myself or them to the inroads of disease invited here by a hypocritical
+inmate of my walls. The traitor shall have his reward!"
+
+All of which simply meant that the Doctor, having once had a small boy
+taken seriously ill from the effects of overeating himself, was
+naturally anxious to avoid such an inconvenience for the future. "Thanks
+to the fearless honesty of a youth," continued the Doctor, "who, in an
+eccentric manner, certainly, but with, I do not doubt, the best of
+motives, opened my eyes to the fell evil, I am enabled to cope with it
+at its birth. Richard Bultitude, I take this occasion of publicly
+thanking and commending you; your conduct was noble!"
+
+Mr. Bultitude was too angry and disappointed to speak. He had thought
+his path was going to be made smooth, and now all this ridiculous fuss
+was being made about a few peppermint lozenges. He wished he had never
+mentioned them. It was not the last time he breathed that wish. "As for
+you, Coggs," said the Doctor, suddenly producing a lithe brown cane, "I
+shall make a public example of you."
+
+Coggs stared idiotically and protested, but after a short and painful
+scene, was sent off up to his bedroom, yelping like a kicked puppy.
+
+"One word more," said the Doctor, now almost calm again. "I know that
+you all think with me in your horror of the treachery I have just
+exposed. I know that you would scorn to participate in it." (A thrill
+and murmur, expressive of intense horror and scorn, went round the
+benches.) "You are anxious to prove that you do so beyond a doubt."
+(Again a murmur of assent.) "I give you all that opportunity. I have
+implicit trust and confidence in you--let every boarder go down into the
+box-room and fetch up his playbox, just as it is, and open it here
+before me."
+
+There was a general fall of jaws at this very unexpected conclusion; but
+contriving to overcome their dismay, they went outside and down through
+the playground into the box-room, Paul amongst the rest, and amidst
+universal confusion, everyone opened his box, and, with a consideration
+especially laudable in heedless boyhood, thoughtfully and carefully
+removed from it all such dainties as might be calculated to shock or
+pain their preceptor.
+
+Mr. Bultitude found a key which was labelled "playbox," and began to
+open a box which bore Dick's initials cut upon the lid; without any
+apprehensions, however, for he had given too strict orders to his
+daughter, to fear that any luxuries would be concealed there.
+
+But no sooner had he raised the lid than he staggered back with disgust.
+It was crammed with cakes, butterscotch, hardbake, pots of jam, and even
+a bottle of ginger wine--enough to compromise a chameleon!
+
+He set himself to pitch them all out as soon as possible with feverish
+haste, but Tipping was too quick for him. "Hallo!" he cried: "oh, I say,
+you fellows, come here! Just look at this! Here's this impudent young
+beggar, who sneaked of poor old Coggs for sucking jujubes, and very
+nearly got us all into a jolly good row, with his own box full all the
+time; butterscotch, if you please, and jam, and ginger wine! You'll just
+put 'em all back again, will you, you young humbug!"
+
+"Do you use those words to me, sir?" said Paul angrily, for he did not
+like to be called a humbug.
+
+"Yes, sir, please, sir," jeered Tipping; "I did venture to take such a
+liberty, sir."
+
+"Then it was like your infernal impudence," growled Paul. "You be kind
+enough to leave my affairs alone. Upon my word, what boys are coming to
+nowadays!"
+
+"Are you going to put that tuck back?" said Tipping impatiently.
+
+"No, sir, I'm not. Don't interfere with what you're not expected to
+understand!"
+
+"Well, if you won't," said Tipping easily, "I suppose we must.
+Biddlecomb, kindly knock him down, and sit on his head while I fill his
+playbox for him."
+
+This was neatly and quickly done. Biddlecomb tripped Mr. Bultitude up,
+and sat firmly on him, while Tipping carefully replaced the good things
+in Dick's box, after which he locked it, and courteously returned the
+key. "As the box is heavy," he said, with a wicked wink, "I'll carry it
+up for you myself," which he did, Paul following, more dead than alive,
+and too shaken even to expostulate.
+
+"Bultitude's box was rather too heavy for him, sir," he explained as he
+came in; and Dr. Grimstone, who had quite recovered his equanimity,
+smiled indulgently, and remarked that he "liked to see the strong
+assisting the weak."
+
+All the boxes had by this time been brought up, and were ranged upon the
+tables, while the Doctor went round, making an almost formal inspection,
+like a Custom House officer searching compatriots, and becoming milder
+and milder as box after box opened to reveal a fair and innocent
+interior.
+
+Paul's turn was coming very near, and his heart seemed to shrivel like a
+burst bladder. He fumbled with his key, and tried hard to lose it. It
+was terrible to have oneself to apply the match which is to blow one to
+the winds. If--if--the idea was almost too horrible--but if he, a
+blameless and respectable city merchant, were actually to find himself
+served like the miserable Coggs!
+
+At last the Doctor actually stood by him. "Well, my boy," he said, not
+unkindly, "I'm not afraid of anything wrong here, at any rate."
+
+Mr. Bultitude, who had the best reasons for not sharing his confidence,
+made some inarticulate sounds, and pretended to have a difficulty in
+turning the key.
+
+"Eh? Come, open the box," said the Doctor with an altered manner. "What
+are you fumbling at it for in this--this highly suspicious manner? I'll
+open it myself."
+
+He took the key and opened the lid, when the cakes and wine stood
+revealed in all their damning profusion. The Doctor stepped back
+dramatically. "Hardbake!" he gasped; "wine, pots of strawberry jam! Oh,
+Bultitude, this is a revelation indeed! So I have nourished one more
+viper in my bosom, have I? A crawling reptile which curries favour by
+denouncing the very crime it conceals in its playbox! Bultitude, I was
+not prepared for such duplicity as this!"
+
+"I--I swear I never put them in!" protested the unhappy Paul. "I--I
+never touch such things: they would bring on my gout in half-an-hour.
+It's ridiculous to punish me. I never knew they were there!"
+
+"Then why were you so anxious to avoid opening the box?" rejoined the
+Doctor. "No, sir, you're too ingenious; your guilt is clear. Go to your
+dormitory, and wait there till I come to you!"
+
+Paul went upstairs, feeling utterly abandoned and helpless. Though a
+word as to his real character might have saved him, he could not have
+said it, and, worse still, knew now that he could not.
+
+"I shall be caned," he told himself, and the thought nearly drove him
+mad. "I know I shall be caned! What on earth shall I do?"
+
+He opened the door of his bedroom. Coggs was rocking and moaning on his
+bed in one corner of the room, but looked up with red furious eyes as
+Paul came in.
+
+"What do you want up here?" he said savagely. "Go away, can't you!"
+
+"I wish I _could_ go away," said Paul dolefully; "but I'm--hum--I'm sent
+up here too," he explained, with some natural embarrassment.
+
+"What!" cried Coggs, slipping off his bed and staring wildly: "you don't
+mean to say you're going to catch it too?"
+
+"I've--ah--every reason to fear," said Mr. Bultitude stiffly, "that I am
+indeed going to 'catch it,' as you call it."
+
+"Hooray!" shouted Coggs hysterically: "I don't care now. And I'll have
+some revenge on my own account as well. I don't mind an extra licking,
+and you're in for one as it is. Will you stand up to me or not?"
+
+"I don't understand you," said Paul. "Don't come so near. Keep off, you
+young demon, will you!" he cried presently, as Coggs, exasperated by all
+his wrongs, was rushing at him with an evidently hostile intent. "There,
+don't be annoyed, my good boy," he pleaded, catching up a chair as a
+bulwark. "It was a misunderstanding. I wish you no harm. There, my dear
+young friend! Don't!"
+
+The "dear young friend" was grappling with him and attempting to wrest
+the chair away by brute force. "When I get at you," he said, his hot
+breath hissing through the chair rungs, "I'll jolly well teach you to
+sneak of me!"
+
+"Murder!" Paul gasped, feeling his hold on the chair relaxing. "Unless
+help comes this young fiend will have my blood!"
+
+They were revolving slowly round the chair, watching each other's eyes
+like gladiators, when Paul noticed a sudden blankness and fixity in his
+antagonist's expression, and, looking round, saw Dr. Grimstone's awful
+form framed in the doorway, and gave himself up for lost.
+
+
+
+
+6. _Learning and Accomplishments_
+
+     "I subscribe to Lucian: 'tis an elegant thing which cheareth up the
+     mind, exerciseth the body, delights the spectators, which teacheth
+     many comely gestures, equally affecting the ears, eyes and soul
+     itself."--BURTON, _on Dancing_.
+
+
+"What is this?" asked Dr. Grimstone in his most blood-curdling tone,
+after a most impressive pause at the dormitory door.
+
+Mr. Bultitude held his tongue, but kept fast hold of his chair, which he
+held before him as a defence against either party, while Coggs remained
+motionless in the centre of the room, with crooked knees and hands
+dangling impotently.
+
+"Will one of you be good enough to explain how you come to be found
+struggling in this unseemly manner? I sent you up here to meditate on
+your past behaviour."
+
+"I should be most happy to meditate, sir," protested Paul, lowering his
+chair on discovering that there was no immediate danger, "if that--that
+bloodthirsty young ruffian there would allow me to do so. I am going
+about in bodily fear of him, Dr. Grimstone. I want him bound over to
+keep the peace. I decline to be left alone with him--he's not safe!"
+
+"Is that so, Coggs? Are you mean and base enough to take this cowardly
+revenge on a boy who has had the moral courage to expose your
+deceit--for your ultimate good--a boy who is unable to defend himself
+against you?"
+
+"He can fight when he chooses, sir," said Coggs; "he blacked my eye last
+term, sir!"
+
+"I assure you," said Paul, with the convincing earnestness of truth,
+"that I never blacked anybody's eye in the whole course of my life. I am
+not--ah--a pugnacious man. My age, and--hum--my position, ought to
+protect me from these scandals----"
+
+"You've come back this year, sir," said Dr. Grimstone, "with a very odd
+way of talking of yourself--an exceedingly odd way. Unless I see you
+abandoning it, and behaving like a reasonable boy again, I shall be
+forced to conclude you intend some disrespect and open defiance by it."
+
+"If you would allow me an opportunity of explaining my position, sir,"
+said Paul, "I would undertake to clear your mind directly of such a
+monstrous idea. I am trying to assert my rights, Dr. Grimstone--my
+rights as a citizen, as a householder! This is no place for me, and I
+appeal to you to set me free. If you only knew one tenth----"
+
+"Let us understand one another, Bultitude," interrupted the Doctor.
+"You may think it an excellent joke to talk nonsense to me like this.
+But let me tell you there is a point where a jest becomes an insult.
+I've spared you hitherto out of consideration for the feelings of your
+excellent father, who is so anxious that you should become an object of
+pride and credit to him; but if you dare to treat me to any more of this
+bombast about 'explaining your rights,' you will force me to exercise
+one of mine--the right to inflict corporal punishment, sir--which you
+have just seen in operation upon another."
+
+"Oh!" said Mr. Bultitude faintly, feeling utterly crestfallen--and he
+could say nothing more.
+
+"As for those illicit luxuries in your playbox," continued the Doctor,
+"the fact that you brought the box up as it was is in your favour; and I
+am inclined on reflection to overlook the affair, if you can assure me
+that you were no party to their being put there?"
+
+"On the contrary," said Paul, "I gave the strictest orders that there
+was to be no such useless extravagance. I objected to have the kitchen
+and housekeeper's room ransacked to make a set of rascally boys ill for
+a fortnight at my expense!"
+
+The Doctor stared slightly at this creditable but unnatural view of the
+subject. However, as he could not quarrel with the sentiment, he let the
+manner of expressing it pass unrebuked for the present, and, after
+sentencing Coggs to two days' detention and the copying of innumerable
+French verbs, he sent the ill-matched pair down to the schoolroom to
+join their respective classes.
+
+Paul went resignedly downstairs and into the room, where he found Mr.
+Blinkhorn at the head of one of the long tables, taking a class of about
+a dozen boys.
+
+"Take your Livy and Latin Primer, Bultitude," said Mr. Blinkhorn mildly,
+"and sit down."
+
+Mr. Blinkhorn was a tall angular man, with a long neck and slightly
+drooping head. He had thin wiry brown hair, and a plain face, with
+shortsighted kind brown eyes. In character he was mild and reserved,
+too conscientious to allow himself the luxury of either favourites or
+aversions among the boys, all of whom in his secret soul he probably
+disliked about equally, though he neither said nor did anything to show
+it.
+
+Paul took a book--any book, for he did not know or care to know one from
+another--and sat down at the end furthest from the master, inwardly
+rebelling at having education thus forced upon him at his advanced
+years, but seeing no escape.
+
+"At dinner time," he resolved desperately, "I will insist on speaking
+out, but just now it is simply prudent to humour them."
+
+The rest of the class drew away from him with marked coldness and
+occasionally saluted him (when Mr. Blinkhorn's attention was called
+away) with terms and grimaces which Paul, although he failed thoroughly
+to understand them, felt instinctively were not intended as compliments.
+
+Mr. Blinkhorn's notions of discipline were qualified by a sportsmanlike
+instinct which forbade him to harass a boy already in trouble, as he
+understood young Bultitude had been, and so he forbore from pressing him
+to take any share in the class work.
+
+Mr. Bultitude therefore was saved from any necessity of betraying his
+total ignorance of his author, and sat gloomily on the hard form,
+impatiently watching the minute-hand skulk round the mean dull face of
+the clock above the chimney-piece, while around him one boy after
+another droned out a listless translation of the work before him,
+interrupted by mild corrections and comments from the master.
+
+What a preposterous change from all his ordinary habits! At this very
+time, only twenty-four hours since, he was stepping slowly and
+majestically towards his accustomed omnibus, which was waiting with
+deference for him to overtake it; he was taking his seat, saluted
+respectfully by the conductor and cheerily by his fellow-passengers, as
+a man of recognised mark and position.
+
+Now that omnibus would halt at the corner of Westbourne Terrace in vain,
+and go on its way Bankwards without him. He was many miles away--in the
+very last place where anyone would be likely to look for him, occupying
+the post of "whipping-boy" to his miserable son!
+
+Was ever an inoffensive and respectable gentleman placed in a more false
+and ridiculous position?
+
+If he had only kept his drawer locked, and hidden the abominable Garuda
+Stone away from Dick's prying eyes; if he had let the moralising alone;
+if Boaler had not been so long fetching that cab, or if he had not
+happened to faint at the critical moment--what an immense difference any
+one of these apparent trifles would have made.
+
+And now what was he to do to get out of this incongruous and distasteful
+place? It was all very well to say that he had only to insist upon a
+hearing from the Doctor, but what if, as he had very grave reason to
+fear, the Doctor should absolutely refuse to listen, should even proceed
+to carry out his horrible threat? Must he remain there till the holidays
+came to release him? Suppose Dick--as he certainly would unless he was
+quite a fool--declined to receive him during the holidays? It was
+absolutely necessary to return home at once; every additional hour he
+passed in imprisonment made it harder to regain his lost self.
+
+Now and then he roused himself from all these gloomy thoughts to observe
+his companions. The boys at the upper end, near Mr. Blinkhorn, were
+fairly attentive, and he noticed one small smug-faced boy about half-way
+up, who, while a class-mate was faltering and blundering over some
+question, would cry "I know, sir. Let me tell him. Ask me, sir!" in a
+restless agony of superior information.
+
+Down by Paul, however, the discipline was relaxed enough, as perhaps
+could only be expected on the first day of term. One wild-eyed
+long-haired boy had brought out a small china figure with which, and the
+assistance of his right hand draped in a pocket handkerchief, and
+wielding a penholder, he was busy enacting a drama based on the lines of
+Punch and Judy, to the breathless amusement of his neighbours.
+
+Mr. Bultitude might have hoped to escape notice by a policy of judicious
+self-effacement, but unhappily his long, blank, uninterested face was
+held by his companions to bear an implied reproach; and being delicately
+sensitive on this point, they kicked his legs viciously, which made him
+extremely glad when dinnertime came, although he felt too faint and
+bilious to be tempted by anything but the lightest and daintiest
+luncheon.
+
+But at dinner he found, with a shudder, that he was expected to swallow
+a thick ragged section of boiled mutton which had been carved and helped
+so long before he sat down to it, that the stagnant gravy was chilled
+and congealed into patches of greasy white. He managed to swallow it
+with many pauses of invincible disgust--only to find it replaced by a
+solid slab of pale brown suet pudding, sparsely bedewed with unctuous
+black treacle.
+
+This, though a plentiful, and by no means unwholesome fare for growing
+boys, was not what he had been accustomed to, and feeling far too heavy
+and unwell after it to venture upon an encounter with the Doctor, he
+wandered slow and melancholy round the bare gravelled playground during
+the half-hour after dinner devoted to the inevitable "chevy," until the
+Doctor appeared at the head of the staircase.
+
+It is always sad for the historian to have to record a departure from
+principle, and I have to confess with shame on Mr. Bultitude's account
+that, feeling the Doctor's eye upon him, and striving to propitiate him,
+he humiliated himself so far as to run about with an elaborate affection
+of zest, and his exertions were rewarded by hearing himself cordially
+encouraged to further efforts.
+
+It cheered and emboldened him. "I've put him in a good temper," he told
+himself; "if I can only keep him in one till the evening, I really think
+I might be able to go up and tell him what a ridiculous mess I've got
+into. Why should I care, after all? At least I've done nothing to be
+ashamed of. It's an accident that might have happened to any man!"
+
+It is a curious and unpleasant thing that, however reassuring and
+convincing the arguments may be with which we succeed in bracing
+ourselves to meet or disregard unpleasantness, the force of those
+arguments seldom or never outlasts the frame of mind in which they are
+composed, and when the unpleasantness is at hand, there we are, just as
+unreasonably alarmed at it as ever.
+
+Mr. Bultitude's confidence faded away almost as soon as he found himself
+in the schoolroom again. He found himself assigned to a class at one end
+of the room, where Mr. Tinkler presently introduced a new rule in
+Algebra to them, in such a manner as to procure for it a lasting
+unpopularity with all those who were not too much engaged in drawing
+duels and railway trains upon their slates to attend.
+
+Although Paul did not draw upon his slate, his utter ignorance of
+Algebra prevented him from being much edified by the cabalistic signs on
+the blackboard, which Mr. Tinkler seemed to chalk up dubiously, and rub
+out again as soon as possible, with an air of being ashamed of them. So
+he tried to nerve himself for the coming ordeal by furtively watching
+and studying the Doctor, who was taking a Xenophon class at the upper
+end of the room, and, being in fairly good humour, was combining
+instruction with amusement in a manner peculiarly his own.
+
+He stopped the construing occasionally to illustrate some word or
+passage by an anecdote; he condescended to enliven the translation here
+and there by a familiar and colloquial paraphrase; he magnanimously
+refrained from pressing any obviously inconvenient questions; and his
+manner generally was marked by a geniality which was additionally
+piquant from its extreme uncertainty.
+
+Mr. Bultitude could not help thinking it a rather ghastly form of
+gaiety, but he hoped it might last.
+
+Presently, however, some one brought him a blue envelope on a tray. He
+read it, and a frown gathered on his face. The boy who was translating
+at the time went on again in his former slipshod manner (which had
+hitherto provoked only jovial criticism and correction) with complete
+self-complacency, but found himself sternly brought to book, and
+burdened by a heavy imposition, before he quite realised that his
+blunders had ceased to amuse.
+
+Then began a season of sore trial and tribulation for the class. The
+Doctor suddenly withdrew the light of his countenance from them, and
+sunshine was succeeded by blackest thunderclouds. The wind was no longer
+tempered to the more closely shorn of the flock; the weakest vessels
+were put on unexpectedly at crucial passages, and, coming hopelessly to
+grief, were denounced as impostors and idlers, till half the class was
+dissolved in tears.
+
+A few of the better grounded stood the fire, like a remnant of the Old
+Guard. With faces pale from alarm, and trembling voices, but perfect
+accuracy, they answered all the Doctor's searching inquiries after the
+paradigms of Greek verbs that seemed irregular to the verge of
+impropriety.
+
+Paul saw it all with renewed misgiving. "If I were there," he thought,
+"I should have been run out and flogged long ago! How angry those stupid
+young idiots are making him! How can I go up and speak to him when he's
+like that? And yet I must. I'm sitting on dynamite as it is. The very
+first time they want me to answer any questions from some of their
+books, I shall be ruined! Why wasn't I better educated when I was a
+boy, or why didn't I make a better use of my opportunities! It will be a
+bitter thing if they thrash me for not knowing as much as Dick.
+Grimstone's coming this way now; it's all over with me!"
+
+The Greek class had managed to repel the enemy, with some loss to
+themselves, and the Doctor now left his place for a moment, and came
+down towards the bench on which Paul sat trembling.
+
+The storm, however, had passed over for the present, and he only said
+with restored calmness, "Who were the boys who learnt dancing last
+term?"
+
+One or two of them said they had done so, and Dr. Grimstone continued:
+"Mr. Burdekin was unable to give you the last lesson of his course last
+term, and has arranged to take you to-day, as he will be in the
+neighbourhood. So be off at once to Mrs. Grimstone and change your
+shoes. Bultitude, you learnt last term, too. Go with the others."
+
+Mr. Bultitude was too overcome by this unexpected attack to contradict
+it, though of course he was quite able to do so; but then, if he had, he
+must have explained all, and he felt strongly that just then was neither
+the time nor the place for particulars.
+
+It would have been wiser perhaps, it would certainly have brought
+matters to a crisis, if he could have forced himself to tell
+everything--the whole truth in all its outrageous improbability--but he
+could not.
+
+Let those who feel inclined to blame him for lack of firmness consider
+how difficult and delicate a business it must almost of necessity be for
+anyone to declare openly, in the teeth of common sense and plain facts,
+that there has been a mistake, and, in point of fact, he is not his own
+son, but his own father.
+
+"I suppose I must go," he thought. "I needn't dance. Haven't danced
+since I was a young man. But I can't afford to offend him just now."
+
+And so he followed the rest into a sort of cloak-room, where the tall
+hats which the boys wore on Sundays were all kept on shelves in white
+bandboxes; and there his hair was brushed, his feet were thrust into
+very shiny patent leather shoes, and a pair of kid gloves was given out
+to him to put on.
+
+The dancing lesson was to be held in the "Dining Hall," from which the
+savour of mutton had not altogether departed. When Paul came in he found
+the floor cleared and the tables and forms piled up on one side of the
+room.
+
+Biddlecomb and Tipping and some of the smaller boys were there already,
+their gloves and shiny shoes giving them a feeling of ceremony and
+constraint which they tried to carry off by an uncouth parody of
+politeness.
+
+Siggers was telling stories of the dances he had been to in town, and
+the fine girls whose step had exactly suited his own, and Tipping was
+leaning gloomily against the wall listening to something Chawner was
+whispering in his ear.
+
+There was a rustle of dresses down the stairs outside, and two thin
+little girls, looking excessively proper and prim, came in with an
+elderly gentlewoman who was their governess and wore a _pince-nez_ to
+impart the necessary suggestion of a superior intellect. They were the
+Miss Mutlows, sisters of one of the day-boarders, and attended the
+course by special favour as friends of Dulcie's, who followed them in
+with a little gleam of shy anticipation in her eyes.
+
+The Miss Mutlows sat stiffly down on a form, one on each side of her
+governess, and all three stared solemnly at the boys, who began to blush
+vividly under the inspection, to unbutton and rebutton their gloves with
+great care, and to shift from leg to leg in an embarrassed manner.
+
+Dulcie soon singled out poor Mr. Bultitude, who, mindful of Tipping's
+warning, was doing his very best to avoid her.
+
+She ran straight to him, laid her hand on his arm and looked into his
+face pleadingly. "Dick," she said, "you're not sulky still, are you?"
+
+Mr. Bultitude had borne a good deal already, and, not being remarkably
+sweet-natured, he shook the little hand away, half petulant and half
+alarmed. "I do wish you wouldn't do this sort of thing in public. You'll
+compromise me, you know!" he said nervously.
+
+Dulcie opened her grey eyes wide, and then a flush came into her cheeks,
+and she made a little disdainful upward movement of her chin.
+
+"You didn't mind it once," she said. "I thought you might want to dance
+with me. You liked to last term. But I'm sure I don't care if you choose
+to be disagreeable. Go and dance with Mary Mutlow if you want to, though
+you did say she danced like a pair of compasses, and I shall tell her
+you said so, too. And you know you're not a good dancer yourself. _Are_
+you going to dance with Mary?"
+
+Paul stamped. "I tell you I never dance," he said. "I can't dance any
+more than a lamp-post. You don't seem an ill-natured little girl, but
+why on earth can't you let me alone?"
+
+Dulcie's eyes flashed. "You're a nasty sulky boy," she said in an angry
+undertone (all the conversation had, of course, been carried on in
+whispers). "I'll never speak to you or look at you again. You're the
+most horrid boy in the school--and the ugliest!"
+
+And she turned proudly away, though anyone who looked might have seen
+the fire in her eyes extinguished as she did so. Perhaps Tipping did see
+it, for he scowled at them from his corner.
+
+There was another sound outside, as of fiddlestrings being twanged by
+the finger, and, as the boys hastily formed up in two lines down the
+centre of the room and the Miss Mutlows and Dulcie prepared themselves
+for the curtsey of state, there came in a little fat man, with
+mutton-chop whiskers and a white face, upon which was written an
+unalterable conviction that his manner and deportment were perfection
+itself.
+
+The two rows of boys bent themselves stiffly from the back, and Mr.
+Burdekin returned the compliment by an inclusive and stately
+inclination.
+
+"Good afternoon, madam. Young ladies, I trust I find you well. (The
+curtsey just a leetle lower, Miss Mutlow--the right foot less drawn
+back. Beautiful! Feet closer at the recovery. Perfect!) Young gentlemen,
+good evening. Take your usual places, please, all of you, for our
+preliminary exercises. Now, the _chassee_ round the room. Will you lead
+off, please, Dummer; the hands just lightly touching the shoulders, the
+head thrown negligently back to balance the figure; the whole deportment
+easy, but not careless. Now, please!"
+
+And, talking all the time with a metrical fluency, he scraped a little
+jig on the violin, while Dummer led off a procession which solemnly
+capered round the room in sundry stages of conscious awkwardness. Mr.
+Bultitude shuffled along somehow after the rest, with rebellion at his
+heart and a deep sense of degradation. "If my clerks were to see me
+now!" he thought.
+
+After some minutes of this, Mr. Burdekin stopped them and directed sets
+to be formed for "The Lancers."
+
+"Bultitude," said Mr. Burdekin, "you will take Miss Mutlow, please."
+
+"Thank you," said Paul, "but--ah--I don't dance."
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense, sir, you are one of my most promising pupils. You
+mustn't tell me that. Not another word! Come, select your partners."
+
+Paul had no option. He was paired off with the tall and rather angular
+young lady mentioned, while Dulcie looked on pouting, and snubbed
+Tipping, who humbly asked for the pleasure of dancing with her, by
+declaring that she meant to dance with Tom.
+
+The dance began to a sort of rhythmical accompaniment by Mr. Burdekin,
+who intoned "Tops advance, retire and cross. Balance at corners. (Very
+nice, Miss Grimstone!) More '_abandon_,' Chawner! Lift the feet more
+from the floor. Not so high as that! Oh, dear me! that last figure over
+again. And slide the feet, oh, slide the feet! (Bultitude, you're
+leaving out all the steps!")
+
+Paul was dragged, unwilling but unresisting, through it all by his
+partner, who jerked and pushed him into his place without a word, being
+apparently under strict orders from the governess not on any account to
+speak to the boys.
+
+After the dance the couples promenaded in a stiff but stately manner
+round the room to a dirge-like march scraped upon the violin, the boys
+taking the parts of ladies jibbing away from their partners in a highly
+unlady-like fashion, and the boy burdened with the companionship of the
+younger Miss Mutlow walking along in a very agony of bashfulness.
+
+"I suppose," thought Paul, as he led the way with Miss Mary Mutlow, "if
+Dick were ever to hear of this, he'd think it _funny_. Oh, if I ever get
+the upper hand of him again----. How much longer, I wonder, shall I have
+to play the fool to this infernal fiddle!"
+
+But, if this was bad, worse was to come.
+
+There was another pause, in which Mr. Burdekin said blandly, "I wonder
+now if we have forgotten our sailor's hornpipe. Perhaps Bultitude will
+prove the contrary. If I remember right, he used to perform it with
+singular correctness. And, let me tell you, there are a great number of
+spurious hornpipe steps in circulation. Come, sir, oblige me by dancing
+it alone!"
+
+This was the final straw. It was not to be supposed for one moment that
+Mr. Bultitude would lower his dignity in such a preposterous manner.
+Besides, he did not know how to dance the hornpipe.
+
+So he said, "I shall do nothing of the sort. I've had quite enough of
+this--ah--tomfoolery!"
+
+"That is a very impolite manner of declining, Bultitude; highly
+discourteous and unpolished. I must insist now--really, as a personal
+matter--upon your going through the sailor's hornpipe. Come, you won't
+make a scene, I'm sure. You'll oblige me, as a gentleman?"
+
+"I tell you I can't!" said Mr. Bultitude sullenly. "I never did such a
+thing in my life; it would be enough to kill me at my age!"
+
+"This is untrue, sir. Do you mean to say you will not dance the
+hornpipe?"
+
+"No," said Paul, "I'll be damned if I do!"
+
+There was unfortunately no possible doubt about the nature of the word
+used--he said it so very distinctly. The governess screamed and called
+her charges to her. Dulcie hid her face, and some of the boys tittered.
+
+Mr. Burdekin turned pink. "After that disgraceful language, sir, in the
+presence of the fairer sex, I have no more to do with you. You will have
+the goodness to stand in the centre of that form. Gentlemen, select your
+partners for the Highland schottische!"
+
+Mr. Bultitude, by no means sorry to be freed from the irksome necessity
+of dancing with a heart ill-attuned for enjoyment, got up on the form
+and stood looking, sullenly enough, upon the proceedings. The governess
+glowered at him now and then as a monster of youthful depravity; the
+Miss Mutlows glanced up at him as they tripped past, with curiosity not
+unmixed with admiration, but Dulcie steadily avoided looking in his
+direction.
+
+Paul was just congratulating himself upon his escape when the door
+opened wide, and the Doctor marched slowly and imposingly into the room.
+
+He did this occasionally, partly to superintend matters, and partly as
+an encouraging mark of approbation. He looked round the class at first
+with benignant toleration, until his glance took in the bench upon which
+Mr. Bultitude was set up. Then his eye slowly travelled up to the level
+of Paul's head, his expression changing meanwhile to a petrifying glare.
+
+It was not, as Paul instinctively felt, exactly the position in which a
+gentleman who wished to stand well with those in authority over him
+would prefer to be found. He felt his heart turn to water within him,
+and stared limp and helpless at the Doctor.
+
+There was an awful silence (Dr. Grimstone was addicted to awful
+silences; and, indeed, if seldom strictly "golden," silence may often be
+called "iron"), but at last he inquired, "And pray what may you be doing
+up there, sir?"
+
+"Upon my soul I can't say," said Mr. Bultitude feebly. "Ask that
+gentleman there with the fiddle--he knows."
+
+Mr. Burdekin was a good-natured, easy-tempered little man, and had
+already forgotten the affront to his dignity. He was anxious not to get
+the boy into more trouble.
+
+"Bultitude was a little inattentive and, I may say, wanting in respect,
+Dr. Grimstone," he said, putting it as mildly as he could with any
+accuracy; "so I ventured to place him there as a punishment."
+
+"Quite right, Mr. Burdekin," said the Doctor: "quite right. I am sorry
+that any boy of mine should have caused you to do so. You are again
+beginning your career of disorder and rebellion, are you, sir? Go up
+into the schoolroom at once, and write a dozen copies before tea-time! A
+very little more eccentricity and insubordination from you, Bultitude,
+and you will reap a full reward--a full reward, sir!"
+
+So Mr. Bultitude was driven out of the dancing class in dire
+disgrace--which would not have distressed him particularly, being only
+one more drop in his bitter cup--but that he recognised that now his
+hopes of approaching the Doctor with his burden of woe were fallen like
+a card castle. They were fiddled and danced away for at least
+twenty-four hours--perhaps for ever!
+
+Bitterly did he brood over this as he slowly and laboriously copied out
+sundry vain repetitions of such axioms as, "Cultivate Habits of Courtesy
+and Self-control," and "True Happiness is to be sought in Contentment."
+He saw the prospect of a tolerably severe flogging growing more and more
+distinct, and felt that he could not present himself to his family with
+the consciousness of having suffered such an indelible disgrace. His
+family! What would become of them in his absence? Would he ever see his
+comfortable home in Bayswater again?
+
+Tea-time came, and after it evening preparation, when Mr. Tinkler
+presided in a feeble and ineffective manner, perpetually suspecting that
+the faint sniggers he heard were indulged in at his own expense, and
+calling perfectly innocent victims to account for them.
+
+Paul sat next to Jolland and, in his desperate anxiety to avoid further
+unpleasantness, found himself, as he could not for his life have written
+a Latin or a German composition, reduced to copy down his neighbour's
+exercises. This Jolland (who had looked forward to an arrangement of a
+very opposite kind) nevertheless cheerfully allowed him to do, though he
+expressed doubts as to the wisdom of a servile imitation--more, perhaps,
+from prudence than conscientiousness.
+
+Jolland, in the intervals of study, was deeply engaged in the production
+of a small illustrated work of fiction, which he was pleased to call
+_The Adventures of Ben Buterkin at Scool_. It was in a great measure an
+autobiography, and the cuts depicting the hero's flagellations--which
+were frequent in the course of the narrative--were executed with much
+vigour and feeling.
+
+He turned out a great number of these works in the course of the term,
+as well as faces in pen and ink with moving tongues and rolling eyes,
+and these he would present to a few favoured friends with a secretive
+and self-depreciatory giggle.
+
+Amidst scenes and companions like these, Paul sat out the evening hours
+on his hard seat, which was just at the junction of two forms--an
+exquisitely uncomfortable position, as all who have tried it will
+acknowledge--until the time for going to bed came round again. He
+dreaded the hours of darkness, but there was no help for it--to protest
+would have been madness just then, and, once more, he was forced to pass
+a night under the roof of Crichton House.
+
+It was even worse than the first, though this was greatly owing to his
+own obstinacy.
+
+The boys, if less subdued, were in better temper than the evening
+before, and found it troublesome to keep up a feud when the first flush
+of resentment had died out. There was a general disposition to forget
+his departure from the code of schoolboy honour, and give him an
+opportunity of retrieving the past.
+
+But he would not meet them half-way; his repeated repulses by the Doctor
+and all the difficulties that beset his return to freedom had made him
+very sulky and snappish. He had not patience or adaptability enough to
+respond to their advances, and only shrank from their rough good
+nature--which naturally checked the current of good feeling.
+
+Then, when the lights were put out, some one demanded a story. Most of
+the bedrooms possessed a professional story-teller, and in one there was
+a young romancist who began a stirring history the very first night of
+the term, which always ran on until the night before the holidays, and,
+if his hearers were apt to yawn at the sixth week of it, he himself
+enjoyed and believed in it keenly from beginning to end.
+
+Dick Bultitude had been a valued _raconteur_, it appeared, and his
+father found accordingly, to his disgust, that he was expected to amuse
+them with a story. When he clearly understood the idea, he rejected it
+with so savage a snarl, that he soon found it necessary to retire under
+the bedclothes to escape the general indignation that followed.
+
+Finding that he did not actively resent it (the real Dick would have had
+the occupant of the nearest bed out by the ears in a minute!), they
+profited by his prudence to come to his bedside, where they pillowed his
+weary head (with their own pillows) till the slight offered them was
+more than avenged.
+
+After that, Mr. Bultitude, with the breath half beaten out of his body,
+lay writhing and spluttering on his hard, rough bed till long after
+silence had fallen over the adjoining beds, and the sleepy hum of talk
+in the other bedrooms had died away.
+
+Then he, too, drifted off into wild and troubled dreams, which, at their
+maddest, were scattered into blankness by a sudden and violent shock,
+which jerked him, clutching and grasping at nothing, on to the cold,
+bare boards, where he rolled, shivering.
+
+"An earthquake!" he thought, "an explosion ... gas--or dynamite! He must
+go and call the children ... Boaler ... the plate!"
+
+But the reality to which he woke was worse still. Tipping and Coker had
+been patiently pinching themselves to keep awake until their enemy
+should be soundly asleep, in order to enjoy the exquisite pleasure of
+letting down the mattress; and, too dazed and frightened even to swear,
+Paul gathered up his bedclothes and tried to draw them about him as well
+as he might, and seek sleep, which had lost its security.
+
+The Garuda Stone had done one grim and cruel piece of work at least in
+its time.
+
+
+
+
+7. _Cutting the Knot_
+
+"A Crowd is not Company; And Faces are but a Gallery of Pictures;
+And Talke but a _Tinckling Cymball_, where there is no _Love_."
+                                                       --BACON.
+
+
+Once more Mr. Bultitude rose betimes, dressed noiselessly, and stole
+down to the cold schoolroom, where one gas-jet was burning palely--for
+the morning was raw and foggy.
+
+This time, however, he was not alone. Mr. Blinkhorn was sitting at his
+little table in the corner, correcting exercises, with his chilly hands
+cased in worsted mittens. He looked up as Paul came in, and nodded
+kindly.
+
+Paul went straight to the fire, and stood staring into it with
+lack-lustre eye, too apathetic even to be hopeless, for the work of
+enlightening the Doctor seemed more terrible and impossible than ever,
+and he began to see that, if the only way of escape lay there, he had
+better make up his mind with what philosophy he could to adapt himself
+to his altered circumstances, and stay on for the rest of the term.
+
+But the prospect was so doleful and so blank, that he drew a heavy sigh
+as he thought of it. Mr. Blinkhorn heard it, and rose awkwardly from the
+rickety little writing-table, knocking over a pile of marble-covered
+copy-books as he did so.
+
+Then he crossed over to Paul and laid a hand gently on his shoulder.
+"Look here," he said: "why don't you confide in me? Do you think I'm
+blind to what has happened to you? I can see the change in you--if
+others cannot. Why not trust me?"
+
+Mr. Bultitude looked up into his face, which had an honest interest and
+kindliness in it, and his heart warmed with a faint hope. If this young
+man had been shrewd enough to guess at his unhappy secret, might he not
+be willing to intercede with the Doctor for him? He looked
+good-natured--he would trust him.
+
+"Do you mean to say really," he asked, with more cordiality than he had
+spoken for a long time, "that you--see--the--a--the difference?"
+
+"I saw it almost directly," said Mr. Blinkhorn, with mild triumph.
+
+"That's the most extraordinary thing," said Paul, "and yet it ought to
+be evident enough, to be sure. But no, you can't have guessed the real
+state of things!"
+
+"Listen, and stop me if I'm wrong. Within the last few days a great
+change has been at work within you. You are not the idle, thoughtless,
+mischievous boy who left here for his holidays----"
+
+"No," said Paul, "I'll swear I'm not!"
+
+"There is no occasion for such strong expressions. But, at all events,
+you come back here an altogether different being. Am I right in saying
+so?"
+
+"Perfectly," said Paul, overjoyed at being so thoroughly understood,
+"perfectly. You're a very intelligent young man, sir. Shake hands. Why,
+I shouldn't be surprised, after that, if you knew how it all happened?"
+
+"That too," said Mr. Blinkhorn smiling, "I can guess. It arose, I doubt
+not, in a wish?"
+
+"Yes," cried Paul, "you've hit it again. You're a conjurer, sir, by Gad
+you are!"
+
+"Don't say 'by Gad,' Bultitude; it's inconsistent. It began, I was
+saying, in a wish, half unconscious perhaps, to be something other than
+what you had been----"
+
+"I was a fool," groaned Mr. Bultitude, "yes, that was the way it began!"
+
+"Then insensibly the wish worked a gradual transformation in your nature
+(you are old enough to follow me?)."
+
+"Old enough for him to follow _me_!" thought Paul; but he was too
+pleased to be annoyed. "Hardly gradual I should say," he said aloud.
+"But go on, sir, pray go on. I see you know all about it."
+
+"At first the other part of you struggled against the new feelings. You
+strove to forget them--you even tried to resume your old habits, your
+former way of life--but to no purpose; and when you came here, you found
+no fellowship amongst your companions----"
+
+"Quite out of the question!" said Paul.
+
+"Their pleasures give you no delight----"
+
+"Not a bit!"
+
+"They, on their side, perhaps misunderstand your lack of interest in
+their pursuits. They cannot see--how should they?--that you have altered
+your mode of life, and when they catch the difference between you and
+the Richard Bultitude they knew, why, they are apt to resent it."
+
+"They are," agreed Mr. Bultitude: "they resent it in a confounded
+disagreeable way, you know. Why, I assure you, that only last night I
+was----"
+
+"Hush," said Mr. Blinkhorn, holding up one hand, "complaints are
+unmanly. But I see you wonder at my knowing all this?"
+
+"Well," said Paul, "I am rather surprised."
+
+"What would you say if I told you I had undergone it myself in my time?"
+
+"You don't mean to tell me there are _two_ Garuda Stones in this
+miserable world!" cried Paul, thoroughly astonished.
+
+"I don't know what you mean now, but I can say with truth that I too
+have had my experiences--my trials. Months ago, from certain signs, I
+noticed, I foresaw that this was coming upon you."
+
+"Then," said Mr. Bultitude, "I think, in common decency, you might have
+warned me. A post-card would have done it. I should have been better
+prepared to meet this, then!"
+
+"It would have been worse than fruitless to attempt to hurry on the
+crisis. It might have even prevented what I fondly hoped would come to
+pass."
+
+"Fondly hoped!" said Paul, "upon my word you speak plainly, sir."
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Blinkhorn. "You see I knew the Dick Bultitude that was,
+so well; he was frolicksome, impulsive, mischievous even, but under it
+all there lay a nature of sterling worth."
+
+"Sterling worth!" cried Paul. "A scoundrel, I tell you, a heartless,
+selfish young scoundrel. Call things by their right names, if you
+please."
+
+"No, no," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "this extreme self-depreciation is morbid,
+very morbid. There was no actual vice."
+
+"No actual vice! Why, God bless my soul, do you call ingratitude--the
+basest, most unfilial, most treacherous ingratitude--no vice, sir? You
+may be a very excellent young man, but if you gloss over things in that
+fashion, your moral sense must be perverted, sir--strangely perverted."
+
+"There were faults on both sides, I fear," said Mr. Blinkhorn, growing
+a little scandalised by the boy's odd warmth of expression. "I have
+heard something of what you had to bear with. On the one hand, a father,
+undemonstrative, stern, easily provoked; on the other, a son,
+thoughtless, forgetful, and at times it may be even wilful. But you are
+too sensitive; you think too much of what seems to me a not unnatural
+(although of course improper) protest against coldness and injustice. I
+should be the last to encourage a child against a parent, but, to
+comfort your self-reproach, I think it right to assure you that, in my
+judgment, the outburst you refer to was very excusable."
+
+"Oh," said Paul, "you do? You call that comfort? Excusable! Why, what
+the dooce do you mean, sir? You're taking the other side now!"
+
+"This is not the language of penitence, Bultitude," said poor Mr.
+Blinkhorn, disheartened and bewildered. "Remember, you have put off the
+Old Man now!"
+
+"I'm not likely to forget _that_," said Paul; "I only wish I could see
+my way to putting him on again!"
+
+"You want to be your old self again?" gasped Mr. Blinkhorn.
+
+"Why, of course I do," said Paul angrily; "I'm not an idiot!"
+
+"You are weary of the struggle so soon?" said the other with reproach.
+
+"Weary? I tell you I'm sick of it! If I had only known what was in store
+for me before I had made such a fool of myself!"
+
+"This is horrible!" said Mr. Blinkhorn--"I ought not to listen to you."
+
+"But you must," urged Paul; "I tell you I can't stand it any longer. I'm
+not fit for it at my age. You must see that yourself, and you must make
+Grimstone see it too!"
+
+"Never!" said Mr. Blinkhorn firmly. "Nor do I see how that would help
+you. I will not let you go back in this deplorable way. You must nerve
+yourself to go on now in the path you have chosen; you must force your
+schoolfellows to love and respect you in your new character. Come, take
+courage! After all, in spite of your altered life, there is no reason
+why you should not be a frank and happy-hearted boy, you know."
+
+"A frank and happy-hearted fiddlestick!" cried Paul rudely (he was so
+disgusted at the suggestion); "don't talk rubbish, sir! I thought you
+were going to show me some way out of all this, and instead of that,
+knowing the shameful way I've been treated, you can stand there and
+calmly recommend me to stay on here and be happy-hearted and frank!"
+
+"You must be calm, Bultitude, or I shall leave you. Listen to reason.
+You are here for your good. Youth, it has been beautifully said, is the
+springtime of life. Though you may not believe it, you will never be
+happier than you are now. Our schooldays are----"
+
+But Mr. Bultitude could not tamely be mocked with the very platitudes
+that had brought him all his misery--he cut the master short in a
+violent passion. "This is too much!" he cried--"you shall not palm off
+that miserable rubbish on me. I see through it. It's a plot to keep me
+here, and you're in it. It's false imprisonment, and I'll write to the
+_Times_. I'll expose the whole thing!"
+
+"This violence is only ridiculous," said Mr. Blinkhorn. "If I were not
+too pained by it, I should feel it my duty to report your language to
+the Doctor. As it is, you have bitterly disappointed me; I can't
+understand it at all. You seemed so subdued, so softened lately. But
+until you come to me and say you regret this, I must decline to have
+anything more to say to you. Take your book and sit down in your place!"
+
+And he went back to his exercises, looking puzzled and pained. The fact
+was, he was an ardent believer in the Good Boy of a certain order of
+school tales--the boy who is seized with a sudden conviction of the
+intrinsic baseness of boyhood, and does all in his power to get rid of
+the harmful taint; the boy who renounces his old comrades and his
+natural tastes (which after all seldom have any serious harm in them),
+to don a panoply of priggishness which is too often kick-proof.
+
+This kind of boy is rare enough at most English schools, but Mr.
+Blinkhorn had been educated at a large Nonconformist College, where
+"Revivals" and "Awakenings" were periodical, and undoubtedly did produce
+changes of character violent enough, but sadly short in duration.
+
+He was always waiting for some such boy to come to him with his
+confession of moral worthlessness and vows of unnatural perfection, and
+was too simple and earnest and good himself to realise that such states
+of the youthful mind are not unfrequently merely morbid and hysterical,
+and too often degenerate into Pharisaism, or worse still, hypocrisy.
+
+So when he noticed Mr. Bultitude's silence and depression, his studied
+withdrawal from the others and his evident want of sympathy with them,
+he believed he saw the symptoms of a conscience at work, and that he had
+found his reformed boy at last.
+
+It was a very unfortunate misunderstanding, for it separated Paul from,
+perhaps, the only person who would have had the guilelessness to believe
+his incredible story, and the good nature to help him to find escape
+from his misfortunes.
+
+Mr. Bultitude on his part was more angry and disgusted than ever. He
+began to see that there was a muddle somewhere, and that his identity
+was unsuspected still. This young man, for all his fair speaking and
+pretended shrewdness, was no conjurer after all. He was left to rely on
+his own resources, and he had begun to lose all confidence in their
+power to extricate him.
+
+As he brooded over this, the boys straggled down as before, and looked
+over their lessons for the day in a dull, lifeless manner. The cold,
+unsatisfying breakfast, and the half-hour assigned to "chevy," followed
+in due course, and after that Paul found himself set down with a class
+to await the German master, Herr Stohwasser.
+
+He had again tried to pull himself together and approach the Doctor with
+his protest, but no sooner did he find himself near his presence than
+his heart began to leap wildly and then retired down towards his boots,
+leaving him hoarse, palpitating, and utterly blank of ideas.
+
+It was no use--and he resigned himself for yet another day of unwelcome
+instruction.
+
+The class was in a little room on the basement floor, with a linen-press
+taking up one side, some bare white deal tables and forms, and, on the
+walls, a few coloured German prints. They sat there talking and
+laughing, taking no notice of Mr. Bultitude, until the German master
+made his appearance.
+
+He was by no means a formidable person, though stout and tall. He wore
+big round owlish spectacles, and his pale broad face and long nose,
+combined with a wild crop of light hair and a fierce beard, gave him the
+incongruous appearance of a sheep looking out of a gun-port.
+
+He took his place with an air of tremendous determination to enforce a
+hard morning's work on the book they were reading--a play of Schiller's,
+of the plot of which, it is needless to say, no one of his pupils had or
+cared to have the vaguest notion, having long since condemned the whole
+subject, with insular prejudice, as "rot."
+
+"Now, please," said Herr Stohwasser, "where we left off last term. Third
+act, first scene--Court before Tell's house. Tell is vid the carpenter
+axe, Hedwig vid a domestig labour occupied. Walter and Wilhelm in the
+depth sport with a liddle gross-bow. Biddlegom, you begin. Walter
+(sings)."
+
+But Biddlecomb was in a conversational mood, and willing to postpone the
+task of translation, so he merely inquired, with an air of extreme
+interest, how Herr Stohwasser's German Grammar was getting on.
+
+This was a subject on which (as he perhaps knew) the German never could
+resist enlarging, for in common with most German masters, he was giving
+birth to a new Grammar, which, from the daring originality of its plan,
+and its extreme simplicity, was destined to supersede all other similar
+works.
+
+"Ach," he said, "it is brogressing. I haf just gompleted a gomprehensive
+table of ze irregular virps, vith ze eggserzizes upon zem. And zere is
+further an appendeeks which in itself gontains a goncise view of all ze
+vort-blays possible in the Charman tong. But, come, let us gontinue vith
+our Tell!"
+
+"What are vort-blays?" persisted Biddlecomb insidiously, having no idea
+of continuing with his Tell just yet.
+
+"A vort-blay," exclaimed Herr Stohwasser; "it is English, nicht so? A
+sporting vid vorts--a 'galembour'--a--Gott pless me, vat you call a
+'pon.'"
+
+"Like the one you made when you were a young man?" Jolland called out
+from the lower end of the table.
+
+"Yes; tell us the one you made when you were a young man," the class
+entreated, with flattering eagerness.
+
+Herr Stohwasser began to laugh with slow, deep satisfaction; the
+satisfaction of a successful achievement. "Hah, you remember dat!" he
+said, "ah, yes, I make him when a yong man; but, mind you, he was not a
+pon--he was a '_choke_.' I haf told you all about him before."
+
+"We've forgotten it," said Biddlecomb: "tell it us again."
+
+As a matter of fact this joke, in all its lights, was tolerably familiar
+to most of them by this time, but, either on its individual merits, or
+perhaps because it compared favourably with the sterner alternative of
+translating, it was periodically in request, and always met with
+evergreen appreciation.
+
+Herr Stohwasser beamed with the pride of authorship. Like the celebrated
+Scotchman, he "jocked wi' deeficulty," and the outcome of so much
+labour was dear to him.
+
+"I zent him into ze Charman _Kladderadatch_ (it is a paper like your
+_Ponch_). It--mein choke--was upon ze Schleswig-Holstein gomplication;
+ze beginning was in this way----"
+
+And he proceeded to set out in great length all the circumstances which
+had given materials for his "choke," with the successive processes by
+which he had shaped and perfected it, passing on to a recital of the
+masterpiece itself, and ending up by a philosophical analysis of the
+same, which must have placed his pupils in full possession of the point,
+for they laughed consumedly.
+
+"I dell you zis," he said, "not to aggustom your minds vid frivolity and
+lightness, but as a lesson in ze gonstruction of ze langwitch. If you
+can choke in Charman, you will be able also to gonverse in Charman."
+
+"Did the German what's-its-name print your joke?" inquired Coggs.
+
+"It has not appeared yet," Herr Stohwasser confessed; "it takes a long
+time to get an imbortant choke like that out in brint. But I vait--I
+write to ze editor every week--and I vait."
+
+"Why don't you put it in your Grammar?" suggested Tipping.
+
+"I haf--ze greater part of it--(it vas a long choke, but I gompressed
+him). If I haf time, some day I will make anozer liddle choke to
+aggompany, begause I vant my Crammar to be a goot Crammar, you
+understandt. And now to our Tell. Really you beople do noding but
+chadder!"
+
+All this, of course, had no interest for Mr. Bultitude, but it left him
+free to pursue his own thoughts in peace, and indeed this lesson would
+never have been recorded here, but for two circumstances which will
+presently appear, both of which had no small effect on his fortunes.
+
+He sat nearest the window, and looked out on the pinched and drooping
+laurels in the enclosure, which were damp with frost melting in the
+sunshine. Over the wall he could see the tops of passing vehicles, the
+country carrier's cart, the railway parcels van, the fly from the
+station. He envied even the drivers; their lot was happier than his!
+
+His thoughts were busy with Dick. Oddly enough, it had scarcely occurred
+to him before to speculate on what he might be doing in his absence; he
+had thought chiefly about himself. But now he gave his attention to the
+subject, what new horrors it opened up! What might not become of his
+well-conducted household under the rash rule of a foolish schoolboy! The
+office, too--who could say what mischief Dick might not be doing there,
+under the cover of his own respectable form?
+
+Then it might seem good to him any day to smash the Garuda Stone, and
+after that there would be no hope of matters being ever set right again!
+
+And yet, miserable coward and fool that he was, with everything
+depending upon his losing no time to escape, he could not screw up his
+courage, and say the words that were to set him free.
+
+All at once--and this is one of the circumstances that make the German
+lesson an important stage in this story--an idea suggested itself to him
+quite dazzling by its daring and brilliancy.
+
+Some may wonder, when they hear what it was, why he never thought of it
+before, and it is somewhat surprising, but by no means without
+precedent. Artemus Ward has told us somewhere of a ferocious bandit who
+was confined for sixteen years in solitary captivity, before the notion
+of escape ever occurred to him. When it did, he opened the window and
+got out.
+
+Perhaps a similar passiveness on Mr. Bultitude's part was due to a very
+natural and proper desire to do everything without scandal, and in a
+legitimate manner; to march out, as it were, with the honours of war.
+Perhaps it was simple dullness. The fact remains that it was not till
+then that he saw a way of recovering his lost position, without the
+disagreeable necessity of disclosing his position to anyone at Crichton
+House.
+
+He had still--thank Heaven--the five shillings he had given Dick. He had
+not thrown them away with the other articles in his mad passion. Five
+shillings was not much, but it was more than enough to pay for a
+third-class fare to town. He had only to watch his opportunity, slip
+away to the station, and be at home again, defying the usurper, before
+anyone at Crichton House had discovered his absence.
+
+He might go that very day, and the delight of this thought--the complete
+reaction from blank despair to hope--was so intense that he could not
+help rubbing his hands stealthily under the table, and chuckling with
+glee at his own readiness of resource.
+
+When we are most elated, however, there is always a counteracting agent
+at hand to bring us down again to our proper level, or below it. The
+Roman general in the triumph never really needed the slave in the
+chariot to dash his spirits--he had his friends there already; the
+guests at an Egyptian dinner must have brought their own skeletons.
+
+There was a small flaxen-haired little boy sitting next to Mr.
+Bultitude, seemingly a quite inoffensive being, who at this stage served
+to sober him by furnishing another complication.
+
+"Oh, I say, Bultitude," he piped shrilly in Paul's ear, "I forgot all
+about it. Where's my rabbit?"
+
+The unreasonable absurdity of such a question annoyed him excessively.
+"Is this a time," he said reprovingly, "to talk of rabbits? Mind your
+book, sir."
+
+"Oh, I daresay," grumbled little Porter, the boy in question: "it's all
+very well, but I want my rabbit."
+
+"Hang it, sir," said Paul angrily, "do you suppose I'm sitting on it?"
+
+"You promised to bring me back a rabbit," persisted Porter doggedly;
+"you know you did, and it's a beastly shame. I mean to have that
+rabbit, or know the reason why."
+
+At the other end of the table Biddlecomb had again dexterously allured
+Herr Stohwasser into the meshes of conversation; this time upon the
+question (_a propos de bottes_) of street performances. "I vill tell you
+a gurious thing," he was saying, "vat happened to me de oder day ven I
+vas valking down de Strandt. I saw a leedle gommon dirty boy with a tall
+round hat on him, and he stand in a side street right out in de road,
+and he take off his tall round hat, and he put it on de ground, and he
+stand still and look zo at it. So I shtop too, to see vat he vould do
+next. And bresently he take out a large sheet of baper and tear it in
+four pieces very garefully, and stick zem round de tall round hat, and
+put it on his head again, and zen he set it down on de grount and look
+at it vonce more, and all de time he never speak von vort. And I look
+and look and vonder vat he would do next. And a great growd of beoples
+com, and zey look and vonder too. And zen all at once de leedle dirty
+boy he take out all de paper and put on de hat, and he valk avay,
+laughing altogetter foolishly at zomzing I did not understand at all. I
+haf been thinking efer since vat in the vorldt he do all zat nonsence
+for. And zere is von ozer gurious thing I see in your London streets zat
+very same day. Zere vas a poor house cat dat had been by a cab overrun
+as I passed by, and von man vith a kind varm heart valk up and stamp it
+on de head for to end its pain. And anozer man vith anozer kind heart,
+he gom up directly and had not seen de cat overrun, but he see de first
+man stamping and he knock him down for ill-treating animals; it was
+quite gurious to see; till de policeman arrest dem both for fighting.
+Goggs, degline 'Katze,' and gif me ze berfect and bast barticiple of
+'kampfen,' to fight." This last relapse into duty was caused by the
+sudden entrance of the Doctor, who stood at the door looking on for some
+time with a general air of being intimately acquainted with Schiller as
+an author, before suggesting graciously that it was time to dismiss the
+class.
+
+Wednesday was a half-holiday at Crichton House, and so, soon after
+dinner, Paul found himself marshalled with the rest in a procession
+bound for the football field. They marched two and two, Chawner and
+three of the other elder boys leading with the ball and four goal-posts
+ornamented with coloured calico flags, and Mr. Blinkhorn and Mr. Tinkler
+bringing up the rear.
+
+Mr. Bultitude was paired with Tom Grimstone, who, after eyeing him
+askance for some time, could control his curiosity no longer.
+
+"I say, Dick," he began, "what's the matter with you this term?"
+
+"My name is not Dick," said Paul stiffly.
+
+"Oh, if you're so particular then," said Tom: "but, without humbug, what
+is the matter?"
+
+"You see a change then," said Paul, "you do see a difference, eh?"
+
+"Rather!" said Tom expressively. "You've come back what I call a beastly
+sneak, you know, this term. The other fellows don't like it; they'll
+send you to Coventry unless you take care."
+
+"I wish they would," said Paul.
+
+"You don't talk like the same fellow either," continued Tom; "you use
+such fine language, and you're always in a bait, and yet you don't stick
+up for yourself as you used to. Look here, tell me (we were always
+chums), is it one of your larks?"
+
+"Larks!" said Paul. "I'm in a fine mood for larks. No, it's not one of
+my larks."
+
+"Perhaps your old governor has been making a cad of himself then, and
+you're out of sorts about it."
+
+"I'll thank you not to speak about him in that way," said Paul, "in my
+presence."
+
+"Why," grumbled Tom, "I'm sure you said enough about him yourself last
+term. It's my belief you're imitating him now."
+
+"Ah," said Paul, "and what makes you think that?"
+
+"Why, you go about strutting and swelling just like he did when he came
+about sending you here. I say, do you know what Mums said about him
+after he went away?"
+
+"No," said Paul, "your mother struck me as a very sensible and
+agreeable woman--if I may say so to her son."
+
+"Well, Mums said your governor seemed to leave you here just like they
+leave umbrellas at picture galleries, and she believed he had a
+large-sized money-bag inside him instead of a heart."
+
+"Oh!" said Paul, with great disgust, for he had thought Mrs. Grimstone a
+woman of better taste; "your mother said that, did she? Vastly
+entertaining to be sure--ha, ha! He would be pleased to know she thought
+that, I'm sure."
+
+"Tell him, and see what he says," suggested Tom; "he is an awful brute
+to you though, isn't he?"
+
+"If," growled Mr. Bultitude, "slaving from morning till night to provide
+education and luxury for a thankless brood of unprofitable young vipers
+is 'being a brute,' I suppose he is."
+
+"Why, you're sticking up for him now!" said Tom. "I thought he was so
+strict with you. Wouldn't let you have any fun at home, and never took
+you to pantomimes?"
+
+"And why should he, sir, why should he? Tell me that. Tell me why a man
+is to be hunted out of his comfortable chair after a well-earned dinner,
+to go and sit in a hot theatre and a thorough draught, yawning at the
+miserable drivel managers choose to call a pantomime? Now in my young
+days there _were_ pantomimes. I tell you, sir, I've seen----"
+
+"Oh, if you're satisfied, I don't care!" said Tom, astonished at this
+apparent change of front. "If you choose to come back and play the
+corker like this, it's your look-out. Only, if you knew what Sproule
+major said about you just now----"
+
+"I don't want to know," said Paul; "it doesn't concern me."
+
+"Perhaps it doesn't concern you what pa thinks either? Dad told Mums
+last night that he was altogether at a loss to know how to deal with
+you, you had come back so queer and unruly. And he said, let me see, oh,
+he said that 'if he didn't see an alteration very soon he should resort
+to more drastic measures'--drastic measures is Latin for a whopping."
+
+"Good gracious!" thought Paul, "I haven't a moment to lose! he might
+'resort to drastic measures' this very evening. I can't change my nature
+at my time of life. I must run for it, and soon."
+
+Then he said aloud to Tom, "Can you tell me, my--my young friend, if,
+supposing a boy were to ask to leave the field--saying for instance that
+he was not well and thought he should be better at home--whether he
+would be allowed to go?"
+
+"Of course he would," said Tom, "you ought to know that by this time.
+You've only to ask Blinkhorn or Tinkler; they'll let you go right
+enough."
+
+Paul saw his course quite clearly now, and was overcome with relief and
+gratitude. He wrung the astonished Tom's hand warmly; "Thank you," he
+said, briskly and cheerfully, "thank you. I'm really uncommonly obliged
+to you. You're a very intelligent boy. I should like to give you
+sixpence."
+
+But although Tom used no arguments to dissuade him, Mr. Bultitude
+remembered his position in time, and prudently refrained from such
+ill-judged generosity. Sixpences were of vital importance now, when he
+expected to be starting so soon on his perilous journey.
+
+And so they reached the field where the game was to be played, and where
+Paul was resolved to have one desperate throw for liberty and home. He
+was more excited than anxious as he thought of it, and it certainly did
+seem as if all the chances were in his favour, and that fortune must
+have forsaken him indeed, if anything were allowed to prevent his
+escape.
+
+
+
+
+8. _Unbending the Bow_
+
+     "I pray you, give me leave to go from hence,
+     I am not well;"
+                                       _Merchant of Venice._
+
+     "He will not blush, that has a father's heart,
+     To take in childish plays a childish part;
+     But bends his sturdy back to any toy
+     That youth takes pleasure in,--to please his boy."
+
+
+The football field was a large one, bounded on two sides by tall wooden
+palings, and on the other two by a hedge and a new shingled road,
+separated from the field by a post and rails.
+
+Two of the younger boys, proud of their office, raced down to the
+further end to set up the goal-posts. The rest lounged idly about
+without attempting to begin operations, except the new boy Kiffin, who
+was seen walking apart from the rest, diligently studying the "rules of
+the game of football," as laid down in a small _Boy's Own Pocket Book
+and Manual of Outdoor Sports_, with which he had been careful to provide
+himself.
+
+At last Tipping suggested that they had better begin, and proposed that
+Mr. Blinkhorn and himself should toss up for the choice of sides, and
+this being done, Mr. Bultitude presently, to his great dismay, heard his
+name mentioned. "I'll have young Bultitude," said Tipping; "he used to
+play up decently. Look here, you young beggar, you're on my side, and if
+you don't play up it will be the worse for you!"
+
+It was not worth while, however, to protest, since he would so soon be
+rid of the whole crew for ever, and so Paul followed Tipping and his
+train with dutiful submission, and the game began.
+
+It was not a spirited performance. Mr. Tinkler, who was not an athlete,
+retired at once to the post and rails, on which he settled himself to
+enjoy a railway novel with a highly stimulating cover. Mr. Blinkhorn,
+who had more conscientious views of his office, charged about
+vigorously, performing all kinds of wonders with the ball, though
+evidently more from a sense of duty than with any idea of enjoyment.
+
+Tipping occasionally took the trouble to oppose him, but as a concession
+merely, and with a parade of being under no necessity to do so; and
+these two, with a very small following of enthusiasts on either side,
+waged a private and confidential kind of warfare in different parts of
+the field, while the others made no pretence of playing for the present,
+but strolled about in knots, exchanging and bartering the treasures
+valuable in the sight of schoolboys, and gossiping generally.
+
+As for Paul, he did not clearly understand what "playing up" might mean.
+He had not indulged in football since he was a genuine boy, and then
+only in a rudimentary and primitive form, and without any particular
+fondness for the exercise. But being now, in spirit at all events, a
+precise elderly person, with a decided notion of taking care of himself,
+he was resolved that not even Tipping should compel him to trust his
+person within range of that dirty brown globe, which whistled past his
+ear or seemed spinning towards his stomach with such a hideous
+suggestion of a cannon-ball about it.
+
+All the ghastly instances, too, of accidents to life and limb in the
+football field came unpleasantly into his memory, and he saw the
+inadvisability of mingling with the crowd and allowing himself to be
+kicked violently on the shins.
+
+So he trotted industriously about at a safe distance in order to allay
+suspicion, while waiting for a good opportunity to put his scheme of
+escape into execution.
+
+At last he could wait no longer, for the fearful thought occurred to
+him, that if he remained there much longer, the Doctor--who, as he knew
+from Dick, always came to superintend, if not to share the sports of his
+pupils--might make his appearance, and then his chance would be lost for
+the present, for he knew too well that he should never find courage to
+ask permission from _him_.
+
+With a beating heart he went up to Mr. Tinkler, who was still on the
+fence with his novel, and asked as humbly as he could bring himself to
+do:
+
+"If you please, sir, will you allow me to go home? I'm--I'm not feeling
+at all well."
+
+"Not well! What's the matter with you?" said Mr. Tinkler, without
+looking up.
+
+Paul had not prepared himself for details, and the sudden question
+rather threw him off his guard.
+
+"A slight touch of liver," he said at length. "It takes me after meals
+sometimes."
+
+"Liver!" said Mr. Tinkler, "you've no right to such a thing at your age;
+it's all nonsense, you know. Run in and play, that'll set you up again."
+
+"It's fatal, sir," said Paul. "My doctor expressly warned me against
+taking any violent exercise soon after luncheon. If you knew what liver
+is, you wouldn't say so!"
+
+Mr. Tinkler stared, as well he might, but making nothing of it, and
+being chiefly anxious not to be interrupted any longer, only said, "Oh,
+well, don't bother me; I daresay it's all right. Cut along!"
+
+So Mr. Bultitude was free; the path lay open to him now. He knew he
+would have little difficulty in finding his way to the station, and,
+once there, he would have the whole afternoon in which to wait for a
+train to town.
+
+"I've managed that excellently," he thought, as he ran blithely off,
+almost like the boy he seemed. "Not the slightest hitch. I defy the
+fates themselves to stop me now!"
+
+But the fates are ladies, and--not of course that it
+follows--occasionally spiteful. It is very rash indeed to be ungallant
+enough to defy them--they have such an unpleasant habit of accepting the
+challenge.
+
+Mr. Bultitude had hardly got clear of the groups scattered about the
+field, when he met a small flaxen-haired boy, who was just coming down
+to join the game. It was Porter, his neighbour of the German lesson.
+
+"There you are, Bultitude, then," he said in his squeaky voice: "I want
+you."
+
+"I can't stop," said Paul, "I'm in a hurry--another time."
+
+"Another time won't do," said little Porter, laying hold of him by his
+jacket. "I want that rabbit."
+
+This outrageous demand took Mr. Bultitude's breath away. He had no idea
+what rabbit was referred to, or why he should be required to produce
+such an animal at a moment's notice. This was the second time an
+inconvenient small boy had interfered between him and liberty. He would
+not be baffled twice. He tried to shake off his persecutor.
+
+"I tell you, my good boy, I haven't such a thing about me. I haven't
+indeed. I don't even know what you're talking about."
+
+This denial enraged Porter.
+
+"I say, you fellows," he called out, "come here! Do make Bultitude give
+me my rabbit. He says he doesn't know anything about it now!"
+
+At this several of the loungers came up, glad of a distraction.
+
+"What's the matter?" some of them asked.
+
+"Why," whined Porter, "he promised to bring me back a rabbit this term,
+and now he pretends he does not know anything about it. Make him say
+what he's done with it!"
+
+Mr. Bultitude was not usually ready of resource, but now he had what
+seemed a happy thought.
+
+"Gad!" he cried, pretending to recollect it, "so I did--to be sure, a
+rabbit, of course, how could I forget it? It's--it's a splendid rabbit.
+I'll go and fetch it!"
+
+"Will you?" cried Porter, half relieved. "Where is it, then?"
+
+"Where?" said Paul sharply (he was growing positively brilliant). "Why,
+in my playbox to be sure; where should it be?"
+
+"It isn't in your playbox, I know," put in Siggers: "because I saw it
+turned out yesterday and there was no rabbit then. Besides, how could a
+rabbit live in a playbox? He's telling lies. I can see it by his face.
+He hasn't any rabbit!"
+
+"Of course I haven't!" said Mr. Bultitude. "How should I? I'm not a
+conjurer. It's not a habit of mine to go about with rabbits concealed on
+my person. What's the use of coming to me like this? It's absurd, you
+know; perfectly absurd!"
+
+The crowd increased until there was quite a ring formed round Mr.
+Bultitude and the indignant claimant, and presently Tipping came
+bustling up.
+
+"What's the row here, you fellows?" he said. "Bultitude again, of
+course. What's he been doing now?"
+
+"He had a rabbit he said he was keeping for me," explained little
+Porter: "and now he won't give it up or tell me what he's done with it."
+
+"He has some mice he ought to give us, too," said one or two new-comers,
+edging their way to the front.
+
+Mr. Bultitude was of course exceedingly annoyed by this unlooked-for
+interruption, and still more by such utterly preposterous claims on him
+for animals; however, it was easy to explain that he had no such things
+in his possession, and after that of course no more could be said. He
+was beginning to disclaim all liability, when Siggers stopped him.
+
+"Keep that for the present," he said. "I say, we ought to have a regular
+trial over this, and get at the truth of it properly. Let's fetch him
+along to the goal-posts and judge him!"
+
+He fixed upon the goal-posts as being somehow more formal, and, as his
+proposal was well received, two of them grasped Mr. Bultitude by the
+collar and dragged him along in procession to the appointed spot between
+the two flags, while Siggers followed in what he conceived to be a
+highly judicial manner, and evidently enjoying himself prodigiously.
+
+Paul, though highly indignant, allowed himself to be led along without
+resistance. It was safest to humour them, for after all it would not
+last long, and when they were tired of baiting him he could watch his
+time and slip quietly away.
+
+When they reached the goal-posts Siggers arranged them in a circle,
+placing himself, the hapless Paul, and his accusers in the centre. "You
+chaps had better all be jurymen," he said. "I'll be judge, and unless he
+makes a clean breast of it," he added with judicial impartiality, "the
+court will jolly well punch his ugly young head off."
+
+Siggers' father was an Old Bailey barrister in good and rather sharp
+practice, so that it was clearly the son's mission to preside on this
+occasion. But unfortunately his hour of office was doomed to be a brief
+one, for Mr. Blinkhorn, becoming aware that the game was being still
+more scantily supported, and noticing the crowd at the goal, came up to
+know the reason of it at a long camel-like trot, his hat on the back of
+his head, his mild face flushed with exertion, and his pebble glasses
+gleaming in the winter sunshine.
+
+"What are you all doing here? Why don't you join the game? I've come
+here to play football with you, and how can I do it if you all slink off
+and leave me to play by myself?" he asked with pathos.
+
+"Please, sir," said Siggers, alarmed at the threatened loss of his
+dignity, "it's a trial, and I'm judge."
+
+"Yes, sir," the whole ring shouted together. "We're trying Bultitude,
+sir."
+
+On the whole, perhaps, Mr. Bultitude was glad of this interference. At
+least justice would be done now, although this usher had blundered so
+unpardonably that morning.
+
+"This is childish, you know," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "and it's not
+football. The Doctor will be seriously angry if he comes and sees you
+trifling here. Let the boy go."
+
+"But he's cheated some of the fellows, sir," grumbled Tipping and
+Siggers together.
+
+"Well, _you_'ve no right to punish him if he has. Leave him to me."
+
+"Will you see fair play between them, sir? He oughtn't to be let off
+without being made to keep his word."
+
+"If there is any dispute between you and Bultitude," said Mr. Blinkhorn,
+"I have no objection to settle it--provided it is within my province."
+
+"Settle it without me," said Paul hurriedly. "I've leave to go home. I'm
+ill."
+
+"Who gave you leave to go home?" asked the master.
+
+"That young man over there on the rails," said Paul.
+
+"I am the proper person to apply to for leave; you know that well
+enough," said Mr. Blinkhorn, with a certain coldness in his tone. "Now
+then, Porter, what is all this business about?"
+
+"Please, sir," said Porter, "he told me last term he had a lot of
+rabbits at home, and if I liked he would bring me back a lop-eared one
+and let me have it cheap, and I gave him two shillings, sir, and
+sixpence for a hutch to keep it in; and now he pretends he doesn't know
+anything about it!"
+
+To Paul's horror two or three other boys came forward with much the same
+tale. He remembered now that during the holidays he had discovered that
+Dick was maintaining a sort of amateur menagerie in his bedroom, and
+that he had ordered the whole of the livestock to be got rid of or
+summarily destroyed.
+
+Now it seemed that the wretched Dick had already disposed of it to these
+clamorous boys, and, what was worse, had stipulated with considerable
+forethought for payment in advance. For the first time he repented his
+paternal harshness. Like the netted lion, a paltry white mouse or two
+would have set him free; but, less happy than the beast in the fable, he
+had not one!
+
+He tried to stammer out excuses. "It's extremely unfortunate," he said,
+"but the fact is I'm not in a position to meet this--this sudden call
+upon me. Some other day, perhaps----"
+
+"None of your long words, now," growled Tipping. (Boys hate long words
+as much as even a Saturday Reviewer.) "Why haven't you brought the
+rabbits?"
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Blinkhorn. "Why, having promised to bring the rabbits
+with you, haven't you kept your word? You must be able to give some
+explanation."
+
+"Because," said Mr. Bultitude, wriggling with embarrassment, "I--that is
+my father--found out that my young rascal of a son--I mean his young
+rascal of a son (_me_, you know) was, contrary to my express orders,
+keeping a couple of abominable rabbits in his bedroom, and a quantity of
+filthy little white mice which he tried to train to climb up the
+banisters. And I kept finding the brutes running about my bath-room,
+and--well, of course, I put a stop to it; and--no, what am I saying?--my
+father, of course, he put a stop to it; and, in point of fact, had them
+all drowned in a pail of water."
+
+It might be thought that he had an excellent opportunity here of avowing
+himself, but there was the risk that Mr. Blinkhorn would disbelieve him,
+and, with the boys, he felt that the truth would do anything but
+increase his popularity. But dissembling fails sometimes outside the
+copy-books, and Mr. Bultitude's rather blundering attempt at it only
+landed him in worse difficulties.
+
+There was a yell of rage and disappointment from the defrauded ones, who
+had cherished a lingering hope that young Bultitude had those rabbits
+somewhere, but (like Mr. Barkis and his wooden lemon) found himself
+unable to part with them when the time came to fulfil his contract. And
+as contempt is a frame of mind highly stimulating to one's self-esteem,
+even those who had no personal interest in the matter joined in the
+execrations with hearty goodwill and sympathy.
+
+"Why did you let him do it? They were ours, not his. What right had your
+governor to go and drown our rabbits, eh?" they cried wrathfully.
+
+"What right?" said Paul. "Mustn't a man do as he pleases in his own
+house, then? I--he was not obliged to see the house overrun with vermin,
+I suppose?"
+
+But this only made them angrier, and they resented his defence with
+hoots, and groans, and hisses.
+
+Mr. Blinkhorn meanwhile was pondering the affair conscientiously. At
+last he said, "But you know the Doctor would never allow animals to be
+kept in the school, if Bultitude had brought them. The whole thing is
+against the rules, and I shall not interfere."
+
+"Ah, but," said Chawner, "he promised them all to day-boarders. The
+Doctor couldn't object to that, could he, sir?"
+
+"True," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "true. I was not aware of that. Well then,
+Bultitude, since you are prevented from performing what you promised to
+do, I'm sure you won't object to do what is fair and right in the
+matter?"
+
+"I don't think I quite follow you," said Mr. Bultitude. But he dreaded
+what was coming next.
+
+"It's very simple. You have taken money from these boys, and if you
+can't give them value for it, you ought to return all you took from
+them. I'm sure you see that yourself."
+
+"I don't admit that I owe them anything," said Paul; "and at all events
+it is highly inconvenient to pay them now."
+
+"If your own sense of honour isn't enough," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "I must
+take the matter into my own hands. Let every boy who has any claim upon
+him tell me exactly what it is."
+
+One boy after another brought forward his claim. One had entrusted Dick,
+it appeared, with a shilling, for which he was to receive a mouse with a
+"plum saddle," and two others had invested ninepence each in white mice.
+With Porter's half-crown, the total came to precisely five
+shillings--all Paul had in the world, the one rope by which he could
+ever hope to haul himself up to his lost pinnacle!
+
+Mr. Blinkhorn, naturally enough, saw no reason why the money, being
+clearly due, should not be paid at once. "Give me any money you have
+about you, Bultitude," he said, "and I'll satisfy your debts with it, as
+far as it goes."
+
+Paul clasped his arm convulsively. "No!" he cried hoarsely, "not that!
+Don't make me do that! I--I can't pay them--not now. They don't
+understand. If they only give me time they shall have double their money
+back--waggon-loads of rabbits, the best rabbits money can buy--if
+they'll wait. Tell them to wait. My dear sir, don't see me wronged! I
+won't pay now!"
+
+"They have waited long enough," said Mr. Blinkhorn; "you must pay them."
+
+"I tell you I won't!" cried Paul; "do you hear? Not one sixpence. Oh, if
+you knew! That infernal Garuda Stone! What fools people are!"
+
+Then in his despair he did the most fatal thing possible. He tried to
+save himself by flight, and with a violent plunge broke through the
+circle and made for the road which led towards the station.
+
+Instantly the whole school, only too glad of the excitement, was at his
+heels. The unhappy Colonial Produce merchant ran as he had not run for a
+quarter of a century, faster even than he had on his first experience of
+Coggs' and Coker's society on that memorable Monday night. But in spite
+of his efforts the chase was a short one. Chawner and Tipping very soon
+had him by the collar, and brought him back, struggling and kicking out
+viciously, to Mr. Blinkhorn, whose good opinion he had now lost for
+ever.
+
+"Please, sir," said Chawner, "I can feel something like a purse in his
+pocket. Shall I take it out, sir?"
+
+"As he refuses to act with common honesty--yes," said Mr. Blinkhorn.
+
+It was Dick's purse, of course; and in spite of Paul's frantic efforts
+to retain it, it was taken from him, its contents equitably divided
+amongst the claimants, and the purse itself returned to him--empty.
+
+"Now, Bultitude," said Mr. Blinkhorn, "if you really wish to leave the
+field, you may."
+
+Mr. Bultitude lost what little temper he had yet to lose; he flung the
+useless purse from him and broke away from them all in a condition
+little removed from insanity.
+
+Leave the field! What a mockery the permission was now. How was he to
+get home, a distance of more than fifty miles, without a penny in his
+pocket? Ten minutes before, and freedom was within his grasp, and now it
+had eluded him and was as hopelessly out of reach as ever!
+
+No one pitied him; no one understood the real extent of his loss. Mr.
+Blinkhorn and the few enthusiasts went back to their unobtrusive game,
+while the rest of the school discussed the affair in groups, the popular
+indignation against young Bultitude's hitherto unsuspected meanness
+growing more marked every instant.
+
+It might have even taken some decided and objectionable form before
+long, but when it was at its height there was a sudden cry of alarm.
+"_Cave_, you fellows, here's Grim!" and indeed in the far distance the
+Doctor's portly and imposing figure could be seen just turning the
+corner into the field.
+
+Mr. Bultitude felt almost cheered. This coming to join his pupils'
+sports showed a good heart; the Doctor would almost certainly be in a
+good humour, and he cheated himself into believing that, at some
+interval in the game, he might perhaps find courage to draw near and
+seek to interest him in his incredible woes.
+
+It was quite extraordinary to see how the game, which had hitherto
+decidedly languished and hung fire, now quickened into briskness and
+became positively spirited. Everyone developed a hearty interest in it,
+and it would almost seem as if the boys, with more delicacy than they
+are generally credited with, were unwilling to let their master guess
+how little his indulgence was really appreciated. Even Mr. Tinkler,
+whose novel had kept him spell-bound on his rail all through the recent
+excitement, now slipped it hurriedly into his pocket and rushed
+energetically into the fray, shouting encouragement rather
+indiscriminately to either side, till he had an opportunity of finding
+out privately to which leader he had been assigned.
+
+Dr. Grimstone came down the field at a majestic slow trot, calling out
+to the players as he came on--"Well done, Mutlow! Finely played, sir!
+Dribble it along now. Ah, you're afraid of it! Run into it, sir, run
+into it! No running with the ball now, Siggers; play without those petty
+meannesses, or leave the game! There, leave the ball to me, will
+you--leave it to me!"
+
+And, as the ball had rolled in his direction, he punted it up in an
+exceedingly dignified manner, the whole school keeping respectfully
+apart, until he had brought it to a reasonable distance from the goal,
+when he kicked it through with great solemnity, amidst faint, and it is
+to be feared somewhat sycophantic applause, and turned away with the air
+of a man surfeited of success.
+
+"For which side did I win that?" he asked presently, whereupon Tipping
+explained that his side had been the favoured one. "Well then," he said,
+"you fellows must all back me up, or I shall not play for you any more;"
+and he kicked off the ball for the next game.
+
+It was noticeable that the party thus distinguished did not seem
+precisely overwhelmed with pleasure at the compliment, which, as they
+knew from experience, implied considerable exertion on their part, and
+even disgrace if they were unsuccessful.
+
+The other side too looked unhappy, feeling themselves in a position of
+extreme delicacy and embarrassment. For if they played their best, they
+ran some risk of offending the Doctor, or, what was worse, drawing him
+over into their ranks; while if, on the other hand, they allowed
+themselves to be too easily worsted, they might be suspected of
+sulkiness and temper--offences which he was very ready to discover and
+resent.
+
+Dr. Grimstone for his part enjoyed the exercise, and had no idea that he
+was not a thoroughly welcome and valued playmate. But though it was
+pleasant to outsiders to see a schoolmaster permitting himself to share
+in the recreation of his pupils, it must be owned that to the latter the
+advantages of the arrangement seemed something more than dubious.
+
+Mr. Bultitude, being on the side adopted by the Doctor, found too soon
+that he was expected to bestir himself. More than ever anxious now to
+conciliate, he did his very best to conquer his natural repugnance and
+appear more interested than alarmed as the ball came in his way; but
+although (in boating slang) he "sugared" with some adroitness, he was
+promptly found out, for his son had been a dashing and plucky player.
+
+It was bitter for him to run meekly about while scathing sarcasms and
+comments on his want of courage were being hurled at his head. It
+shattered the scanty remnants of his self-respect, but he dared not
+protest or say a single word to open the Doctor's eyes to the injustice
+he was doing him.
+
+He was unpleasantly reminded, too, of the disfavour he had acquired
+amongst his companions, by some one or other of them running up to him
+every moment when the Doctor's attention was called elsewhere, and
+startling his nerves by a sly jog or pinch, or an abusive epithet hissed
+viciously into his ears--Chawner being especially industrious in this
+respect.
+
+And in this unsatisfactory way the afternoon dragged along until the
+dusk gathered and the lamps were lighted, and it became too dark to see
+goal-posts or ball.
+
+By the time play was stopped and the school reformed for the march home,
+Mr. Bultitude felt that he was glad even to get back to labour as a
+relief from such a form of enjoyment. It was perhaps the most miserable
+afternoon he had ever spent in his whole easy-going life. In the course
+of it he had passed from brightest hope to utter despair; and now
+nothing remained to him but to convince the Doctor, which he felt quite
+unequal to do, or to make his escape without money--which would
+inevitably end in a recapture.
+
+May no one who reads this ever be placed upon the horns of such a
+dilemma!
+
+
+
+
+9. _A Letter from Home_
+
+     "Here are a few of the unpleasantest words
+     That ever blotted paper....
+                                A letter,
+     And every word in it a gaping wound."
+                                    _Merchant of Venice._
+
+
+If it were not that it was so absolutely essential to the interest of
+this story, I think I should almost prefer to draw a veil over the
+sufferings of Mr. Bultitude during the rest of that unhappy week at
+Crichton House; but it would only be false delicacy to do so.
+
+Things went worse and worse with him. The real Dick in his most
+objectionable moods could never have contrived to render himself one
+quarter so disliked and suspected as his substitute was by the whole
+school--masters and boys.
+
+It was in a great measure his own fault, too; for to an ordinary boy the
+life there would not have had any intolerable hardships, if it held out
+no exceptional attractions. But he would not accommodate himself to
+circumstances, and try, during his enforced stay, to get as much
+instruction and enjoyment as possible out of his new life.
+
+Perhaps, in his position, it would be too much to expect such a thing
+and, at all events, it never even occurred to him to attempt it. He
+consumed himself instead with inward raging and chafing at his hard lot,
+and his utter powerlessness to break the spell which bound him.
+
+Sometimes, indeed, he would resolve to bear it no longer, and would
+start up impulsively to impart his misfortunes to some one in minor
+authority--not the Doctor, he had given that up in resigned despair long
+since. But as surely as ever he found himself coming to the point, the
+words would stick fast in his throat, and he was only too thankful to
+get away, with his tale untold, on any frivolous pretext that first
+suggested itself.
+
+This, of course, brought him into suspicion, for such conduct had the
+appearance of a systematic course of practical joking, and even the most
+impartial teachers will sometimes form an unfavourable opinion of a
+particular boy on rather slender grounds, and then find fresh
+confirmation of it in his most insignificant actions.
+
+As for the school generally, his scowls and his sullenness, his
+deficiency in the daring and impudence that had warmed their hearts
+towards Dick, and, above all, his strange knack of getting them into
+trouble--for he seldom received what he considered an indignity without
+making a formal complaint--all this brought him as much hearty dislike
+and contempt as, perhaps, the most unsympathetic boy ever earned since
+boarding-schools were first invented.
+
+The only boy who still seemed to retain a secret tenderness for him, as
+the Dick he had once looked up to and admired, was Jolland, who
+persisted in believing, and in stating his belief, that this apparent
+change of demeanour was a perverted kind of joke on Bultitude's part,
+which he would condescend to explain some day when it had gone far
+enough, and he wearied and annoyed Paul beyond endurance by perpetually
+urging him to abandon his ill-judged experiment and discover the point
+of the jest.
+
+But for Jolland's help, which he persevered in giving in spite of the
+opposition and unpopularity it brought upon himself, Mr. Bultitude would
+have found it impossible to make any pretence of performing the tasks
+required of him.
+
+He found himself expected, as a matter of course, to have a certain
+familiarity with Greek paradigms and German conversation scraps,
+propositions in Euclid and Latin gerunds, of all of which, having had a
+strict commercial education in his young days, he had not so much as
+heard before his metamorphosis. But by carefully copying Jolland's
+exercises, and introducing enough mistakes of his own to supply the
+necessary local colour, he was able to escape to a great degree the
+discovery of his blank ignorance on all these subjects--an ignorance
+which would certainly have been put down as mere idleness and obstinacy.
+
+But it will be readily believed that he lived in constant fear of such
+discovery, and as it was, his dependence on a little scamp like his
+son's friend was a sore humiliation to one who had naturally supposed
+hitherto that any knowledge he had not happened to acquire could only be
+meretricious and useless.
+
+He led a nightmare sort of existence for some days, until something
+happened which roused him from his state of passive misery into one more
+attempt at protest.
+
+It was Saturday morning, and he had come down to breakfast, after being
+knocked about as usual in the dormitory over night, with a dull wonder
+how long this horrible state of things could possibly be going to last,
+when he saw on his plate a letter with the Paddington post-mark,
+addressed in a familiar hand--his daughter Barbara's.
+
+For an instant his hopes rose high. Surely the impostor had been found
+out at last, and the envelope would contain an urgent invitation to him
+to come back and resume his rights--an invitation which he might show to
+the Doctor as his best apology.
+
+But when he looked at the address, which was "Master Richard Bultitude,"
+he felt a misgiving. It was unlikely that Barbara would address him thus
+if she knew the truth; he hesitated before tearing it open.
+
+Then he tried to persuade himself that of course she would have the
+sense to keep up appearances for his own sake on the outside of the
+letter, and he compelled himself to open the envelope with fingers that
+trembled nervously.
+
+The very first sentences scattered his faint expectations to the winds.
+He read on with staring eyes, till the room seemed to rock with him like
+a packet-boat and the sprawling school-girl handwriting, crossed and
+recrossed on the thin paper, changed to letters of scorching flame. But
+perhaps it will be better to give the letter in full, so that the reader
+may judge for himself whether it was calculated or not to soothe and
+encourage the exiled one.
+
+Here it is:
+
+
+     "MY DEAREST DARLING DICK,--I hope you have not been expecting a
+     letter from me before this, but I had such lots to tell you that I
+     waited till I had time to tell it all at once. For I have such news
+     for you! You can't think how pleased you will be when you hear it.
+     Where shall I begin? I hardly know, for it still seems so funny and
+     strange--almost like a dream--only I hope we shall never wake up.
+
+     "I think I must tell you anyhow, just as it comes. Well, ever since
+     you went away, dear Father has been completely changed; you would
+     hardly believe it unless you saw him. He is quite jolly and
+     boyish--only fancy! and we are always telling him he is the biggest
+     baby of us all, but it only makes him laugh. Once, you know, he
+     would have been awfully angry if we had even hinted at it.
+
+     "Do you know, I really think that the real reason he was so cross
+     and sharp with us that last week was because you were going away;
+     for now the wrench of parting is over, he is quite light-hearted
+     again. You know how he always hates showing his feelings.
+
+     "He is so altered now, you can't think. He has actually only once
+     been up to the city since you left, and then he came home at four
+     o'clock, and he seems to quite like to have us all about him.
+     Generally he stays at home all the morning and plays at soldiers
+     with baby in the dining-room. You would laugh to see him loading
+     the cannons with real powder and shot, and he didn't care a bit
+     when some of it made holes in the sideboard and smashed the
+     looking-glass.
+
+     "We had such fun the other afternoon; we played at brigands--papa
+     and all of us. Papa had the upper conservatory for a robber-cave,
+     and stood there keeping guard with your pop-gun; and he wouldn't
+     let the servants go by without a kiss, unless they showed a written
+     pass from us! Miss McFadden called in the middle of it, but she
+     said she wouldn't come in, as papa seemed to be enjoying himself
+     so. Boaler has given warning, but we can't think why. We have been
+     out nearly every evening--once to Hengler's and once to the Christy
+     Minstrels, and last night to the Pantomime, where papa was so
+     pleased with the clown that he sent round afterwards and asked him
+     to dine here on Sunday, when Sir Benjamin and Lady Bangle and
+     Alderman Fishwick are coming. Won't it be jolly to see a clown
+     close to? Should you think he'd come in _his_ evening dress? Miss
+     Mangnall has been given a month's holiday, because papa didn't like
+     to see us always at lessons. Think of that!
+
+     "We are going to have the whole house done up and refurnished at
+     last. Papa chose the furniture for the drawing-room yesterday. It
+     is all in yellow satin, which is rather bright, I think. I haven't
+     seen the carpet yet, but it is to match the furniture; and there is
+     a lovely hearthrug, with a lion-hunt worked on it.
+
+     "But that isn't the best of it; we are going to have the big
+     children's party after all! No one but children invited, and
+     everyone to do exactly what they like. I wanted so much to have you
+     home for it, but papa says it would only unsettle you and take you
+     away from your work.
+
+     "Had Dulcie forgotten you? I should like to see her so much. Now I
+     really must leave off, as I am going to the Aquarium with papa.
+     Mind you write me as good a letter as this is, if that old Doctor
+     lets you. Minnie and Roly send love and kisses, and papa sends his
+     kind regards, and I am to say he hopes you are settling down
+     steadily to work.
+
+                              "With best love, your affectionate sister,
+                                              "BARBARA BULTITUDE."
+
+     "P.S.--I nearly forgot to say that Uncle Duke came the other day
+     and has stayed here ever since. He is going to make papa's fortune!
+     I believe by a gold mine he knows about somewhere, and a steam
+     tramway in Lapland. But I don't like him very much--he is so
+     polite."
+
+
+It would be nothing short of an insult to the reader's comprehension, if
+I were to enter into an elaborate explanation of the effect this letter
+had upon Mr. Bultitude. He took it in by degrees, trying to steady his
+nerves at each additional item of poor Barbara's well-meant intelligence
+by a sip at his tin-flavoured coffee. But when he came to the
+postscript, in spite of its purport being mercifully broken to him
+gradually by the extreme difficulty of making it out from two
+undercurrents of manuscript, he choked convulsively and spilt his
+coffee.
+
+Dr. Grimstone visited this breach of etiquette with stern promptness.
+"This conduct at table is disgraceful, sir--perfectly
+disgraceful--unworthy of a civilised being. I have been a teacher of
+youth for many years, and never till now did I have the pain of seeing a
+pupil of mine choke in his breakfast-cup with such deplorable
+ill-breeding. It's pure greediness, sir, and you will have the goodness
+to curb your indecent haste in consuming your food for the future. Your
+excellent father has frequently complained to me, with tears in his
+eyes, of the impossibility of teaching you to behave at meals with
+common propriety!"
+
+There was a faint chuckle along the tables, and several drank coffee
+with studied elegance and self-repression either as a valuable example
+to Dick, or as a personal advertisement. But Paul was in no mood for
+reproof and instruction. He stood up in his excitement, flourishing his
+letter wildly.
+
+"Dr. Grimstone!" he said; "never mind my behaviour now. I've something
+to tell you. I can't bear it any longer. I must go home at once--at
+once, sir!"
+
+There was a general sensation at this, for his manner was peremptory and
+almost dictatorial. Some thought he would get a licking on the strength
+of it, and most hoped so. But the Doctor dismissed them to the
+playground, keeping Paul back to be dealt with in privacy.
+
+Mrs. Grimstone played nervously with her dry toast at the end of the
+table, for she could not endure to see the boys in trouble and dreaded a
+scene, while Dulcie looked on with wide bright eyes.
+
+"Now, sir," said the Doctor, looking up from his marmalade, "why must
+you go home at once?"
+
+"I've just had a letter," stammered Paul.
+
+"No one ill at home, I hope?"
+
+"No, no," said Paul. "It's not that; it's worse! She doesn't know what
+horrible things she tells me!"
+
+"Who is 'she'?" said the Doctor--and Dulcie's eyes were larger still and
+her face paled.
+
+"I decline to say," said Mr. Bultitude. It would have been absurd to say
+'my daughter,' and he had not presence of mind just then to transpose
+the relationships with neatness and success. "But indeed I am wanted
+most badly!"
+
+"What are you wanted for, pray?"
+
+"Everything!" declared Paul; "it's all going to rack and ruin without
+me!"
+
+"That's absurd," said the Doctor; "you're not such an important
+individual as all that, Bultitude. But let me see the letter."
+
+Show him the letter--lay bare all those follies of Dick's, the burden
+of which he might have to bear himself very shortly--never! Besides,
+what would be the use of it? It would be no argument in favour of
+sending him home--rather the reverse--so Paul was obliged to say,
+"Excuse me, Dr. Grimstone, it is--ah--of a private nature. I don't feel
+at liberty to show it to anyone."
+
+"Then, sir," said the Doctor, with some reason, "if you can't tell me
+who or what it is that requires your presence at home, and decline to
+show me the letter which would presumably give me some idea on the
+subject, how do you expect that I am to listen to such a preposterous
+demand--eh? Just tell me that!"
+
+Once more would Paul have given worlds for the firmness and presence of
+mind to state his case clearly and effectively; and he could hardly have
+had a better opportunity, for schoolmasters cannot always be playing the
+tyrant, and the Doctor was, in spite of his attempts to be stern,
+secretly more amused than angry at what seemed a peculiarly precocious
+piece of effrontery.
+
+But Paul felt the dismal absurdity of his position. Nothing he had said,
+nothing he could say, short of the truth, would avail him, and the truth
+was precisely what he felt most unable to tell. He hung his head
+resignedly, and held his tongue in confusion.
+
+"Pooh!" said the Doctor at last; "let me have no more of this
+tomfoolery, Bultitude. It's getting to be a positive nuisance. Don't
+come to me with any more of these ridiculous stories, or some day I
+shall be annoyed. There, go away, and be contented where you are, and
+try to behave like other people."
+
+"'Contented!'" muttered Paul, when out of hearing, as he went upstairs
+and through the empty schoolroom into the playground. "'Behave like
+other people!' Ah, yes, I suppose I shall have to come to that in time.
+But that letter---- Everything upside down---- Bangle asked to meet a
+common clown! That fellow Duke letting me in for gold-mines and
+tramways! It's all worse than I ever dreamed of; and I must stay here
+and be 'contented!' It's--it's perfectly damnable!"
+
+All through that morning his thoughts ran in the same doleful groove,
+until the time for work came to an end, and he found himself in the
+playground, and free to indulge his melancholy for a few minutes in
+solitude; for the others were still loitering about in the schoolroom,
+and a glass outhouse originally intended for a conservatory, but now
+devoted to boots and slates, and the books liberally besmeared with
+gilt, and telling of the exploits of boy-heroes so beloved of boys.
+
+Mr. Bultitude, only too delighted to get away from them for a little
+while, was leaning against the parallel bars in dull despondency, when
+he heard a rustling in the laurel hedge which cut off the house garden
+from the gravelled playground, and looking up, saw Dulcie slip through
+the shrubs and come towards him with an air of determination in her
+proud little face.
+
+She looked prettier and daintier than ever in her grey hat and warm fur
+tippet; but of course Paul was not of the age or in the mood to be much
+affected by such things--he turned his head pettishly away.
+
+"It's no use doing that, Dick," she said: "I'm tired of sulking. I
+shan't sulk any more till I have an explanation."
+
+Paul made the sound generally written "Pshaw!"
+
+"You ought to tell me everything. I will know it. Oh, Dick, you might
+tell me! I always told you anything you wanted to know; and I let mamma
+think it was I broke the clock-shade last term, and you know you did it.
+And I want to know something so very badly!"
+
+"It's no use coming to _me_, you know," said Paul. "I can't do anything
+for you."
+
+"Yes, you can; you know you can!" said Dulcie impulsively. "You can tell
+me what was in that letter you had at breakfast--and you shall too!"
+
+"What an inquisitive little girl you are," said Paul sententiously.
+"It's not nice for little girls to be so inquisitive--it doesn't look
+well."
+
+"I knew it!" cried Dulcie; "you don't want to tell me--because--because
+it's from that other horrid girl you like better than me. And you
+promised to belong to me for ever and ever, and now it's all over! Say
+it isn't! Oh, Dick, promise to give the other girl up. I'm sure she's
+not a nice girl. She's written you an unkind letter; now hasn't she?"
+
+"Upon my word," said Paul, "this is very forward; at your age too. Why,
+my Barbara----"
+
+"Your Barbara! you dare to call her that? Oh, I knew I was right; I
+_will_ see that letter now. Give it me this instant!" said Dulcie
+imperiously; and Paul really felt almost afraid of her.
+
+"No, no," he said, retreating a step or two, "it's all a mistake;
+there's nothing to get into such a passion about--there isn't indeed!
+And--don't cry--you're really a pretty little girl. I only wish I could
+tell you everything; but you'd never believe me!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I would, Dick!" protested Dulcie, only too willing to be
+convinced of her boy-lover's constancy; "I'll believe anything, if
+you'll only tell me. And I'm sorry I was so angry. Sit down by me and
+tell me from the very beginning. I promise not to interrupt."
+
+Paul thought for a moment. After all, why shouldn't he? It was much
+pleasanter to tell his sorrows to her little ear and hear her childish
+wonder and pity than face her terrible father--he had tried that. And
+then she might tell her mother; and so his story might reach the
+Doctor's ears after all, without further effort on his part.
+
+"Well," he said at last, "I think you're a good-natured little girl; you
+won't laugh. Perhaps I will tell you!"
+
+So he sat down on the bench by the wall, and Dulcie, quite happy again
+now at this proof of good faith, nestled up against him confidingly,
+waiting for his first words with parted lips and eager sparkling eyes.
+
+"Not many days ago," began Paul, "I was somebody very different
+from----"
+
+"Oh, indeed," said a jarring, sneering voice close by; "was you?" And he
+looked up and saw Tipping standing over him with a plainly hostile
+intent.
+
+"Go away, Tipping," said Dulcie; "we don't want you. Dick is telling me
+a secret."
+
+"He's very fond of telling, I know," retorted Tipping. "If you knew what
+a sneak he was you'd have nothing to do with him, Dulcie. I could tell
+you things about him that----"
+
+"He's not a sneak," said Dulcie. "Are you, Dick? Why don't you go,
+Tipping. Never mind what he says, Dick; go on as if he wasn't there. I
+don't care what he says!"
+
+It was a most unpleasant situation for Mr. Bultitude, but he did not
+like to offend Tipping. "I--I think--some other time, perhaps," he said
+nervously. "Not now."
+
+"Ah, you're afraid to say what you were going to say now I'm here," said
+the amiable Tipping, nettled by Dulcie's little air of haughty disdain.
+"You're a coward; you know you are. You pretend to think such a lot of
+Dulcie here, but you daren't fight!"
+
+"Fight!" said Mr. Bultitude. "Eh, what for?"
+
+"Why, for her, of course. You can't care much about her if you daren't
+fight for her. I want to show her who's the best man of the two!"
+
+"I don't want to be shown," wailed poor Dulcie piteously, clinging to
+the reluctant Paul; "I know. Don't fight with him, Dick. I say you're
+not to."
+
+"Certainly not!" said Mr. Bultitude with great decision. "I shouldn't
+think of such a thing!" and he rose from the bench and was about to walk
+away, when Tipping suddenly pulled off his coat and began to make sundry
+demonstrations of a martial nature, such as dancing aggressively towards
+his rival and clenching his fists.
+
+By this time most of the other boys had come down into the playground,
+and were looking on with great interest. There was an element of romance
+in this promised combat which gave it additional attractions. It was
+like one of the struggles between knightly champions in the Waverley
+novels. Several of them would have fought till they couldn't see out of
+their eyes if it would have given them the least chance of obtaining
+favour in Dulcie's sight, and they all envied Dick, who was the only boy
+that was not unmercifully snubbed by their capricious little princess.
+
+Paul alone was blind to the splendour of his privileges. He examined
+Tipping carefully, as the latter was still assuming a hostile attitude
+and chanting a sort of war-cry supposed to be an infallible incentive to
+strife.
+
+"Yah, you're afraid!" he sang very offensively. "I wouldn't be a funk!"
+
+"Pooh!" said Paul at last; "go away, sir, go away!"
+
+"Go away, eh?" jeered Tipping. "Who are you to tell me to go away? Go
+away yourself!"
+
+"Certainly," said Paul, only too happy to oblige. But he found himself
+prevented by a ring of excited backers.
+
+"Don't funk it, Dick!" cried some, forgetting recent ill-feeling in the
+necessity for partisanship. "Go in and settle him as you did that last
+time. I'll second you. You can do it!"
+
+"Don't hit each other in the face," pleaded Dulcie, who had got upon a
+bench and was looking down into the ring--not, if the truth must be
+told, without a certain pleasurable excitement in the feeling that it
+was all about her.
+
+And now Mr. Bultitude discovered that he was seriously expected to fight
+this great hulking boy, and that the sole reason for any disagreement
+was an utterly unfounded jealousy respecting this little girl Dulcie. He
+had not a grain of chivalry in his disposition--chivalry being an
+eminently unpractical virtue--and naturally he saw no advantage in
+letting himself be mauled for the sake of a child younger than his own
+daughter.
+
+Dulcie's appeal enraged Tipping, who took it as addressed solely to
+himself. "You ought to be glad to stick up for her," he said between his
+teeth. "I'll mash you for this--see if I don't!"
+
+Paul thought he saw his way clear to disabuse Tipping of his mistaken
+idea. "Are you proposing," he asked politely, "to--to 'mash' me on
+account of that little girl there on the seat?"
+
+"You'll soon see," growled Tipping. "Shut your head, and come on!"
+
+"No, but I want to know," persisted Mr. Bultitude. "Because," he said
+with a sickly attempt at jocularity which delighted none, "you see, I
+don't want to be mashed. I'm not a potato. If I understand you aright,
+you want to fight me because you think me likely to interfere with your
+claim to that little girl's--ah--affections?"
+
+"That's it," said Tipping gruffly; "so you'd better waste no more words
+about it, and come on."
+
+"But I don't care about coming on," protested Paul earnestly. "It's all
+a mistake. I've no doubt she's a very nice little girl, but I assure
+you, my good boy, I've no desire to stand in your way for one instant.
+She's nothing to me--nothing at all! I give her up to you. Take her,
+young fellow, with my blessing! There, now, that's all settled
+comfortably--eh?"
+
+He was just looking round with a self-satisfied and relieved air, when
+he began to be aware that his act of frank unselfishness was not as much
+appreciated as it deserved. Tipping, indeed, looked baffled and
+irresolute for one moment, but a low murmur of disgust arose from the
+bystanders, and even Jolland declared that it was "too beastly mean."
+
+As for Dulcie, she had been looking on incredulously at her champion's
+unaccountable tardiness in coming to the point. But this public
+repudiation was too much for her. She gave a little low wail as she
+heard the shameless words of recantation, and then, without a word,
+jumped lightly down from her bench and ran away to hide herself
+somewhere and cry.
+
+Even Paul, though he knew that he had done nothing but what was strictly
+right, and had acted purely in self-protection, felt unaccountably
+ashamed of himself as he saw this effect of his speech. But it was too
+late now.
+
+
+
+
+10. _The Complete Letter-Writer_
+
+     "Accelerated by ignominious shovings--nay, as it is written, by
+     smitings, twitchings, spurnings _a posteriori_ not to be
+     named."                                     --_French Revolution._
+
+     "This letter being so excellently ignorant will breed no terror in
+     the youth."--_Twelfth Night._
+
+
+Mr. Bultitude had meant to achieve a double stroke of diplomacy--to
+undeceive Dulcie and conciliate the lovesick Tipping. But whatever his
+success may have been in the former respect, the latter object failed
+conspicuously.
+
+"You shan't get off by a shabby trick like that," said Tipping,
+exasperated by the sight of Dulcie's emotion; "you've made her cry now,
+and you shall smart for it. So, now, are you going to stand up to me
+like a man, or will you take a licking?"
+
+"I'm not going to help you to commit a breach of the peace," said Paul
+with great dignity. "Go away, you quarrelsome young ruffian! Get one of
+your schoolfellows to fight you, if you must fight. I don't want to be
+mixed up with you in any way."
+
+But at this Tipping, whose blood was evidently at boiling point, came
+prancing down on him in a Zulu-like fashion, swinging his long arms like
+a windmill, and finding that his enemy made no attempt at receiving him,
+but only moved away apprehensively, he seized him by the collar as a
+prelude to dealing him a series of kicks behind.
+
+Although Mr. Bultitude, as we have seen, was opposed to fighting as a
+system he could not submit to this sort of thing without at least some
+attempt to defend himself; and judging it of the highest importance to
+disable his adversary in the most effectual manner before the latter had
+time to carry out his offensive designs, he turned sharply round and hit
+him a very severe blow in the lower part of his waistcoat.
+
+The result fulfilled his highest expectations. Tipping collapsed like a
+pocket-rule, and staggered away speechless, and purple with pain, while
+Paul stood calm and triumphant. He had shown these fellows that he
+wasn't going to stand any nonsense. They would leave him alone after
+this, perhaps.
+
+But once more there were cries and murmurs of "Shame!" "No hitting below
+the belt!" "Cad--coward!"
+
+It appeared that, somehow, he had managed to offend their prejudices
+even in this. "It's very odd," he thought; "when I didn't fight they
+called me a coward, and now, when I do, I don't seem to have pleased
+them much. I don't care, though. I've settled _him_."
+
+But after a season of protracted writhing by the parallel bars, Tipping
+came out, still gasping and deadly pale, leaning on Biddlecomb's
+shoulder, and was met with universal sympathy and condolence.
+
+"Thanks!" he said with considerable effort. "Of course--I'm not
+going--to fight him after a low trick like that; but perhaps you fellows
+will see that he doesn't escape quite as easily as he fancies?"
+
+There was a general shout. "No; he shall pay for it! We'll teach him to
+fight fair! We'll see if he tries that on again!"
+
+Paul heard it with much uneasiness. What new devilry were they about to
+practise upon him? He was not left long in doubt.
+
+"I vote," suggested Biddlecomb, as if he were proposing a testimonial,
+"we make him run the gauntlet. Grim won't come out and catch us. I saw
+him go out for a drive an hour ago." And the idea was very favourably
+entertained.
+
+Paul had heard of "running the gauntlet," and dimly suspected that it
+was not an experience he was likely to enjoy, particularly when he saw
+everyone busying himself with tying the end of his pocket-handkerchief
+into a hard knot. He tried in vain to excuse himself, declaring again
+and again that he had never meant to injure the boy. He had only
+defended himself, and was under the impression that he was at perfect
+liberty to hit him wherever he could, and so on. But they were in no
+mood for excuses.
+
+With a stern magisterial formality worthy of a Vehm-Gericht, they formed
+in two long lines down the centre of the playground; and while Paul was
+still staring in wonder at what this strange manoeuvre might mean,
+somebody pounced upon him and carried him up to one end of the ranks,
+where Tipping had by this time sufficiently recovered to be able to "set
+him going," as he chose to call it, with a fairly effective kick.
+
+After that he had a confused sense of flying madly along the double line
+of avengers under a hail of blows which caught him on every part of his
+head, shoulders, and back till he reached the end, where he was
+dexterously turned and sent spinning up to Tipping again, who in his
+turn headed him back on his arrival, and forced him to brave the
+terrible lane once more.
+
+Never before had Mr. Bultitude felt so sore and insulted. But they kept
+it up long after the thing had lost its first freshness--until at last
+exhaustion made them lean to mercy, and they cuffed him ignominiously
+into a corner, and left him to lament his ill-treatment there till the
+bell rang for dinner, for which, contrary to precedent, his recent
+violent exercise had excited little appetite.
+
+"I shall be killed soon if I stay here," he moaned; "I know I shall.
+These young brigands would murder me cheerfully, if they were not
+afraid of being caned for it. I'm a miserable man, and I wish I was
+dead!"
+
+Although that afternoon, being Saturday, was a half-holiday, Mr.
+Bultitude was spared the ordeal of another game at football; for a smart
+storm of rain and sleet coming on about three o'clock kept the
+school--not altogether unwilling prisoners--within doors for the day.
+
+The boys sat in their places in their schoolroom, amusing themselves
+after their several fashions--some reading, some making libellous copies
+of drawings that took their fancy in the illustrated papers, some
+playing games; others, too listless to play and too dull to find
+pleasure in the simplest books, filled up the time as well as they could
+by quarrelling and getting into various depths of hot water. Paul sat in
+a corner pretending to read a story relating the experiences of certain
+infants of phenomenal courage and coolness in the Arctic regions. They
+killed bears and tamed walruses all through the book; but for the first
+time, perhaps, since their appearance in print their exploits fell flat.
+Not, however, that this reflected any discredit upon the author's
+powers, which are justly admired by all healthy-minded boys; but it was
+beyond the power of literature just then to charm Mr. Bultitude's
+thoughts from the recollection of his misfortunes.
+
+As he took in all the details of his surroundings--the warm close room;
+the raw-toned desks and tables at which a rabble of unsympathetic boys
+were noisily whispering and chattering, with occasional glances in his
+direction, from which, taught by experience, he augured no good; the
+high uncurtained windows, blurred with little stars of half-frozen rain,
+and the bare, bleak branches of the trees outside tossing drearily
+against a low leaden sky--he tried in vain to cheat himself into a
+dreamy persuasion that all this misery could not be real, but would fade
+away as suddenly and mysteriously as it had stolen upon him.
+
+Towards the close of the afternoon the Doctor came in and took his
+place at the writing-table, where he was apparently very busy with the
+composition of some sort of document, which he finished at last with
+evident satisfaction at the result of his labour. Then he observed that,
+according to their custom of a Saturday afternoon, the hour before
+tea-time should be devoted to "writing home."
+
+So the books, chess-boards, and dominoes were all put away, and a new
+steel pen and a sheet of notepaper, neatly embossed with the heading
+"Crichton House School" in old English letters, having been served out
+to everyone, each boy prepared himself to write down such things as
+filial affection, strict truthfulness, and the desire of imparting
+information might inspire between them.
+
+Paul felt, as he clutched his writing materials, much as a shipwrecked
+mariner might be expected to do at finding on his desolate island a
+good-sized flag and a case of rockets. His hopes revived once more; he
+forgot the smarts left by the knots in the handkerchiefs, he had a whole
+hour before him--it was possible to set several wires in motion for his
+release in an hour.
+
+Yes, he must write several letters. First, one to his solicitor
+detailing, as calmly and concisely as his feelings would allow, the
+shameful way in which he had been treated, and imploring him to take
+measures of some sort for getting him out of his false and awkward
+position; one to his head clerk, to press upon him the necessity of
+prudence and caution in dealing with the impostor; notes to Bangle and
+Fishwick putting them off--they should not be outraged by an
+introduction to a vulgar pantomime clown under his roof; and lastly
+(this was an outburst he could not deny himself), a solemn impressive
+appeal to the common humanity, if not to the ordinary filial instincts,
+of his undutiful son.
+
+His fingers tingled to begin. Sentences of burning, indignant eloquence
+crowded confusedly into his head--he would write such letters as would
+carry instant conviction to the most practical and matter-of-fact
+minds. The pathos and dignity of his remonstrances should melt even
+Dick's selfish, callous heart.
+
+Perhaps he overrated the power of his pen--perhaps it would have
+required more than mere ink to persuade his friends to disbelieve their
+own senses, and see a portly citizen of over fifty packed into the frame
+of a chubby urchin of fourteen. But, at all events, no one's faith was
+put to so hard a test--those letters were never written.
+
+"Don't begin to write yet, any of you," said the Doctor; "I have a few
+words to say to you first. In most cases, and as a general rule, I think
+it wisest to let every boy commit to paper whatever his feelings may
+dictate to him. I wish to claim no censorship over the style and diction
+of your letters. But there have been so many complaints lately from the
+parents of some of the less advanced of you, that I find myself obliged
+to make a change. Your father particularly, Richard Bultitude," he
+added, turning suddenly upon the unlucky Paul, "has complained bitterly
+of the slovenly tone and phrasing of your correspondence; he said very
+justly that they would disgrace a stable-boy, and unless I could induce
+you to improve them, he begged he might not be annoyed by them in
+future."
+
+It was by no means the least galling part of Mr. Bultitude's trials,
+that former forgotten words and deeds of his in his original condition
+were constantly turning up at critical seasons, and plunging him deeper
+into the morass just when he saw some prospect of gaining firm ground.
+
+So, on this occasion, he did remember that, being in a more than usually
+bad temper one day last year, he had, on receiving a sprawling,
+ill-spelt application from Dick for more pocket-money, to buy fireworks
+for the 5th of November, written to make some such complaint to the
+schoolmaster. He waited anxiously for the Doctor's next words; he might
+want to read the letters before they were sent off, in which case Paul
+would not be displeased, for it would be an easier and less dangerous
+way of putting the Doctor in possession of the facts.
+
+But his complaints were to be honoured by a much more effectual remedy,
+for it naturally piqued the Doctor to be told that boys instructed under
+his auspices wrote like stable-boys. "However," he went on, "I wish your
+people at home to be assured from time to time of your welfare, and to
+prevent them from being shocked and distressed in future by the crudity
+of your communications, I have drawn up a short form of letter for the
+use of the lower boys in the second form--which I shall now proceed to
+dictate. Of course all boys in the first form, and all in the second
+above Bultitude and Jolland, will write as they please, as usual.
+Richard, I expect you to take particular pains to write this out neatly.
+Are you all ready? Very well then, ... now;" and he read out the
+following letter, slowly--
+
+"My dear Parents (or parent according to circumstances) comma" (all of
+which several took down most industriously)--"You will be rejoiced to
+hear that, having arrived with safety at our destination, we have by
+this time fully resumed our customary regular round of earnest work
+relieved and sweetened by hearty play. ('Have you all got "hearty play"
+down?'" inquired the Doctor rather suspiciously, while Jolland observed
+in an undertone that it would take some time to get _that_ down.) "I
+hope, I trust I may say without undue conceit, to have made considerable
+progress in my school-tasks before I rejoin the family circle for the
+Easter vacation, as I think you will admit when I inform you of the
+programme we intend" ('D.V. in brackets and capital letters'--as before,
+this was taken down verbatim by Jolland, who probably knew very much
+better), "intend to work out during the term.
+
+"In Latin, the class of which I am a member propose to thoroughly master
+the first book of Virgil's magnificent Epic, need I say I refer to the
+soul-moving story of the Pious AEneas?" (Jolland was understood by his
+near neighbours to remark that he thought the explanation distinctly
+advisable), "whilst, in Greek, we have already commenced the thrilling
+account of the 'Anabasis' of Xenophon, that master of strategy! nor
+shall we, of course, neglect in either branch of study the syntax and
+construction of those two noble languages"--("noble languages," echoed
+the writers mechanically, contriving to insinuate a touch of irony into
+the words).
+
+"In German under the able tutelage of Herr Stohwasser, who, as I may
+possibly have mentioned to you in casual conversation, is a graduate of
+the University of Heidelberg" ("and a silly old hass," added Jolland
+parenthetically), "we have resigned ourselves to the spell of the
+Teutonian Shakespeare" (there was much difference of opinion as to the
+manner of spelling the "Teutonian Shakespeare"), "as, in my opinion,
+Schiller may be not inaptly termed, and our French studies comprise such
+exercises, and short poems and tales, as are best calculated to afford
+an insight into the intricacies of the Gallic tongue.
+
+"But I would not have you imagine, my dear parents (or parent, as
+before), that, because the claims of the intellect have been thus amply
+provided for, the requirements of the body are necessarily overlooked!
+
+"I have no intention of becoming a mere bookworm, and, on the contrary,
+we have had one excessively brisk and pleasant game at football already
+this season, and should, but for the unfortunate inclemency of the
+weather, have engaged again this afternoon in the mimic warfare.
+
+"In the playground our favourite diversion is the game of 'chevy,' so
+called from the engagement famed in ballad and history (I allude to the
+battle of Chevy Chase), and indeed, my dear parents, in the rapid
+alternations of its fortunes and the diversity of its incident, the game
+(to my mind) bears a striking resemblance to the accounts of that
+ever-memorable contest.
+
+"I fear I must now relinquish my pen, as the time allotted for
+correspondence is fast waning to its close, and tea-time is approaching.
+Pray give my kindest remembrance to all my numerous friends and
+relatives, and accept my fondest love and affection for yourselves, and
+the various other members of the family circle.
+
+"I am, I am rejoiced to say, in the enjoyment of excellent health, and
+surrounded as I am by congenial companions, and employed in interesting
+and agreeable pursuits, it is superfluous to add that I am happy.
+
+"And now, my dear parents, believe me, your dutiful and affectionate
+son, so and so."
+
+The Doctor finished his dictation with a roll in his voice, as much as
+to say, "I think that will strike your respective parents as a chaste
+and classical composition; I think so!"
+
+But unexceptionable as its tone and sentiments undoubtedly were, it was
+far from expressing the feelings of Mr. Bultitude. The rest accepted it
+not unwillingly as an escape from the fatigue of original composition,
+but to him the neat, well-balanced sentences seemed a hollow mockery. As
+he wrote down each successive phrase, he wondered what Dick would think
+of it, and when at last it was finished, the precious hour had gone for
+another week!
+
+In speechless disgust but without protest, for his spirit was too broken
+by this last cruel disappointment, he had to fold, put into an envelope
+and direct this most misleading letter under the Doctor's superintending
+eye, which of course allowed him no chance of introducing a line or even
+a word to counteract the tone of self-satisfaction and contentment which
+breathed in every sentence of it.
+
+He saw it stamped, and put into the postbag, and then his last gleam of
+hope flickered out; he must give up struggling against the Inevitable;
+he must resign himself to be educated, and perhaps flogged here, while
+Dick was filling his house with clowns and pantaloons, destroying his
+reputation and damaging his credit at home. Perhaps, in course of time,
+he would grow accustomed to it, and, meanwhile, he would be as careful
+as possible to do and say nothing to make himself remarkable in any way,
+by which means he trusted, at least, to avoid any fresh calamity.
+
+And with this resolution he went to bed on Saturday night, feeling that
+this was a dreary finish to a most unpleasant week.
+
+
+
+
+11. _A Day of Rest_
+
+     "There was a letter indeed to be intercepted by a man's father to
+     do him good with him!"--_Every Man in his Humour._
+
+
+     "I cannot lose the thought yet of this letter,
+     Sent to my son; nor leave t' admire the change
+     Of manners, and the breeding of our youth
+     Within the kingdom, since myself was one."--_Ibid._
+
+
+Sunday came--a day which was to begin a new week for Mr. Bultitude, and,
+of course, for the rest of the Christian world as well. Whether that
+week would be better or worse than the one which had just passed away he
+naturally could not tell--it could hardly be much worse.
+
+But the Sunday itself, he anticipated, without, however, any very firm
+grounds for such an assumption, would be a day of brief but grateful
+respite; a day on which he might venture to claim much the same immunity
+as was enjoyed in former days by the insolvent; a day, in short, which
+would glide slowly by with the rather drowsy solemnity peculiar to the
+British sabbath as observed by all truly respectable persons.
+
+And yet that very Sunday, could he have foreseen it, was destined to be
+the most eventful day he had yet spent at Crichton House, where none had
+proved wanting in incident. During the next twelve hours he was to pass
+through every variety of unpleasant sensation. Embarrassment, suspense,
+fear, anxiety, dismay, and terror were to follow each other in rapid
+succession, and to wind up, strangely enough, with a delicious ecstasy
+of pure relief and happiness--a fatiguing programme for any middle-aged
+gentleman who had never cultivated his emotional faculties.
+
+Let me try to tell how this came about. The getting-up bell rang an hour
+later than on week-days, but the boys were expected to prepare certain
+tasks suitable for the day before they rose. Mr. Bultitude found that he
+was required to learn by heart a hymn in which the rhymes "join" and
+"divine," "throne" and "crown," were so happily wedded that either might
+conform to the other--a graceful concession to individual taste which is
+not infrequent in this class of poetry. Trivial as such a task may seem
+in these days of School Boards, it gave him infinite trouble and mental
+exertion, for he had not been called upon to commit anything of the kind
+to memory for many years, and after mastering that, there still remained
+a long chronological list (the dates approximately computed) of the
+leading events before and immediately after the Deluge, which was to be
+repeated "without looking at the book."
+
+While he was wrestling desperately with these, for he was determined, as
+I have said before, to do all in his power to keep himself out of
+trouble, Mrs. Grimstone, in her morning wrapper, paid a visit to the
+dormitories and, in spite of all Paul's attempts to excuse himself,
+insisted upon pomatuming his hair--an indignity which he felt acutely.
+
+"When she knows who I really am," he thought, "she'll be sorry she made
+such a point of it. If there's one thing upon earth I loathe more than
+another, it's marrow-oil pomade!"
+
+Then there was breakfast, at which Dr. Grimstone appeared, resplendent
+in glossy broadcloth, and dazzling shirt-front and semi-clerical white
+tie, and after breakfast, an hour in the schoolroom, during which the
+boys (by the aid of repeated references to the text) wrote out "from
+memory" the hymn they had learnt, while Paul managed somehow to stumble
+through his dates and events to the satisfaction of Mr. Tinkler, who, to
+increase his popularity, made a point of being as easily satisfied with
+such repetitions as he decently could.
+
+After that came the order to prepare for church. There was a general
+rush to the little room with the shelves and bandboxes, where church
+books were procured, and great-coats and tight kid gloves put on.
+
+When they were almost ready the Doctor came in, wearing his blandest and
+most paternal expression.
+
+"A--it's a collection Sunday to-day, boys," he said. "Have you all got
+your threepenny-bits ready? I like to see my boys give cheerfully and
+liberally of their abundance. If any boy does not happen to have any
+small change, I can accommodate him if he comes to me."
+
+And this he proceeded to do from a store he had with him of that most
+convenient coin--the chosen expression of a congregation's
+gratitude--the common silver threepence, for the school occupied a
+prominent position in the church, and had acquired a great reputation
+amongst the churchwardens for the admirable uniformity with which one
+young gentleman after another "put into the plate"; and this reputation
+the Doctor was naturally anxious that they should maintain.
+
+I am sorry to say that Mr. Bultitude, fearing lest he should be asked if
+he had the required sum about him, and thus his penniless condition
+might be discovered and bring him trouble, got behind the door at the
+beginning of the money-changing transactions and remained there till it
+was over--it seemed to him that it would be too paltry to be disgraced
+for want of threepence.
+
+Now, being thus completely furnished for their devotions, the school
+formed in couples in the hall and filed solemnly out for the march to
+church.
+
+Mr. Bultitude walked nearly last with Jolland, whose facile nature had
+almost forgotten his friend's shortcomings on the previous day. He kept
+up a perpetual flow of chatter which, as he never stopped for an answer,
+permitted Paul to indulge his own thoughts unrestrained.
+
+"Are you going to put your threepenny-bit in?" said Jolland; "I won't if
+you don't. Sometimes, you know, when the plate comes round, old Grim
+squints down the pews to see we don't shirk. Then I put in sixpence.
+Have you done your hymn? I do hate a hymn. What's the use of learning
+hymns? They won't mark you for them, you know, in any exam. I ever heard
+of, and it can't save you the expense of a hymnbook unless you learnt
+all the hymns in it, and that would take you years. Oh, I say, look!
+there's young Mutlow and his governor and mater. I wonder what Mutlow's
+governor does? Mutlow says he's a 'gentleman' if you ask him, but I
+believe he lies. See that fly driving past? Mother Grim" (the irreverent
+youth always spoke of Mrs. Grimstone in this way) "and Dulcie are in it.
+I saw Dulcie look at you, Dick. It's a shame to treat her as you did
+yesterday. There's young Tom on the box; don't his ears stick out
+rummily? I wonder if the 'ugly family' will be at church to-day? You
+know the ugly family; all with their mouths open and their eyes
+goggling, like a jolly old row of pantomime heads. And oh, Dick, suppose
+Connie Davenant's people have changed their pew--that'll be a sell for
+you rather, won't it?"
+
+"I don't understand you," said Mr. Bultitude stiffly; "and, if you don't
+object, I prefer not to be called upon to talk just now."
+
+"Oh, all right!" said Jolland, "there aren't so many fellows who will
+talk to you; but just as you please--I don't want to talk."
+
+And so the pair walked on in silence; Jolland with his nose in the air,
+determined that after this he really must cut his former friend as the
+other fellows had done, since his devotion was appreciated so little,
+and Paul watching the ascending double line of tall chimney-pot hats as
+they surged before him in regular movement, and feeling a dull wonder at
+finding himself setting out to church in such ill-assorted company.
+
+They entered the church, and Paul was sent down to the extreme end of a
+pew next to the one reserved for the Doctor and his family. Dulcie was
+sitting there already on the other side of the partition; but she gave
+no sign of having noticed his arrival, being apparently absorbed in
+studying the rose-window over the altar.
+
+He sat down in his corner with a sense of rest and almost comfort,
+though the seat was not a cushioned one. He had the inoffensive Kiffin
+for a neighbour, his chief tormentors were far away from him in one of
+the back pews, and here at least he thought no harm could come to him.
+He could allow himself safely to do what I am afraid he generally did do
+under the circumstances--snatch a few intermittent but sweet periods of
+dreamless slumber.
+
+But, while the service was proceeding, Mr. Bultitude was suddenly
+horrified to observe that a young lady, who occupied a pew at right
+angles to and touching that in which he sat, was deliberately making
+furtive signals to him in a most unmistakable manner.
+
+She was a decidedly pretty girl of about fifteen, with merry and daring
+blue eyes and curling golden hair, and was accompanied by two small
+brothers (who shared the same book and dealt each other stealthy and
+vicious kicks throughout the service), and by her father, a stout,
+short-sighted old gentleman in gold spectacles, who was perpetually
+making the wrong responses in a loud and confident tone.
+
+To be signalled to in a marked manner by a strange young lady of great
+personal attractions might be a coveted distinction to other schoolboys,
+but it simply gave Mr. Bultitude cold thrills.
+
+"I suppose _that's_ 'Connie Davenant,'" he thought, shocked beyond
+measure as she caught his eye and coughed demurely for about the fourth
+time. "A very forward young person! I think somebody ought to speak
+seriously to her father."
+
+"Good gracious! she's writing something on the flyleaf of her
+prayer-book," he said to himself presently. "I hope she's not going to
+send it to _me_. I won't take it. She ought to be ashamed of herself!"
+
+Miss Davenant was indeed busily engaged in pencilling something on a
+blank sheet of paper; and, having finished, she folded it deftly into a
+cocked-hat, wrote a few words on the outside, and placed it between the
+leaves of her book.
+
+Then, as the congregation rose for the Psalms, she gave a meaning glance
+at the blushing and scandalised Mr. Bultitude and by dexterous
+management of her prayer-book shot the little cocked-hat, as if
+unconsciously, into the next pew.
+
+By a very unfortunate miscalculation, however, the note missed its
+proper object, and, clearing the partition, fluttered deliberately down
+on the floor by Dulcie's feet.
+
+Paul saw this with alarm; he knew that at all hazards he must get that
+miserable note into his own possession and destroy it. It might have his
+name somewhere about it; it might seriously compromise him.
+
+So he took advantage of the noise the congregation made in repeating a
+verse aloud (it was not a high church) to whisper to Dulcie: "Little
+Miss Grimstone, excuse me, but there's a--a note in the pew down by your
+feet. I believe it's intended for me."
+
+Dulcie had seen the whole affair and had been not a little puzzled by
+it, a clandestine correspondence being a new thing in her short
+experience; but she understood that in this golden-haired girl, her
+elder by several years, she saw her rival, for whom Dick had so basely
+abandoned her yesterday, and she was old enough to feel the slight and
+the sweetness of revenge.
+
+So she held her head rather higher than usual, with her firm little chin
+projecting wilfully, and waited for the next verse but one before
+retorting, "Little Master Bultitude, I know it is."
+
+"Could you--can you manage to reach it?" whispered Paul entreatingly.
+
+"Yes," said Dulcie, "I could."
+
+"Then will you--when they sit down?"
+
+"No," said Dulcie firmly, "I shan't."
+
+The other girl, she noticed with satisfaction, had become aware of the
+situation and was evidently uneasy. She looked as imploringly as she
+dared at remorseless little Dulcie, as if appealing to her not to get
+her into trouble; but Dulcie bent her eyes obstinately on her book and
+would not see her.
+
+If the letter had been addressed to any other boy in the school, she
+would have done her best to shield the culprits; but this she could not
+bring herself to do here. She found a malicious pleasure in remaining
+absolutely neutral, which of course was very wrong and ill-natured of
+her.
+
+Mr. Bultitude began now to be seriously alarmed. The fatal paper must be
+seen by some one in the Doctor's pew as soon as the congregation sat
+down again; and, if it reached the Doctor's hands, it was impossible to
+say what misconstruction he might put upon it or what terrible
+consequences might not follow.
+
+He was innocent, perfectly innocent; but though the consciousness of
+innocence is frequently a great consolation, he felt that unless he
+could imbue the Doctor with it as well, it would not save him from a
+flogging.
+
+So he made one more desperate attempt to soften Dulcie's resolution:
+"Don't be a naughty little girl," he said, very injudiciously for his
+purpose, "I tell you I must have it. You'll get me into a terrible mess
+if you're not careful!"
+
+But although Dulcie had been extremely well brought up, I regret to say
+that the only answer she chose to make to this appeal was that slight
+contortion of the features, which with a pretty girl is euphemised as a
+"_moue_," and with a plain one is called "making a face." When he saw it
+he knew that all hope of changing her purpose must be abandoned.
+
+Then they all sat down, and, as Paul had foreseen, there the white
+cocked-hat lay on the dark pew-carpet, hideously distinct, with _billet
+doux_ in every fold of it!
+
+It could only be a question of time now. The curate was reading the
+first lesson for the day, but Mr. Bultitude heard not a verse of it. He
+was waiting with bated breath for the blow to fall.
+
+It fell at last. Dulcie, either with the malevolent idea of hastening
+the crisis, or (which I prefer to believe for my own part) finding that
+her ex-lover's visible torments were too much for her desire of
+vengeance, was softly moving a heavy hassock towards the guilty note.
+The movement caught her mother's eye, and in an instant the compromising
+paper was in her watchful hands.
+
+She read it with incredulous horror, and handed it at once to the
+Doctor.
+
+The golden-haired one saw it all without betraying herself by any
+outward confusion. She had probably had some experience in such matters,
+and felt tolerably certain of being able, at the worst, to manage the
+old gentleman in the gold spectacles. But she took an early opportunity
+of secretly conveying her contempt for the traitress Dulcie, who
+continued to meet her angry glances with the blandest unconsciousness.
+
+Dr. Grimstone examined the cocked-hat through his double eyeglasses,
+with a heavy thunder-cloud gathering on his brows. When he had mastered
+it thoroughly, he bent forward and glared indignantly past his wife and
+daughter for at least half a minute into the pew where Mr. Bultitude was
+cowering, until he felt that he was coming all to pieces under the
+piercing gaze.
+
+The service passed all too quickly after that. Paul sat down and stood
+up almost unconsciously with the rest; but for the first time in his
+life he could have wished the sermon many times longer.
+
+The horror of his position quite petrified him. After all his prudent
+resolutions to keep out of mischief and to win the regard and confidence
+of his gaoler by his good conduct, like the innocent convict in a
+melodrama, this came as nothing less than a catastrophe. He walked home
+in a truly dismal state of limp terror.
+
+Fortunately for him none of the others seemed to have noticed his
+misfortune, and Jolland made no further advances. But even the weather
+tended to increase his depression, for it was a bleak, cheerless day,
+with a bitter and searching wind sweeping the gritty roads where
+yesterday's rain was turned to black ice in the ruts, and the sun shone
+with a dull coppery glitter that had no warmth or geniality about it.
+
+The nearer they came to Crichton House the more abjectly miserable
+became Mr. Bultitude's state of mind. It was as much as he could do to
+crawl up the steps to the front door, and his knees positively clapped
+together when the Doctor, who had driven home, met them in the hall and
+said in a still grave voice, "Bultitude, when you have taken off your
+coat, I want you in the study."
+
+He was as long about taking off his coat as he dared, but at last he
+went trembling into the study, which he found empty. He remembered the
+room well, with its ebony-framed etchings on the walls, bookcases and
+blue china over the draped mantelpiece, even to a large case of
+elaborately carved Indian chessmen in bullock-carts and palanquins, on
+horses and elephants, which stood in the window-recess. It was the very
+room to which he had been shown when he first called about sending his
+son to the school. He had little thought then that the time would come
+when he would attend there for the purpose of being flogged; few things
+would have seemed less probable. Yet here he was.
+
+But his train of thought was abruptly broken by the entrance of the
+Doctor. He marched solemnly in, holding out the offending missive. "Look
+at this, sir!" he said, shaking it angrily before Paul's eyes. "Look at
+this! what do you mean by receiving a flippant communication like this
+in a sacred edifice? What do you mean by it?"
+
+"I--I didn't receive it," said Paul, at his wits' end.
+
+"Don't prevaricate with me, sir; you know well enough it was intended
+for you. Have the goodness to read it now, and tell me what you have to
+say for yourself!"
+
+Paul read it. It was a silly little school-girl note, half slang and
+half sentiment, signed only with the initials C.D. "Well, sir?" said the
+Doctor.
+
+"It's very forward and improper--very," said Paul; "but it's not my
+fault--I can't help it. I gave the girl no encouragement. I never saw
+her before in all my life!"
+
+"To my own knowledge, Bultitude, she has sat in that pew regularly for a
+year."
+
+"Very probably," said Paul, "but I don't notice these matters. I'm past
+that sort of thing, my dear sir."
+
+"What is her name? Come, sir, you know that."
+
+"Connie Davenant," said Paul, taken unawares by the suddenness of the
+question. "At least, I--I heard so to-day." He felt the imprudence of
+such an admission as soon as he had made it.
+
+"Very odd that you know her name if you never noticed her before," said
+the Doctor.
+
+"That young fellow--what's-his-name--Jolland told me," said Paul.
+
+"Ah, but it's odder still that she knows yours, for I perceive it is
+directed to you by name."
+
+"It's easily explained, my dear sir," said Paul; "easily explained. I've
+no doubt she's heard it somewhere. At least, I never told her; it is not
+likely. I do assure you I'm as much distressed and shocked by this
+affair as you can be yourself. I am indeed. I don't know what girls are
+coming to nowadays."
+
+"Do you expect me to believe that you are perfectly innocent?" said the
+Doctor.
+
+"Yes, I do," said Mr. Bultitude. "I can't prevent fast young ladies from
+sending me notes. Why, she might have sent _you_ one!"
+
+"We won't go into hypothetical cases," said the Doctor, not relishing
+the war being carried into his own country; "she happened to prefer you.
+But, although your virtuous indignation seems to me a trifle overdone,
+sir, I don't see my way clear to punishing you on the facts, especially
+as you tell me you never encouraged these--these overtures, and my
+Dulcie, I am bound to say, confirms your statement that it was all the
+other young lady's doing. But if I had had any proof that you had begun
+or responded to her--hem--advances, nothing could have saved you from a
+severe flogging at the very least--so be careful for the future."
+
+"Ah!" said Paul rather feebly, quite overwhelmed by the narrowness of
+his escape. Then with a desperate effort he found courage to add, "May
+I--ah--take advantage of this--this restored cordiality to--to--in fact
+to make a brief personal explanation? It--it's what I've been trying to
+tell you for a long time, ever since I first came, only you never will
+hear me out. It's highly important. You've no notion how serious it is!"
+
+"There's something about you this term, Richard Bultitude," said the
+Doctor slowly, "that I confess I don't understand. This obstinacy is
+unusual in a boy of your age, and if you really have a mystery it may be
+as well to have it out and have done with it. But I can't be annoyed
+with it now. Come to me after supper to-night, and I shall be willing to
+hear anything you may have to say."
+
+Paul was too overcome at this unexpected favour to speak his thanks. He
+got away as soon as he could. His path was smoothed at last!
+
+That afternoon the boys, or all of them who had disposed of the work set
+them for the day, were sitting in the schoolroom, after a somewhat
+chilly dinner of cold beef, cold tarts, and cold water, passing the time
+with that description of literature known as "Sunday reading."
+
+And here, at the risk of being guilty of a digression, I must pause to
+record my admiration for this exceedingly happy form of compromise,
+which is, I think, peculiar to the British and, to a certain extent, the
+American nations.
+
+It has many developments; ranging from the mild Transatlantic compound
+of cookery and camp-meetings, to the semi-novel, redeemed and chastened
+by an arrangement which sandwiches a sermon or a biblical lecture
+between each chapter of the story--a great convenience for the race of
+skippers.
+
+Then there are one or two illustrated magazines which it is always
+allowable to read on the Sabbath without fear of rebuke from the
+strictest--though it is not quite easy to see why.
+
+Open any one of the monthly numbers, and the chances are that you may
+possibly find at one part a neat little doctrinal essay by a literary
+bishop; the rest of the contents will consist of nothing more serious
+than a paper upon "cockroaches and their habits" by an eminent savant; a
+description of foreign travel, done in a brilliant and wholly secular
+vein; and, further on again, an article on aesthetic furniture--while the
+balance of the number will be devoted to instalments of two thrilling
+novels by popular authors, whose theology is seldom their strongest
+point.
+
+Oddly enough, too, when these very novels come out later in three-volume
+form, with the "mark of the beast" in the shape of a circulating library
+ticket upon them, they will be fortunate if they are not interdicted
+altogether by some of the serious families who take in the magazines as
+being "so suitable for Sundays."
+
+Mr. Bultitude, at all events, had reason to be grateful for this
+toleration, for in one of the bound volumes supplied to him he found a
+most interesting and delightfully unsectarian novel, which appealed to
+his tastes as a business man, for it was all about commerce and making
+fortunes by blockade-running; and though he was no novel reader as a
+rule, his mind was so relieved and set at rest by the prospect of seeing
+the end of his trouble at last, that he was able to occupy his mind with
+the fortunes of the hero.
+
+He naturally detected technical errors here and there. But that pleased
+him, and he was becoming so deeply absorbed in the tale that he felt
+seriously annoyed when Chawner came softly up to the desk at which he
+was sitting, and sat down close to him, crossing his arms before him,
+and leaning forward upon them with his sallow face towards Paul.
+
+"Dickie," he began, in a cautious, oily tone, "did I hear the Doctor say
+before dinner that he would hear anything you have to tell him after
+supper? Did I?"
+
+"I really can't say, sir," said Paul; "if you were near the keyhole at
+the time, very likely you did."
+
+"The door was open," said Chawner, "and I was in the cloak-room, so I
+heard, and I want to know. What is it you're going to tell the Doctor?"
+
+"Mind your own business, sir," said Paul sharply.
+
+"It is my own business," said Chawner; "but I don't want to be told what
+you're going to tell him. I know."
+
+"Good heavens!" said Mr. Bultitude, annoyed to find his secret in
+possession of this boy of all others.
+
+"Yes," repeated Chawner. "I know, and I tell you what--I won't have it!"
+
+"Won't have it! and why?"
+
+"Never mind why. Perhaps I don't choose that the Doctor shall be told
+just yet; perhaps I mean to go up and tell him myself some other day. I
+want to have a little more fun out of it before I've done."
+
+"But--but," said Paul, "you young ghoul, do you mean to say that all you
+care for is to see other people's sufferings?"
+
+Chawner grinned maliciously. "Yes," he said suavely; "it amuses me."
+
+"And so," said Paul, "you want to hold me back a little longer--because
+it's so funny; and then, when you're quite tired of your sport, you'll
+go up and tell the Doctor my--my unhappy story yourself, eh? No, my
+friend; I'd rather not tell him myself--but I'll be shot if I let _you_
+have a finger in it. I know my own interests better than that!"
+
+"Don't get in a passion, Dickie," said Chawner; "it's Sunday. You'll
+have to let me go up instead of you--when I've frightened them a little
+more."
+
+"Who do you mean by them, sir?" said Paul, growing puzzled.
+
+"As if you didn't know! Oh, you're too clever for me, Dickie, I can
+see," sniggered Chawner.
+
+"I tell you I don't know!" said Mr. Bultitude. "Look here, Chawner--your
+confounded name is Chawner, isn't it?--there's a mistake somewhere, I'm
+sure of it. Listen to me. I'm not going to tell the Doctor what you
+think I am!"
+
+"What do I think you are going to tell him?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea; but, whatever it is, you're wrong."
+
+"Ah, you're too clever, Dickie; you won't betray yourself; but other
+people want to pay Coker and Tipping out as well as you, and I say you
+must wait."
+
+"I shan't say anything to affect anyone but myself," said Paul; "if you
+know all about it, you must know that--it won't interfere with your
+amusement that I can see."
+
+"Yes, it will," said Chawner irritably, "it will--you mayn't mean to
+tell of anyone but yourself; but directly Grimstone asks you questions,
+it all comes out. I know all about it. And, anyway, I forbid you to go
+up till I give you leave."
+
+"And who the dooce are you?" said Mr. Bultitude, nettled at this
+assumption of authority. "How are you going to prevent me, may I ask?"
+
+"S'sh! here's the Doctor," whispered Chawner hurriedly. "I'll tell you
+after tea. What am I doing out of my place, sir? Oh, I was only asking
+Bultitude what was the collect for to-day, sir. Fourth Sunday after the
+Epiphany? thank you, Bultitude."
+
+And he glided back to his seat, leaving Paul in a state of vague
+uneasiness. Why did this fellow, with the infernal sly face and glib
+tongue, want to prevent him from righting himself with the world, and
+how could he possibly prevent him? It was absurd; he would take no
+notice of the young scoundrel--he would defy him.
+
+But he could not banish the uneasy feeling; the cup had slipped so many
+times before at the critical moment that he could not be sure whose hand
+would be the next to jog his elbow. And so he went down to tea with
+renewed misgivings.
+
+
+
+
+12. _Against Time_
+
+     "There is a kind of Followers likewise, which are dangerous, being
+     indeed Espials; which enquire the Secrets of the House and beare
+     Tales of them."--BACON.
+
+
+     "Then give me leave that I may turn the key,
+     That no man enter till my tale be done."
+
+
+Very possibly Chawner's interference in Mr. Bultitude's private affairs
+has surprised others besides the victim of it; but the fact is that
+there was a most unfortunate misunderstanding between them from the very
+first, which prevented the one from seeing, the other from explaining,
+the real state of the case.
+
+Chawner, of course, no more guessed Paul's true name and nature than
+anyone else who had come in contact with him in his impenetrable
+disguise, and his motive for attempting to prevent an interview with the
+Doctor can only, I fear, be explained by another slight digression.
+
+The Doctor, from a deep sense of his responsibility for the morals of
+those under his care, was perhaps a trifle over-anxious to clear his
+moral garden of every noxious weed, and too constant in his vigilant
+efforts to detect the growing shoot of evil from the moment it showed
+above the surface.
+
+As he could not be everywhere, however, it is evident that many
+offences, trivial or otherwise, must have remained unsuspected and
+unpunished, but for a theory which he had originated and took great
+pains to propagate amongst his pupils.
+
+The theory was that every right-minded boy ought to feel himself in such
+a fiduciary position towards his master, that it became a positive duty
+to acquaint him with any delinquencies he might happen to observe among
+his fellows; and if, at the same time, he was oppressed by a secret
+burden on his own conscience, it was understood that he might hope that
+the joint revelation would go far to mitigate his own punishment.
+
+It is doubtful whether this system, though I believe it is found
+successful in Continental colleges, can be usefully applied to English
+boys; whether it may not produce a habit of mutual distrust and
+suspicion, and a tone the reverse of healthy.
+
+For myself, I am inclined to think that a schoolmaster will find it
+better in the long run, for both the character and morals of his school,
+if he is not too anxious to play the detective, and refrains from
+encouraging the more weak-minded or cowardly boys to save themselves by
+turning "schoolmaster's evidence."
+
+Dr. Grimstone thought otherwise; but it must be allowed that the system,
+as in vogue at Crichton House, did not work well.
+
+There were boys, of course, who took a sturdier view of their own rights
+and duties, and despised the talebearers as they deserved; there were
+others, also, too timid and too dependent on the good opinion of others
+to risk the loss of it by becoming informers; but there were always one
+or two whose consciences were unequal to the burden of their neighbour's
+sin, and could only be relieved by frank and full confession.
+
+Unhappily they had, as a general rule, contributed largely to the sum
+of guilt themselves, and did not resort to disclosure until detection
+seemed reasonably imminent.
+
+Chawner was the leader of this conscientious band; he revelled in the
+system. It gave him the means at once of gratifying the almost universal
+love of power and of indulging a catlike passion for playing with the
+feelings of others, which, it is to be hoped, is more uncommon.
+
+He knew he was not popular, but he could procure most of the incidents
+of popularity; he could have his little court of cringing toadies; he
+could levy his tribute of conciliatory presents, and vent many private
+spites and hatreds into the bargain--and he generally did.
+
+Having himself a tendency to acts of sly disobedience, he found it a
+congenial pastime to set the fashion from time to time in some one of
+the peccadilloes to which boyhood is prone, and to which the Doctor's
+somewhat restrictive code added a large number, and as soon as he saw a
+sufficient number of his companions satisfactorily implicated, his
+opportunity came.
+
+He would take the chief culprits aside, and profess, in strict
+confidence, certain qualms of conscience which he feared could only be
+appeased by unburdening his guilt-laden soul.
+
+To this none would have had any right to object--had it not necessarily,
+or at least from Chawner's point of view, involved a full, true, and
+particular account of the misdoings of each and every one; and
+consequently, for some time after these professions of misgivings,
+Chawner would be surrounded by a little crowd of anxiously obsequious
+friends, all trying hard to overcome his scruples or persuade him at
+least to omit their names from his revelations.
+
+Sometimes he would affect to be convinced by their arguments and send
+them away reassured; at others his scruples would return in an
+aggravated form; and so he would keep them on tenterhooks of suspense
+for days and weeks, until he was tired of the amusement--for this
+practising on the fears of weaker natures is a horribly keen delight to
+some--or until some desperate little dog, unable to bear his torture any
+longer, would threaten to give himself up and make an end of it.
+
+Then Chawner, to do him justice, always relieved him from so
+disagreeable a necessity, and would go softly into the Doctor's study,
+and, in a subdued and repentant tone, pour out his general confession
+for the public good.
+
+Probably the Doctor did not altogether respect the instruments he saw
+fit to use in this way; some would have declined to hear the informer
+out, flogged him well, and forgotten it; but Dr. Grimstone--though he
+was hardly likely to be impressed by these exhibitions of noble candour,
+and did not fail to see that the prospect of obtaining better terms for
+the penitent himself had something to do with them--yet encouraged the
+system as a matter of policy, went thoroughly into the whole affair, and
+made it the cause of an explosion which he considered would clear the
+moral atmosphere for some time to come.
+
+I hope that, after this explanation, Chawner's opposition to Mr.
+Bultitude's plans will be better understood.
+
+After tea, he made Paul a little sign to follow him, and the two went
+out together into the little glass-house beyond the schoolroom; it was
+dark, but there was light enough from the room inside for them to see
+each other's face.
+
+"Now, sir," began Paul, with dignity, when he had closed the glass door
+behind him, "perhaps you'll be good enough to tell me how you mean to
+prevent me from seeing Dr. Grimstone, and telling him--telling him what
+I have to tell him?"
+
+"I'll tell you, Dickie," said Chawner, with an evil smirk. "You shall
+know soon enough."
+
+"Don't stand grinning at me like that, sir," said the angry Mr.
+Bultitude; "say it out at once; it will make no difference to me, I give
+you warning!"
+
+"Oh, yes it will, though. I think it will. Wait. I heard all you said to
+Grimstone in the study to-day about that girl--Connie Davenant, you
+know."
+
+"I don't care; I am innocent. I have nothing to reproach myself with."
+
+"What a liar you are!" said Chawner, more in admiration than rebuke.
+"You told him you never gave her any encouragement, didn't you? And he
+said if he ever found you had, nothing could save you from a licking,
+didn't he?"
+
+"He did," said Paul, "he was quite right from his point of view--what
+then?"
+
+"Why, this," said Chawner: "Do you remember giving Jolland, the last
+Sunday of last term, a note for that very girl?"
+
+"I never did!" said poor Mr. Bultitude, "I never saw the wretched girl
+before."
+
+"Ah!" said Chawner, "but I've got the note in my pocket! Jolland was
+seedy and asked me to take it for you, and I read it, and it was so
+nicely written that I thought I should like to keep it myself, and so I
+did--and here it is!"
+
+And he drew out with great caution a piece of crumpled paper and showed
+it to the horrified old gentleman. "Don't snatch ... it's rude; there it
+is, you see: 'My dear Connie' ... 'yours ever, Dick Bultitude.' No, you
+don't come any nearer ... there, now it's safe.... Now what do you mean
+to do?"
+
+"I--I don't know," said Paul, feeling absolutely checkmated. "Give me
+time."
+
+"I tell you what I mean to do; I shall keep my eye on you, and directly
+I see you making ready to go to Grimstone, I shall get up first and take
+him this ... then you'll be done for. You'd better give in, really,
+Dickie!"
+
+The note was too evidently genuine; Dick must have written it (as a
+matter of fact he had; in a moment of pique, no doubt, at some caprice
+of his real enslaver Dulcie's--but his fickleness brought fatal results
+on his poor father's undeserving head)--if this diabolical Chawner
+carried out his threats he would indeed be "done for"; he did not yet
+fully understand the other's motive, but he thought that he feared lest
+Paul, in declaring his own sorrows, might also accuse Tipping and Coker
+of acts of cruelty and oppression, which Chawner proposed to denounce
+himself at some more convenient opportunity; he hesitated painfully.
+
+"Well?" said Chawner, "make up your mind; are you going to tell him, or
+not?"
+
+"I must!" said Paul hoarsely. "I promise you I shall not bring any other
+names in ... I don't want to ... I only want to save myself--and I can't
+stand it any longer. Why should you stand between me and my rights in
+this currish way? I didn't know there were boys like you in the world,
+sir; you're a young monster!"
+
+"I don't mean you to tell the Doctor anything at all," said Chawner. "I
+shall do what I said."
+
+"Then do your worst!" said Paul, stung to defiance.
+
+"Very well, then," returned Chawner meekly, "I will--and we'll see who
+wins!"
+
+And they went back to the schoolroom again, where Mr. Bultitude, boiling
+with rage and seriously alarmed as well, tried to sit down and appear as
+if nothing had happened.
+
+Chawner sat down too, in a place from which he could see all Paul's
+movements, and they both watched one another anxiously from the corners
+of their eyes till the Doctor came in.
+
+"It's a foggy evening," he said as he entered: "the younger boys had
+better stay in. Chawner, you and the rest of the first form can go to
+church; get ready at once."
+
+Paul's heart leaped with triumph; with his enemy out of the way, he
+could carry out his purpose unhindered. The same thing apparently
+occurred to Chawner, for he said mildly, "Please, sir, may Richard
+Bultitude come too?"
+
+"Can't Bultitude ask leave for himself?" said the Doctor.
+
+"I, sir!" said the horrified Paul, "it's a mistake--I don't want to go.
+I--I don't feel very well this evening!"
+
+"Then you see, Chawner, you misunderstood him. By the way, Bultitude,
+there was something you were to tell me, I think?"
+
+Chawner's small glittering eyes were fixed on Paul menacingly as he
+managed to stammer that he did want to say something in private.
+
+"Very well, I am going out to see a friend for an hour or so--when I
+come back I will hear you," and he left the room abruptly.
+
+Chawner would very probably have petitioned to stay in that evening as
+well, had he had time and presence of mind to do so; as it was, he was
+obliged to go away and get ready for church, but when his preparations
+were made he came back to Paul, and leaning over him said with an
+unpleasant scowl, "If I get back in time, Bultitude, we'll see whether
+you baulk me quite so easily. If I come back and find you've done it--I
+shall take in that letter!"
+
+"You may do what you please then," said Paul, in a high state of
+irritation, "I shall be well out of your reach by that time. Now have
+the goodness to take yourself off."
+
+As he went, Mr. Bultitude thought, "I never in all my life saw such a
+fellow as that, never! It would give me real pleasure to hire someone to
+kick him."
+
+The evening passed quietly; the boys left at home sat in their places,
+reading or pretending to read. Mr. Blinkhorn, left in charge of them,
+was at his table in the corner noting up his diary. Paul was free for a
+time to think over his position.
+
+At first he was calm and triumphant; his dearest hopes, his
+long-wished-for opportunity of a fair and unprejudiced hearing, were at
+last to be fulfilled--Chawner was well out of the way for the best part
+of two hours--the Doctor was very unlikely to be detained nearly so long
+over one call; his one anxiety was lest he might not be able, after all,
+to explain himself in a thoroughly effective manner--he planned out a
+little scheme for doing this.
+
+He must begin gradually of course, so as not to alarm the schoolmaster
+or raise doubts of his sincerity or, worse still, his sanity. Perhaps a
+slight glance at instances of extraordinary interventions of the
+supernatural from the earliest times, tending to show the extreme
+probability of their survival on rare occasions even to the present day,
+might be a prudent and cautious introduction to the subject--only he
+could not think of any, and, after all, it might weary the Doctor.
+
+He would start somewhat in this manner: "You cannot, my dear sir, have
+failed to observe since our meeting this year, a certain difference in
+my manner and bearing"--one's projected speeches are somehow generally
+couched in finer language than, when it comes to the point, the tongue
+can be prevailed upon to utter. Mr. Bultitude learned this opening
+sentence by heart, he thought it taking and neat, the sort of thing to
+fix his hearer's attention from the first.
+
+After that he found it difficult to get any further; he knew himself
+that all he was about to describe was plain, unvarnished fact--but how
+would it strike a stranger's ear? He found himself seeking ways in which
+to tone down the glaring improbability of the thing as much as possible,
+but in vain; "I don't know how I shall ever get it all out," he told
+himself at last; "if I think about it much longer I shall begin to
+disbelieve in it myself."
+
+Here Biddlecomb came up in a confidential manner and sat down by Paul;
+"Dick," he began, in rather a trembling voice, "did I hear the Doctor
+say something about your having something to tell him?"
+
+"Oh Lord, here's another of them now!" thought Paul. "You are right,
+young sir," he said: "have you any objection? mention it, you know, if
+you have, pray mention it. It's a matter of life and death to me, but if
+you at all disapprove, of course that ought to be final!"
+
+"No, but," protested Biddlecomb, "I, I daresay I've not treated you very
+well lately, I----"
+
+"You were kind enough to suggest several very uncommonly unpleasant ways
+of annoying me, sir," said Paul resentfully, "if you mean that. You've
+kicked me more than once, and your handkerchief, unless I am very much
+mistaken, had the biggest and the hardest knot in it yesterday. If that
+gives you the right to interfere and dictate to me now, like your
+amiable friend, Master Chawner, I suppose you have it."
+
+"Now you're angry," said Biddlecomb humbly; "I don't wonder at it. I've
+behaved like a cad, I know, but, and this is what I wanted to say, I was
+sorry for you all the time."
+
+"That's very comforting," said Paul drily; "thank you. I'm vastly
+obliged to you."
+
+"I was, though," said Biddlecomb. "I, I was led away by the other
+fellows--I always liked you, you know, Bultitude."
+
+"You've a very odd way of showing your affection," remarked Mr.
+Bultitude; "but go on, let me hear all you have to say."
+
+"It isn't much," said Biddlecomb, quite broken down; "only don't sneak
+of me this time, Dick, let me off, there's a good fellow. I'll stick up
+for you after this, I will really. You used not to be a fellow for
+sneaking once. It's caddish to sneak!"
+
+"Don't be alarmed, my good friend," said Paul; "I won't poach on that
+excellent young man Chawner's preserves. What I am going to tell the
+Doctor has nothing to do with you."
+
+"On your honour?" said Biddlecomb eagerly.
+
+"Yes," said Paul testily, "on my honour. Now, perhaps, you'll let me
+alone. No, I won't shake hands, sir. I've had to accept your kicks, but
+I don't want your friendship."
+
+Biddlecomb went off, looking slightly ashamed of himself but visibly
+relieved from a haunting fear. "Thank goodness!" thought Paul, "he
+wasn't as obstinate as the other fellow. What a set they are! I knew it,
+there's another boy coming up now!"
+
+And indeed one boy after another came up in the same way as Biddlecomb
+had done, some cringing more than others, but all vowing that they had
+never intended to do any harm, and entreating him to change his mind
+about complaining of his ill-treatment. They brought little offerings to
+propitiate him and prove the depth of their unaltered
+regard--pencil-cases and pocket-knives, and so forth, until they drove
+Paul nearly to desperation. However, he succeeded in dispelling their
+fears after some hot arguments, and had just sent away the last
+suppliant, when he saw Jolland too rise and come towards him.
+
+Jolland leaned across Paul's desk with folded arms and looked him full
+in the face with his shallow light green eyes. "I don't know what you've
+said to all those chaps," he began; "they've come back looking precious
+glum, but they won't tell me what you said," (Mr. Bultitude had in
+satisfying their alarm taken care to let them know his private opinion
+of them, which was not flattering), "but I've got something to say to
+you, and it's this. I never thought you would quite come down to this
+sort of thing!"
+
+"What sort of thing?" said Paul, who was beginning to have enough of it.
+
+"Why, going up and letting on against all of us--it's mean, you know. If
+you have got bashed about pretty well since you came back, it's been
+all your own fault, and you know it. Last term you got on well
+enough--this time you began to be queer and nasty the very first day you
+came. I thought it was one of your larks at first, but I don't know what
+it is now, and I don't care. I stood up for you as long as I could, till
+you acted like a funk yesterday. Then I took my share in lamming you,
+and I'd do it again. But if you are cad enough to pay us all out in this
+way, I'll have no more to do with you--mind that. That's all I came to
+say."
+
+This was an unpalatable way of putting things, but Paul could not help
+seeing that there was some truth in it. Jolland had been kind to him,
+too, in a careless sort of way, and at some cost to himself; so it was
+with more mildness than temper that he answered him.
+
+"You're on the wrong tack, my boy, the wrong tack. I've no wish to tell
+tales of anyone, as I've been trying to explain to your friends. There's
+something the matter with me which you wouldn't understand if I told
+you."
+
+"Oh, I didn't know," said Jolland, mollified; "if it's only physic you
+want."
+
+"Whatever it is," said Paul, not caring to undeceive him, "it won't
+affect you or anyone here, but myself. You're not a bad young fellow, I
+believe. I don't want to get you into trouble, sir; you don't want much
+assistance, I'm afraid, in that department. So be off, like a good
+fellow, and leave me in peace."
+
+All these interviews had taken time. He was alarmed on looking at the
+clock to see that it was nearly eight; the Doctor was a long time over
+that call--for the first time he began to feel uneasy--he made hurried
+mental calculations as to the probability of the Doctor or Chawner being
+the first to return.
+
+The walk to church took about twenty minutes; say the service took an
+hour, allowing for the return, he might expect Chawner by about
+half-past eight; it was striking the hour now--half an hour only in
+which he could hope for any favourable result from the interview!
+
+For he saw this plainly, that if Chawner were once permitted to get the
+Doctor's ear first and show him that infamous love-note, no explanation
+of his (even if he had nerve to make it then, which he doubted) could
+possibly seem anything more than a desperate and far-fetched excuse; if
+he could anticipate Chawner, on the other hand, and once convince the
+Doctor of the truth of his story, the informer's malice would fall flat.
+
+And still the long hand went rapidly on, as Mr. Bultitude sat staring
+stupidly at it with a faint sick feeling--it had passed the quarter
+now--why did the Doctor delay in this unwarrantable manner? What a farce
+social civilities were--if he had allowed himself to be prevailed on to
+stay to supper! Twenty minutes past; Chawner and the others might return
+at any moment--a ring at the bell; they were there! all was over
+now--no, he was saved, that was Dr. Grimstone's voice in the hall--what
+an unconscionable time he was taking off his greatcoat and gloves.
+
+But all comes to the man who waits. In another moment the Doctor looked
+in, singled out Mr. Bultitude with a sharp glance, and a, "Now,
+Bultitude, I will hear you!" and led the way to his study.
+
+Paul staggered rather than walked after him: as usual at the critical
+moment his carefully prepared opening had deserted him--his head felt
+heavy and crowded--he wanted to run away, but forced himself to overcome
+such a suicidal proceeding and follow to the study.
+
+There was a lighted reading-lamp with a green glass shade upon the
+table. The Doctor sat down by it in an armchair by the fire, crossed his
+legs, and joined the tops of his fingers together. "Now, Bultitude," he
+said again.
+
+"Might I--might I sit down?" said poor Mr. Bultitude in a thick voice;
+it was all that occurred to him to say.
+
+"Sit by all means," said the Doctor blandly.
+
+So Paul drew a chair opposite the Doctor and sat down. He tried
+desperately to clear his head and throat and begin; but the only
+distinct thought in his mind just then was that the green lamp-shade
+lent a particularly ghastly hue to the Doctor's face.
+
+"Take your time, Bultitude," said the latter, after a long minute, in
+which a little skeleton clock on the mantelpiece ticked loudly--"there's
+no hurry, my boy."
+
+But this only reminded Paul that there was every need for hurry--Chawner
+might come in, and follow him here, unless he made haste.
+
+Still, he could only say, "You see me in a very agitated state, Dr.
+Grimstone--a very agitated state, sir."
+
+The Doctor gave a short, dry cough. "Well, Bultitude," he said.
+
+"The fact is, sir, I'm in a most unfortunate position, and--and the
+worst of it is, I don't know how to begin." Here he made another dead
+stop, while the Doctor raised his heavy eyebrows, and looked at the
+clock.
+
+"Do you see any prospect of your finding yourself able to begin soon?"
+he inquired at last, with rather suspicious suavity. "Perhaps if you
+came to me later on----"
+
+"Not for the world!" said Paul, in a highly nervous condition. "I shall
+begin very soon, Doctor, I shall begin directly. Mine is such a very
+singular case; it's difficult, as you see, to, to open it!"
+
+"Have you anything on your mind?" asked the Doctor suddenly.
+
+Paul could hear steps and voices in the adjoining cloakroom--the
+churchgoers had returned. "Yes--no!" he answered, losing his head
+completely now.
+
+"That's a somewhat extraordinary, not to say an ambiguous, reply," said
+the Doctor; "what am I to understand by----"
+
+There was a tap at the door. Paul started to his feet in a panic. "Don't
+let him in!" he shrieked, finding his voice at last. "Hear me first--you
+shall hear me first! Say that other rascal is not to come in. He wants
+to ruin me!"
+
+"I was going to say I was engaged," said the Doctor; "but there's
+something under this I must understand. Come in, whoever you are."
+
+And the door opened softly, and Chawner stepped meekly in; he was rather
+pale and breathed hard, but was otherwise quite composed.
+
+"Now, then, Chawner," said the Doctor impatiently, "what is it? Have you
+something on your mind, too?"
+
+"Please, sir," said Chawner, "has Bultitude told you anything yet?"
+
+"No, why? Hold your tongue, Bultitude. I shall hear Chawner now--not
+you!"
+
+"Because, sir," explained Chawner, "he knew I had made up my mind to
+tell you something I thought you ought to know about him, and so he
+threatened to come first and tell some falsehood (I'm sure I don't know
+what) about me, sir. I think I ought to be here too."
+
+"It's a lie!" shouted Paul, "What a villain that boy is! Don't believe a
+word he says, Dr. Grimstone; it's all false--all!"
+
+"This is very suspicious," said the Doctor; "if your conscience were
+good, Bultitude, you could have no object in preventing me from hearing
+Chawner. Chawner, in spite of some obvious defects in his character," he
+went on, with a gulp (he never could quite overcome a repulsion to the
+boy), "is, on the whole, a right-minded and, ah, conscientious boy. I
+hear Chawner first."
+
+"Then, sir, if you please," said Chawner, with an odious side smirk of
+triumph at Paul, who, quite crushed by the horror of the situation, had
+collapsed feebly on his chair again, "I thought it was my duty to let
+you see this. I found it to-day in Bultitude's prayerbook, sir." And he
+handed Dick's unlucky scrawl to the Doctor, who took it to the lamp and
+read it hurriedly through.
+
+After that there was a terrible moment of dead silence; then the Doctor
+looked up and said shortly, "You did well to tell me of this, Chawner;
+you may go now."
+
+When they were alone once more he turned upon the speechless Paul with
+furious scorn and indignation. "Contemptible liar and hypocrite," he
+thundered, pacing restlessly up and down the room in his excitement,
+till Paul felt very like Daniel, without his sense of security, "you are
+unmasked--unmasked, sir! You led me to believe that you were as much
+shocked and pained at this girl's venturing to write to you as I could
+be myself. You called it, quite correctly, 'forward and improper'; you
+pretended you had never given her the least encouragement--had not heard
+her name even--till to-day. And here is a note, written, as I should
+imagine, some time since, in which you address her as 'Connie Davenant,'
+and have the impudence to admire the hat she wore the Sunday before! I
+shudder, sir, to think of such duplicity, such precocious and shameless
+depravity. It astounds me. It deprives me of all power to think!"
+
+Paul made some faint and inarticulate remark about being a family
+man--always most particular, and so forth--luckily it passed unheard.
+
+"What shall I do with you?" continued the Doctor; "how shall I punish
+such monstrous misconduct?"
+
+"Don't ask _me_, sir," said Paul, desperately--"only, for heaven's sake,
+get it over as soon as possible."
+
+"If I linger, sir," retorted the Doctor, "it is because I have grave
+doubts whether your offence can be expiated by a mere flogging--whether
+that is not altogether too light a retribution."
+
+"He can't want to _torture_ me," thought Paul.
+
+"Yes," said the Doctor again, "the doubt has prevailed. On a mind so
+hardened the cane would leave no lasting impression. I cannot allow your
+innocent companions to run the risk of contamination from your society.
+I must not permit this serpent to glide uncrushed, this cockatrice to
+practise his epistolary wiles, within my peaceful fold. My mind is made
+up--at whatever cost to myself--however it may distress and grieve your
+good father, who is so pathetically anxious for you to do him credit,
+sir. I must do my duty to the parents of the boys entrusted to my care.
+I shall not flog you, sir, for I feel it would be useless. I shall expel
+you."
+
+"What!" Paul leaped up incredulous. "Expel me? Do I hear you aright, Dr.
+Grimstone? Say it again--you will expel me?"
+
+"I have said it," the Doctor said sternly; "no expostulations can move
+me now" (as if Mr. Bultitude was likely to expostulate!) "Mrs. Grimstone
+will see that your boxes are packed the first thing to-morrow morning,
+and I shall take you myself to the station and consign you to the home
+you have covered with blushes and shame, by the 9.15 train, and I shall
+write a letter to-night explaining the causes for your dismissal."
+
+Mr. Bultitude covered his face with his hands, to hide, not his shame
+and distress, but his indecent rapture. It seemed almost too good to be
+true! He saw himself about to be provided with every means of reaching
+home in comfort and safety. He need dread no pursuit now. There was no
+chance, either, of his being forced to return to the prison-house--the
+Doctor's letter would convince even Dick of the impossibility of that.
+And, best of all, this magnificent stroke of good luck had been obtained
+without the ignominy and pain of a flogging, without even the unpleasant
+necessity of telling his strange secret.
+
+But (having gained some experience during his short stay at the school)
+he had the duplicity to pretend to sob bitterly.
+
+"But one night more, sir," continued the Doctor, "shall you pass beneath
+this roof, and that apart from your fellows. You will occupy the spare
+bedroom until the morning, when you quit the school in disgrace--for
+ever."
+
+I said in another chapter that this Sunday would find Paul, at its
+close, after a trying course of emotions, in a state of delicious
+ecstasy of pure relief and happiness--and really that scarcely seems too
+strong an expression for his feelings.
+
+When he found himself locked securely into a comfortable, warm bedroom,
+with curtains and a carpet in it, safe from the persecutions of all
+those terrible boys, and when he remembered that this was actually the
+last night of his stay here--that he would certainly see his own home
+before noon next day, the reaction was so powerful that he could not
+refrain from skipping and leaping about the room in a kind of hysterical
+gaiety.
+
+And as he laid his head down on a yielding lavender-scented pillow, his
+thoughts went back without a pang to the varied events of the day; they
+had been painful, very painful, but it was well worth while to have gone
+through them to appreciate fully the delightful intensity of the
+contrast. He freely forgave all his tormentors, even Chawner--for had
+not Chawner procured his release?--and he closed his eyes at last with a
+smile of Sybaritic satisfaction and gentle longing for the Monday's dawn
+to break.
+
+And yet some, after his experiences, would have had their misgivings.
+
+
+
+
+13. _A Respite_
+
+     "Discipulorum inter jubeo plorare cathedras."
+
+
+Blithe and gay was Mr. Bultitude when he opened his eyes on Monday
+morning and realised his incredible good fortune; in a few hours he
+would be travelling safely and comfortably home, with every facility for
+regaining his rights. He chuckled--though his sense of humour was not
+large--he chuckled, as he lay snugly in bed, to think of Dick's
+discomfiture on seeing him return so unexpectedly; he began to put it
+down, quite unwarrantably, to his own cleverness, as having conceived
+and executed such a stroke of genius as procuring his own expulsion.
+
+He remained in bed until long after the getting-up bell had rung,
+feeling that his position ensured him perfect impunity in this, and when
+he rose at length it was in high spirits, and he dressed himself with a
+growing toleration for things in general, very unlike his ordinary frame
+of mind. When he had finished his toilet, the Doctor entered the room.
+
+"Bultitude," he said gravely, "before sending you from us, I should like
+to hear from your own lips that you are not altogether without
+contrition for your conduct."
+
+Mr. Bultitude considered that such an acknowledgment could not possibly
+do any harm, so he said--as, indeed, he might with perfect truth--that
+"he very much regretted what had passed."
+
+"I am glad to hear that," said the Doctor, more briskly, "very glad; it
+relieves me from a very painful responsibility. It may not impossibly
+induce me to take a more lenient view of your case."
+
+"Oh!" gasped Mr. Bultitude, feeling very uncomfortable all at once.
+
+"Yes; it is a serious step to ruin a boy's career at its outset by
+unnecessary harshness. Nothing, of course, can palliate the extreme
+baseness of your behaviour. Still from certain faint indications in your
+character of better things, I do not despair even yet (after you have
+received a public lesson at my hands, which you will never forget) of
+rearing you to become in time an ornament to the society in which it
+will be your lot to move. I will not give up in despair--I will
+persevere a little longer."
+
+"Thank you!" Paul faltered, with a sudden sinking sensation.
+
+"Mrs. Grimstone, too," said the Doctor, "has been interceding for you;
+she has represented to me that a public expression of my view of your
+conduct, together with a sharp, severe dose of physical pain, would be
+more likely to effect a radical improvement in your character, and to
+soften your perverted heart, than if I sent you away in hopeless
+disgrace, without giving you an opportunity of showing a desire to
+amend."
+
+"It's--very kind of Mrs. Grimstone," said Paul faintly.
+
+"Then I hope you will show your appreciation of her kindness. Yes, I
+will not expel you. I will give you one more chance to retrieve your
+lost reputation. But, for your own sake, and as a public warning, I
+shall take notice of your offence in public. I shall visit it upon you
+by a sound flogging before the whole school at eleven o'clock. You need
+not come down till then--your breakfast will be sent up to you."
+
+Paul made a frantic attempt to dissuade him from his terrible
+determination. "Dr. Grimstone," he said, "I--I should much prefer being
+expelled, if it is all the same to you."
+
+"It is not all the same to me," said the Doctor. "This is mere pride and
+obstinacy, Bultitude; I should do wrong to take any notice of it."
+
+"I--I tell you I have great objection to--to being flogged," said Paul
+eagerly; "it wouldn't improve me at all; it would harden me,
+sir,--harden me. I--I cannot allow you to flog me, Dr. Grimstone. I have
+strong prejudices against the system of corporal punishment. I object to
+it on principle. Expulsion would make me quite a different being, I
+assure you; it would reform me--save me--it would indeed."
+
+"So, to escape a little personal inconvenience, you would be content to
+bring sorrow upon your worthy father's grey head, would you, sir?" said
+the Doctor. "I shall not oblige you in this. Nor, I may add, will your
+cowardice induce me to spare you in your coming chastisement. I leave
+you, sir--we shall meet again at eleven!"
+
+And he stalked out of the room. Perhaps, though he did not admit this
+even to himself, there were more considerations for commuting the
+sentence of expulsion than those he had mentioned. Boys are not often
+expelled from private schools, except for especially heinous offences,
+and in this case there was no real reason why the Doctor should be
+Quixotic enough to throw up a portion of his income--particularly if he
+could produce as great a moral effect by other means.
+
+But his clemency was too much for Mr. Bultitude; he threw himself on the
+bed and raved at the hideous fate in store for him; ten short minutes
+ago, and he had been so happy--so certain of release--and now, not only
+was he as far from all hope of escape as ever, but he had the certainty
+before him of a sound flogging in less than two hours!
+
+Just after something has befallen us which, for good or ill, will make a
+great change in our lives, what a totally new aspect the common everyday
+things about us are apt to wear--the book we were reading, the letter we
+had begun, the picture we knew--what a new and tender attraction they
+may have for us, or what a grim and terrible irony!
+
+Something of this Paul felt dimly, as he finished dressing, in a dazed,
+unconscious manner. The comfortable bedroom, with its delicately-toned
+wall-paper and flowery cretonnes, had become altogether hateful in his
+eyes now. Instead of feeling grateful (as he surely ought to have been)
+for the one night of perfect security and comfort he had passed there,
+he only loathed it for the delusive peace it had brought him.
+
+There was a gentle tap at the door, and Dulcie came in, bearing a tray
+with his breakfast, and looking like a little Royalist bearing food to a
+fugitive Cavalier; though Paul did not quite carry out his share of the
+simile.
+
+"There!" she said, almost cheerfully; "I got Mummy to let me take up
+your breakfast; and there's an egg for you, and muffins."
+
+Mr. Bultitude sat on a chair and groaned.
+
+"You might say 'thank you,'" said Dulcie, pouting. "That other girl
+wouldn't have brought you up much breakfast if she'd been in my place. I
+was going to tell you that I'd forgiven you, because very likely you
+never meant her to write to you" (Dulcie had not been told the sequel to
+the Davenant episode, which was quite as well for Paul). "But you don't
+seem to care whether I do or not."
+
+"I feel so miserable!" sighed Paul.
+
+"Then you must drink some coffee," prescribed Dulcie decidedly; "and you
+must eat some breakfast. I brought an egg on purpose; it's so
+strengthening, you know."
+
+"Don't!" cried Paul, with a short howl of distress at this suggestion.
+"Don't talk about the--the flogging, I can't bear it."
+
+"But it's not papa's _new_ cane, you know, Dick," said Dulcie
+consolingly. "I've hidden that; it's only the old one, and you always
+said that didn't hurt so very much, after a little while. It isn't as if
+it was the horsewhip, either. Daddy lost that out riding in the
+holidays."
+
+"Oh, the horsewhip's worse, is it?" said Paul, with a sickly smile.
+
+"Tom says so," said Dulcie. "After all, Dick, it will be all over in
+five minutes, or, perhaps, a little longer, and I do think you oughtn't
+to mind that so much, now, after mamma and I have begged you off from
+being expelled. We might never have seen one another again, Dick!"
+
+"You begged me off!" cried Paul.
+
+"Yes," said Dulcie; "Daddy wouldn't change his mind for ever so
+long--till I coaxed him. I couldn't bear to let you go."
+
+"You've done a very cruel thing," said Paul. "For such a little girl as
+you are, you've done an immense amount of mischief. But for you, that
+letter would not have been found out. You need not have spoilt my only
+chance of getting out of this horrible place!"
+
+Dulcie set down the tray, and, putting her hands behind her, leaned
+against a corner of a wardrobe.
+
+"And is that all you say to me!" she said, with a little tremble in her
+voice.
+
+"That is all," said Paul. "I've no doubt you meant well, but you
+shouldn't have interfered. All this has come upon me through that. Take
+away the breakfast. It makes me ill even to look at it."
+
+Dulcie shook out her long brown hair, and clenched her small fist in an
+undeniable passion, for she had something of her father's hot temper
+when roused. "Very well, then," she said, moving with great dignity
+towards the door. "I'm very sorry I ever did interfere. I wish I'd let
+you be sent home to your papa, and see what he'd do to you. But I'll
+never, never interfere one bit with you again. I won't say one single
+word to you any more.... I'll never even look at you if you want me to
+ever so much.... I shall tell Tipping he can hit you as much as ever he
+likes, and I shall show Tom where I put the new cane--and I only hope it
+will hurt!" And with this parting shot she was gone.
+
+Mr. Bultitude wandered disconsolately about the upper part of the house
+after this, not daring to go down, and not able to remain in any one
+place. The maids who came up to make the beds looked at him with pitiful
+interest, but he was too proud to implore help from them. To hide would
+only make matters worse, for, as he had not a penny in his pocket, and
+no probability of being able to borrow one, he must remain in the house
+till hunger forced him from his hiding-place--supposing they did not
+hunt him out long before that time.
+
+The shouts of the boys in the playground during their half-hour's play
+had long since died away; he heard the clock in the hall strike
+eleven--time for him to seek his awful rendezvous. The Doctor had not
+forgotten him, he found, for presently the butler came up and
+ceremoniously announced that the Doctor "would see him now, if he
+pleased."
+
+He stumbled downstairs in a half-unconscious condition, the butler threw
+open the two doors which led to the schoolroom, and Paul tottered in,
+more dead than alive with shame and fear.
+
+The whole school were at their places, with no books before them, and
+arranged as if to hear a lecture. Mr. Blinkhorn alone was absent, for,
+not liking these exhibitions, he had taken an opportunity of slipping
+out into the playground, round which he was now solemnly trotting at the
+"double" with elbows squared and head up; an exercise which he said was
+an excellent thing for the back and lungs. He had a habit of suddenly
+leaving the class he was taking to indulge in it for a few minutes,
+returning breathless but refreshed.
+
+Mr. Tinkler was at his seat, wearing that faint grin on his face with
+which he might have prepared to see a pig killed or a bull-fight, and
+all the boys fixed their eyes expectantly on Mr. Bultitude as he
+appeared at the doorway.
+
+"Stand there, sir," said the Doctor, who was standing at his
+writing-table in an attitude; "out there in the middle, where your
+schoolfellows can see you." Paul obeyed and stood where he was told,
+looking, as he felt, absolutely boneless.
+
+"Some of those here," began the Doctor in an impressive bass, "may
+wonder why I have called you all together on this, the first day of the
+week; most of those who reside under my roof are acquainted with, and I
+trust execrate, the miserable cause of my doing so.
+
+"If there is one virtue which I have striven to implant more than any
+other in your breasts," he continued, "it is the cultivation of a modest
+and becoming reserve in your intercourse with those of the opposite sex.
+
+"With the majority I have, I hope, been successful, and it is as painful
+for me to tell as for you to hear, that there exists in your midst a
+youthful reprobate, trained in all the arts of ensnaring the vagrant
+fancies of innocent but giddy girlhood.
+
+"See him as he cowers there before your gaze, in all the bared
+hideousness of his moral depravity" (the Doctor on occasions like these
+never spared his best epithets, and Paul soon began to feel himself a
+very villain); "a libertine, young in years, but old in--in everything
+else, who has not scrupled to indite an amatory note, so appalling in
+its familiarity, and so outrageous in the warmth of its sentiments, that
+I cannot bring myself to shock your ears with its contents.
+
+"You do well to shun him as a moral leper; but how shall I tell you
+that, not satisfied with pressing his effusions upon the shrinking
+object of his precocious affections, the impious wretch has availed
+himself of the shelter of a church to cloak his insidious advances, and
+even force a response to them from a heedless and imprudent girl!
+
+"If," continued the Doctor, now allowing his powerful voice to boom to
+its full compass--"if I can succeed in bringing this coward, this
+unmanly dallier in a sentiment which the healthy mind of boyhood rejects
+as premature, to a sense of his detestable conduct; if I can score the
+lesson upon his flesh so that some faint notion of its force and purport
+may be conveyed to what has been supplied to him as a heart, then I
+shall not have lifted this hand in vain!
+
+"He shall see whether he will be allowed to trail the fair name of the
+school for propriety and correctness of deportment in the dust of a
+pew-floor, and spurn my reputation as a preceptor like a church hassock
+beneath his feet!
+
+"I shall say no more; I will not prolong these strictures, deserved
+though they be, beyond their proper limits.... I shall now proceed to
+act. Richard Bultitude, remain there till I return to mete out to you
+with no sparing hand the punishment you have so richly merited."
+
+With these awful words the Doctor left the room, leaving Paul in a
+state of abject horror and dread which need not be described. Never,
+never again would he joke, as he had been wont to do with Dick in
+lighter moods, on the subject of corporal punishment under any
+circumstances--it was no fit theme for levity; if this--this outrage
+were really done to him, he could never be able to hold up his head
+again. What if it were to get about in the city!
+
+The boys, who had sunk, as they always did, into a state of torpid awe
+under the Doctor's eloquence, now recovered spirits enough to rally Paul
+with much sprightly humour.
+
+"He's gone to fetch his cane," said some, and imitated for Paul's
+instruction the action of caning by slapping a ruler upon a copy-book
+with a dreadful fidelity and resonance; others sought to cross-examine
+him upon the love-letter, it appearing from their casual remarks that
+not a few had been also honoured by communications from the artless Miss
+Davenant.
+
+It is astonishing how unfeeling even ordinary good-natured boys can be
+at times.
+
+Chawner sat at his desk with raised shoulders, rubbing his hands, and
+grinning like some malevolent ape: "I told you, Dickie, you know," he
+murmured, "that it was better not to cross me."
+
+And still the Doctor lingered. Some kindly suggested that he was "waxing
+the cane." But the more general opinion was that he had been detained by
+some visitor; for it appeared that (though Paul had not noticed it)
+several had heard a ring at the bell. The suspense was growing more and
+more unbearable.
+
+At last the door opened in a slow ominous manner, and the Doctor
+appeared. There was a visible change in his manner, however. The white
+heat of his indignation had died out: his expression was grave but
+distinctly softened--and he had nothing in his hand.
+
+"I want you outside, Bultitude," he said; and Paul, still uncertain
+whether the scene of his disgrace was only about to be shifted, or what
+else this might mean, followed him into the hall.
+
+"If anything can strike shame and confusion into your soul, Richard,"
+said the Doctor, when they were outside, "it will be what I have to tell
+you now. Your unhappy father is here, in the dining-room."
+
+Paul staggered. Had Dick the brazen effrontery to come here to taunt him
+in his slavery? What was the meaning of it? What should he say to him?
+He could not answer the Doctor but by a vacant stare.
+
+"I have not seen him yet," said the Doctor. "He has come at a most
+inopportune moment" (here Mr. Bultitude could _not_ agree with him). "I
+shall allow you to meet him first, and give you the opportunity of
+breaking your conduct to him. I know how it will wring his paternal
+heart!" and the Doctor shook his head sadly, and turned away.
+
+With a curious mixture of shame, anger, and impatience, Paul turned the
+handle of the dining-room door. He was to meet Dick face to face once
+more. The final duel must be fought out between them here. Who would be
+the victor?
+
+It was a strange sensation on entering to see the image of what he had
+so lately been standing by the mantelpiece. It gave a shock to his sense
+of his own identity. It seemed so impossible that that stout substantial
+frame could really contain Dick. For an instant he was totally at a loss
+for words, and stood pale and speechless in the presence of his
+unprincipled son.
+
+Dick on his side seemed at least as much embarrassed. He giggled
+uneasily, and made a sheepish offer to shake hands, which was
+indignantly declined.
+
+As Paul looked he saw distinctly that his son's fraudulent imitation of
+his father's personal appearance had become deteriorated in many
+respects since that unhappy night when he had last seen it. It was then
+a copy, faultlessly accurate in every detail. It was now almost a
+caricature, a libel!
+
+The complexion was nearly sallow, with the exception of the nose, which
+had rather deepened in colour. The skin was loose and flabby, and the
+eyes dull and a little bloodshot. But perhaps the greatest alteration
+was in the dress. Dick wore an old light tweed shooting-coat of his, and
+a pair of loose trousers of blue serge; while, instead of the formally
+tied black neckcloth his father had worn for a quarter of a century, he
+had a large scarf round his neck of some crude and gaudy colour; and the
+conventional chimney-pot hat had been discarded for a shabby old
+wide-brimmed felt wideawake.
+
+Altogether, it was by no means the costume which a British merchant,
+with any self-respect whatever, would select, even for a country visit.
+
+And thus they met, as perhaps never, since this world was first set
+spinning down the ringing grooves of change, met father and son before!
+
+
+
+
+14. _An Error of Judgment_
+
+     "The Survivorship of a worthy Man in his Son is a Pleasure scarce
+     inferior to the Hopes of the Continuance of his own Life."
+                                                          _Spectator._
+
+
+     "Du bist ein Knabe--sei es immerhin
+     Und fahre fort, den Froehlichen zu spielen."
+                                   SCHILLER, _Don Carlos_.
+
+
+Paul was the first to break a very awkward silence. "You young
+scoundrel!" he said, with suppressed rage. "What the devil do you mean
+by laughing like that? It's no laughing matter, let me tell you, sir,
+for one of us!"
+
+"I can't help laughing," said Dick; "you do look so queer!"
+
+"Queer! I may well look queer. I tell you that I have never, never in my
+whole life, spent such a perfectly infernal week as this last!"
+
+"Ah!" observed Dick, "I thought you wouldn't find it _all_ jam! And yet
+you seemed to be enjoying yourself, too," he said with a grin, "from
+that letter you wrote."
+
+"What made you come here? Couldn't you be content with your miserable
+victory, without coming down to crow and jeer at me?"
+
+"It isn't that," said Dick. "I--I thought I should like to see the
+fellows, and find out how you were getting on, you know." These,
+however, were not his only and his principal motives. He had come down
+to get a sight of Dulcie.
+
+"Well, sir," said Mr. Bultitude, with ponderous sarcasm, "you'll be
+delighted to hear that I'm getting on uncommonly well--oh, uncommonly!
+Your high-spirited young friends batter me to sleep with slippers on
+most nights, and, as a general thing, kick me about during the day like
+a confounded football! And last night, sir, I was going to be expelled;
+and this morning I'm forgiven, and sentenced to be soundly flogged
+before the whole school! It was just about to take place as you came in;
+and I've every reason to believe it is merely postponed!"
+
+"I say, though," said Dick, "you must have been going it rather, you
+know. I've never been expelled. Has Chawner been sneaking again? What
+have you been up to?"
+
+"Nothing. I solemnly swear--nothing! They're finding out things you've
+done, and thrashing _me_."
+
+"Well," said Dick soothingly, "you'll work them all off during the term,
+I daresay. There aren't many really bad ones. I suppose he's seen my
+name cut on his writing-table?"
+
+"No; not that I'm aware of," said Paul.
+
+"Oh, he'd let you hear of it if he had!" said Dick. "It's good for a
+swishing, that is. But, after all, what's a swishing? I never cared for
+a swishing."
+
+"But I do care, sir. I care very much, and, I tell you, I won't stand
+it. I can't! Dick," he said abruptly as a sudden hope seized him. "You,
+you haven't come down here to say you're tired of your folly, have you?
+Do you want to give it up?"
+
+"Rather not," said Dick. "Why should I? No school, no lessons, nothing
+to do but amuse myself, eat and drink what I like, and lots of money.
+It's not likely, you know."
+
+"Have you ever thought that you're bringing yourself within reach of the
+law, sir?" said Paul, trying to frighten him. "Perhaps you don't know
+that there's an offence known as 'false personation with intent to
+defraud,' and that it's a felony. That's what you're doing at this
+moment, sir!"
+
+"Not any more than you are!" retorted Dick. "I never began it. I had as
+much right to wish to be you as you had to wish to be me. You're just
+what you said you wanted to be, so you can't complain."
+
+"It's useless to argue with you, I see," said Paul. "And you've no
+feelings. But I'll warn you of one thing. Whether that is my body or not
+you've fraudulently taken possession of, I don't know; if it is not, it
+is very like mine, and I tell you this about it. The sort of life you're
+leading it, sir, will very soon make an end of you, if you don't take
+care. Do you think that a constitution at my age can stand sweet wines
+and pastry, and late hours? Why, you'll be laid up with gout in another
+day or two. Don't tell me, sir. I know you're suffering from indigestion
+at this very minute. I can see your liver (it may be _my_ liver for
+anything I know) is out of order. I can see it in your eyes."
+
+Dick was a little alarmed at this, but he soon said: "Well, and if I am
+seedy, I can get Barbara to take the stone and wish me all right again,
+can't I? That's easy enough, I suppose."
+
+"Oh, easy enough!" said Paul, with a suppressed groan. "But, Dick, you
+don't go up to Mincing Lane in that suit and that hat? Don't tell me you
+do that!"
+
+"When I do go up, I wear them," said Dick composedly. "Why not? It's a
+roomy suit, and I hate a great topper on my head; I've had enough of
+that here on Sundays. But it's slow up at your office. The chaps there
+aren't half up to any larks. I made a first-rate booby-trap, though, one
+day for an old yellow buffer who came in to see you. He _was_ in a bait
+when he found the waste-paper basket on his head!"
+
+"What was his name?" said Paul, with forced calm.
+
+"Something like 'Shells.' He said he was a very old friend of mine, and
+I told him he lied."
+
+"Shellack--my Canton correspondent--a man I was anxious to be of use
+to when he came over!" moaned Mr. Bultitude. "Miserable young cub, you
+don't know what mischief you've done!"
+
+"Well, it won't matter much to you now," said Dick; "you're out of it
+all."
+
+"Do you--do you mean to keep me out of it for ever, then?" asked Paul.
+
+"As long as ever I can!" returned Dick frankly. "It will be rather
+interesting to see what sort of a fellow you'll grow into--if you ever
+do grow. Perhaps you will always be like that, you know. This magic is a
+rum thing to meddle with."
+
+This suggestion almost maddened Paul. He made one stride forward, and
+faced his son with blazing eyes. "Do you think I will put up with it?"
+he said, between his teeth. "Do you suppose I shall stand calmly by and
+see you degrading and ruining me? I may never be my old self again, but
+I don't mean to play into your hands for all that. You can't always keep
+me here, and wherever I go I'll tell my tale. I know you, you clumsy
+rogue, you haven't the sense to play your part with common intelligence
+now. You would betray yourself directly I challenged you to deny my
+story.... You know you would.... You couldn't face me for five minutes.
+By Gad! I'll do it now. I'll expose you before the Doctor--before the
+whole school. You shall see if you can dispose of me quite so easily as
+you imagine!"
+
+Dick had started back at first in unmistakable alarm at this unexpected
+defiance, probably feeling his self-possession unequal to such a test;
+but, when Paul had finished, he said doggedly: "Well, you can do it if
+you choose, I suppose. I can't stop you. But I don't see what good it
+would do."
+
+"It would show people you were an impudent impostor, sir," said Paul
+sternly, going to the door as if to call the Doctor, though he shrank
+secretly from so extreme and dangerous a measure.
+
+There was a hesitation in his manner, in spite of the firmness of his
+words, which Dick was not likely to miss. "Stop!" he said. "Before you
+call them in, just listen to me for a minute. Do you see this?" And,
+opening his coat, he pulled out from his waistcoat pocket one end of his
+watch-chain. Hanging to it, attached by a cheap gilt fastening of some
+sort, was a small grey tablet. Paul knew it at once--it was the Garuda
+Stone. "You know it, I see," said Dick, as Paul was about to move
+towards him--with what object he scarcely knew himself. "Don't trouble
+to come any closer. Well, I give you fair warning. You can make things
+very nasty for me if you like. I can't help that--but, if you do--if you
+try to score off me in any way, now or at any time--if you don't keep it
+up when the Doctor comes in--I tell you what I shall do. I shall go
+straight home and find young Roly. I shall give him this stone, and just
+tell him to say some wish after me. I don't believe there are many
+things it can't do, and all I can say is--if you find yourself and all
+this jolly old school (except Dulcie) taken off somewhere and stuck down
+all at once thousands of miles away on a desolate island, or see
+yourself turned into a Red Indian, or, or a cabhorse, you'll have
+yourself to thank for it--that's all. Now you can have them all up and
+fire away."
+
+"No," said Paul, in a broken voice, for, wild as the threat was, he
+could not afford to despise it after his experiences of the stone's
+power, "I--I was joking, Dick; at least I didn't mean it. I know of
+course I'm helpless. It's a sad thing for a father to say, but you've
+got the best of it.... I give in ... I won't interfere with you. There's
+only one thing I ask. You won't try any more experiments with that
+miserable stone.... You'll promise me that, at least?"
+
+"Yes," said Dick: "it's all right. I'll play fair. As long as you behave
+yourself and back me up I won't touch it. I only want to stay as I am. I
+don't want to hurt you."
+
+"You won't lose it?" said Paul anxiously. "Couldn't you lock it up? that
+fastening doesn't look very safe."
+
+"It will do well enough," said Dick. "I got it done at the watchmaker's
+round the corner, for sixpence. But I'll have a stronger ring put in
+somewhere, if I think of it."
+
+There was a pause, in which the conversation seemed about to flag
+hopelessly, but at last Dick said, almost as if he felt some compunction
+for his present unfilial attitude: "Now, you know, it's much better to
+take things quietly. It can't be altered now, can it? And it's not such
+bad fun being a boy after all--for some things. You'll get into it
+by-and-by, you see if you don't, and be as jolly as a sandboy. We shall
+get along all right together, too. I shan't be hard on you. It isn't my
+fault that you happen to be at this particular school--you chose it! And
+after this term you can go to any other school you like--Eton or Rugby,
+or anywhere. I don't mind the expense. Of, if you'd rather, you can have
+a private tutor. And I'll buy you a pony, and you can ride in the Row.
+You shall have a much better time of it than I ever had, as long as you
+let me go on my own way."
+
+But these dazzling bribes had no influence upon Mr. Bultitude; nothing
+short of complete restitution would ever satisfy him, and he was too
+proud and too angry at his crushing defeat to even pretend to be in the
+least pacified.
+
+"I don't want your pony," he said bitterly; "I might as well have a
+white elephant, and I don't suppose I should enjoy myself much more at a
+public school than I do here. Let's have no humbug, sir. You're up and
+I'm down--there's no more to be said--I shall tell the Doctor nothing,
+but I warn you, if ever the time comes----"
+
+"Oh, of course," said Dick, feeling tolerably secure, now he had
+disposed of the main difficulty. "If you can turn me out, I suppose you
+will--that's only fair. I shall take care not to give you the chance.
+And, oh, I say, do you want any tin? How much have you got left?"
+
+Paul turned away his head, lest Dick should see the sudden exultation he
+knew it must betray, as he said, with an effort to appear unconcerned,
+"I came away with exactly five shillings, and I haven't a penny now!"
+
+"I say," said Dick, "you are a fellow; you must have been going it. How
+did you get rid of it all in a week?"
+
+"It went, as far as I can understand," said Mr. Bultitude, "in rabbits
+and mice. Some boys claimed it as money they paid you to get them, I
+believe."
+
+"All your own fault," said Dick, "you would have them drowned. But you'd
+better have some tin to get along with. How much do you want? Will
+half-a-crown do?"
+
+"Half-a-crown is not much, Dick," said his father, almost humbly.
+
+"It's--ahem--a handsome allowance for a young fellow like you," said
+Dick, rather unkindly; "but I haven't any half-crowns left. I must give
+you this, I suppose."
+
+And he held out a sovereign, never dreaming what it signified to Paul,
+who clutched it with feelings too great for words, though gratitude was
+not a part of them, for was it not his own money?
+
+"And now look out," said Dick, "I hear Grim. Remember what I told you;
+keep it up."
+
+Dr. Grimstone came in with the air of a man who has a painful duty to
+perform; he started slightly as his eye noted the change in his
+visitor's dress and appearance. "I hope," he began gravely, "that your
+son has spared me the pain of going into the details of his
+misbehaviour; I wish I could give you a better report of him."
+
+Dick was plainly, in spite of his altered circumstances, by no means at
+ease in the schoolmaster's presence; he stood, shifting from foot to
+foot on the hearth-rug, turning extremely red and obstinately declining
+to raise his eyes from the ground.
+
+"Oh, ah," he stammered at last, "you were just going to swish him,
+weren't you, when I turned up, sir?"
+
+"I found myself forced," said the Doctor, slightly shocked at this
+coarse way of putting things, "forced to contemplate administering to
+him (for his ultimate benefit) a sharp corrective in the presence of his
+schoolfellows. I distress you, I see, but the truth must be told. He has
+no doubt confessed his fault to you?"
+
+"No," said Dick, "he hasn't though. What's he been up to now?"
+
+"I had hoped he would have been more open, more straightforward, when
+confronted with the father who has proved himself so often indulgent and
+anxious for his improvement; it would have been a more favourable
+symptom, I think. Well, I must tell you myself. I know too well what a
+shock it will be to your scrupulously sensitive moral code, my dear Mr.
+Bultitude" (Dick showed a painful inclination to giggle here); "but I
+have to break to you the melancholy truth that I detected this unhappy
+boy in the act of conducting a secret and amorous correspondence with a
+young lady in a sacred edifice!"
+
+Dick whistled sharply: "Oh, I say!" he cried, "that's bad" (and he
+wagged his head reprovingly at his disgusted father, who longed to
+denounce his hypocrisy, but dared not); "that's bad ... he shouldn't do
+that sort of thing you know, should he? At his age too ... the young
+dog!"
+
+"This horror is what I should have expected from you," said the Doctor
+(though he was in truth more than scandalised by the composure with
+which his announcement was received). "Such boldness is indeed
+characteristic of the dog, an animal which, as you are aware, was with
+the ancients a synonym for shamelessness. No boy, however abandoned,
+should hear such words of unequivocal condemnation from a father's lips
+without a pang of shame!"
+
+Paul was only just able to control his rage by a great effort.
+
+"You're right there, sir," said Dick; "he ought to be well ragged for it
+... he'll break my heart, if he goes on like this, the young beggar. But
+we mustn't be too hard on him, eh? After all, it's nature, you know,
+isn't it?"
+
+"I beg your pardon?" said Dr. Grimstone very stiffly.
+
+"I mean," explained Dick, with a perilous approach to digging the other
+in the ribs, "we did much the same sort of thing in our time, eh? I'm
+sure I did--lots of times!"
+
+"I can't reproach myself on that head, Mr. Bultitude; and permit me to
+say, that such a tone of treating the affair is apt to destroy the
+effect, the excellent moral effect, of your most impressively conveyed
+indignation just now. I merely give you a hint, you understand!"
+
+"Oh, ah," said Dick, feeling that he had made a mistake, "yes, I didn't
+mean that. But I say, you haven't given him a--a whopping yet, have
+you?"
+
+"I had just stepped out to procure a cane for that purpose," said the
+Doctor, "when your name was announced."
+
+"Well, look here, you won't want to start again when I'm gone, will
+you?"
+
+"An ancient philosopher, my dear sir, was accustomed to postpone the
+correction of his slaves until the first glow of his indignation had
+passed away. He found that he could----"
+
+"Lay it on with more science," suggested Dick, while Paul writhed where
+he stood. "Perhaps so, but you might forgive him now, don't you think?
+he won't do it again. If he goes writing any more love-letters, tell me,
+and I'll come and talk to him; but he's had a lesson, you know. Let him
+off this time."
+
+"I have no right to resist such an entreaty," said the Doctor, "though I
+may be inclined myself to think that a few strokes would render the
+lesson more permanent. I must ask you to reconsider your plea for his
+pardon."
+
+Paul heard this with indescribable anxiety; he had begun to feel
+tolerably sure that his evil hour was postponed _sine die_, but might
+not Dick be cruel and selfish enough to remain neutral, or even side
+with the enemy, in support of his assumed character?
+
+Luckily he was not. "I'd rather let him off," he said awkwardly; "I
+don't approve of caning fellows myself. It never did me any good, I
+know, and I got enough of it to tell."
+
+"Well, well, I yield. Richard, your father has interceded for you; and I
+cannot disregard his wishes, though I have my own view in the matter.
+You will hear no more of this disgraceful conduct, sir, unless you do
+something to recall it to my memory. Thank your father for his kindness,
+which you so little deserved, and take your leave of him."
+
+"Oh, there, it's all right!" said Dick; "he'll behave himself after
+this, I know. And oh! I say, sir," he added hastily, "is--is Dulcie
+anywhere about?"
+
+"My daughter?" asked the Doctor. "Would you like to see her?"
+
+"I shouldn't mind," said Dick, blushing furiously.
+
+"I'm sorry to say she has gone out for a walk with her mother," said the
+Doctor. "I'm afraid she cannot be back for some time. It's unfortunate."
+
+Dick's face fell. "It doesn't matter," he muttered awkwardly. "She's
+all right, I hope?"
+
+"She is very seldom ailing, I'm happy to say; just now she is
+particularly well, thank you."
+
+"Oh, is she?" said Dick gloomily, probably disappointed to find that he
+was so little missed, and not suspecting that his father had been
+accepted as a substitute.
+
+"Well, do you mind--could I see the fellows again for a minute or two--I
+mean I should rather like to inspect the school, you know."
+
+"See my boys? Certainly, my dear sir, by all means; this way," and he
+took Dick out to the schoolroom--Paul following out of curiosity.
+"You'll find us at our studies, you see," said the Doctor, as he opened
+the first baize door. There was a suspicious hubbub and hum of voices
+from within; but as they entered every boy was bent over his books with
+the rapt absorption of the devoted student--an absorption that was the
+direct effect of the sound the door-handle made in turning.
+
+"Our workshop," said the Doctor airily, looking round. "My first form,
+Mr. Bultitude. Some good workers here, and some idle ones."
+
+Dick stood in the doorway, looking (if the truth must be told)
+uncommonly foolish. He had wanted, in coming there, to enjoy the
+contrast between the past and present--which accounts for a good many
+visits of "old boys" to the scene of their education. But, confronted
+with his former schoolfellows, he was seized at first with an utterly
+unreasonable fear of detection.
+
+The class behaved as classes usually do on such occasions. The good boys
+smirked and the bad ones stared--the general expression being one of
+uneasy curiosity. Dick said never a word, feeling strangely bashful and
+nervous.
+
+"This is Tipping, my head boy," touching that young gentleman on the
+shoulder, and making him several degrees more uncomfortable. "I expect
+solid results from Tipping some day."
+
+"He looks as if his head was pretty solid," said Dick, who had once cut
+his knuckles against it.
+
+"My second boy, Biddlecomb. If he applies himself, he too will do me
+credit in the world."
+
+"How do, Biddlecomb?" said Dick. "I owe you ninepence--I mean--oh hang
+it, here's a shilling for you! Hallo, Chawner!" he went on, gradually
+overcoming his first nervousness, "how are you getting on, eh? Doing
+much in the sneaking way lately?"
+
+"You know him!" exclaimed the Doctor with naive surprise.
+
+"No, no; I don't know him. I've heard of him, you know--heard of him!"
+Chawner looked down his nose with a feeble attempt at a gratified
+simper, while his neighbours giggled with furtive relish.
+
+"Well," said Dick at last, after a long look at all the old familiar
+objects, "I must be off, you know. Got some important business at home
+this evening to look after. The fellows look very jolly and contented,
+and all that sort of thing. Enough to make one want to be a boy again
+almost, eh? Good-bye, you chaps--ahem, young gentlemen, I wish you good
+morning!"
+
+And he went out, leaving behind him the impression that "young
+Bultitude's governor wasn't half such a bad old buffer."
+
+He paused at the open front door, to which Paul and the Doctor had
+accompanied him. "Good-bye," he said; "I wish I'd seen Dulcie. I should
+like to see your daughter, sir; but it can't be helped. Good-bye; and
+you," he added in a lower tone to his father, who was standing by,
+inexpressibly pained and disgusted by his utter want of dignity, "you
+mind what I told you. Don't try any games with me!"
+
+And, as he skipped jauntily down the steps to the gateway, the Doctor
+followed his unwieldy, oddly-dressed form with his eyes, and, inclining
+his head gravely to Dick's sweeping wave of the hand, asked with a
+compassionate tone in his voice. "You don't happen to know, Richard, my
+boy, if your father has had any business troubles lately--anything to
+disturb him?"
+
+And Mr. Bultitude's feelings prevented him from making any intelligible
+reply.
+
+
+
+
+15. _The Rubicon_
+
+                       "My three schoolfellows,
+     Whom I will trust--as I will adders fanged;
+     They bear the mandate."
+
+
+Paul never quite knew how the remainder of that day passed at Crichton
+House. He was ordered to join a class which was more or less engaged
+with some kind of work: he had a hazy idea that it was Latin, though it
+may have been Greek; but he was spared the necessity of taking any
+active part in the proceedings, as Mr. Blinkhorn was not disposed to be
+too exacting with a boy who in one short morning had endured a sentence
+of expulsion, a lecture, the immediate prospect of a flogging, and a
+paternal visit, and, as before, mercifully left him alone.
+
+His classmates, however, did not show the same chivalrous delicacy; and
+Paul had to suffer many unmannerly jests and gibes at his expense,
+frequent and anxious inquiries as to the exact nature of his treatment
+in the dining-room, with sundry highly imaginative versions of the same,
+while there was much candid and unbiassed comment on the appearance and
+conduct of himself and his son.
+
+But he bore it unprotesting--or, rather, he scarcely noticed it; for all
+his thoughts were now entirely taken up by one important subject--the
+time and manner of his escape.
+
+Thanks to Dick's thoughtless liberality, he had now ample funds to carry
+him safely home. It was hardly likely that any more unexpected claims
+could be brought against him now, particularly as he had no intention
+of publishing his return to solvency. He might reasonably consider
+himself in a position to make his escape at the very first favourable
+opportunity.
+
+When would that opportunity present itself? It must come soon. He could
+not wait long for it. Any hour might yet see him pounced upon and
+flogged heartily for some utterly unknown and unsuspected transgression;
+or the golden key which would unlock his prison bars might be lost in
+some unlucky moment; for his long series of reverses had made him loth
+to trust to Fortune, even when she seemed to look smilingly once more
+upon him.
+
+Fortune's countenance is apt to be so alarmingly mobile with some
+unfortunates.
+
+But in spite of the new facilities given him for escape, and his strong
+motives for taking advantage of them, he soon found to his utter dismay
+that he shrank from committing himself to so daring and dangerous a
+course, just as much as when he had tried to make a confidant of the
+Doctor.
+
+For, after all, could he be sure of himself? Would his ill-luck suffer
+him to seize the one propitious moment, or would that fatal
+self-distrust and doubt that had paralysed him for the past week seize
+him again just at the crisis?
+
+Suppose he did venture to take the first irrevocable step, could he rely
+on himself to go through the rest of his hazardous enterprise? Was he
+cool and wary enough? He dared not expect an uninterrupted run. Had he
+ruses and expedients at command on any sudden check?
+
+If he could not answer all these doubts favourably, was it not sheer
+madness to take to flight at all?
+
+He felt a dismal conviction that his success would have to depend, not
+on his own cunning, but on the forbearance or blindness of others. The
+slightest _contretemps_ must infallibly upset him altogether.
+
+The fact was, he had all his life been engaged in the less eventful and
+contentious branches of commerce. His will had seldom had to come in
+contact with others, and when it did so, he had found means, being of a
+prudent and cautious temperament, of avoiding disagreeable personal
+consequences by timely compromises or judicious employment of delegates.
+He had generally found his fellow-men ready to meet him reasonably as an
+equal or a superior.
+
+But now he must be prepared to see in everyone he met a possible enemy,
+who would hand him over to the tyrant on the faintest suspicion. They
+were spies to be baffled or disarmed, pursuers to be eluded. The
+smallest slip in his account of himself would be enough to undo him.
+
+No wonder that, as he thought over all this, his heart quailed within
+him.
+
+They say--the paradox-mongers say--that it requires a far higher degree
+of moral courage for a soldier in action to leave the ranks under fire
+and seek a less distinguished position towards the rear, than would
+carry him on with the rest to charge a battery.
+
+This may be true, though it might not prove a very valuable defence at a
+court-martial; but, at all events, Mr. Bultitude found, when it came to
+the point, that it was almost impossible for him to screw up his courage
+to run away.
+
+It is not a pleasant state, this indecision whether to stay passively
+and risk the worst or avoid it by flight, and the worst of it is that,
+whatever course is eventually forced upon us, it finds us equally
+unprepared, and more liable from such indecision to bungle miserably in
+the sequel.
+
+Paul might never have gained heart to venture, but for an unpleasant
+incident that took place during dinner and a discovery he made after it.
+
+They happened to have a particularly unpopular pudding that day; a
+pallid preparation of suet, with an infrequent currant or two embalmed
+in it, and Paul was staring at his portion of this delicacy
+disconsolately enough, wondering how he should contrive to consume and,
+worse still, digest it, when his attention was caught by Jolland, who
+sat directly opposite him.
+
+That young gentleman, who evidently shared the general prejudice against
+the currant pudding, was inviting Mr. Bultitude's attention to a little
+contrivance of his own for getting rid of it, which consisted in
+delicately shovelling the greater part of what was on his plate into a
+large envelope held below the table to receive it.
+
+This struck Paul as a heaven-sent method of avoiding the difficulty, and
+he had just got the envelope which had held Barbara's letter out of his
+pocket, intending to follow Jolland's example, when the Doctor's voice
+made him start guiltily and replace the envelope in his pocket.
+
+"Jolland," said the Doctor, "what have you got there?"
+
+"An envelope, sir," explained Jolland, who had now got the remains of
+his pudding safely bestowed.
+
+"What is in that envelope?" said the Doctor, who happened to have been
+watching him.
+
+"In the envelope, sir? Pudding, sir," said Jolland, as if it were the
+most natural thing in the world to send bulky portions of pudding by
+post.
+
+"And why did you place pudding in the envelope?" inquired the Doctor in
+his deepest tone.
+
+Jolland felt a difficulty in explaining that he had done so because he
+wished to avoid eating it, and with a view to interring it later on in
+the playground: he preferred silence.
+
+"Shall I tell you why you did it, sir?" thundered the Doctor. "You did
+it, because you were scheming to obtain a second portion--because you
+did not feel yourself able to eat both portions at your leisure here,
+and thought to put by a part to devour in secret at a future time. It's
+a most painful exhibition of pure piggishness. There shall be no
+pocketing at this table, sir. You will eat that pudding under my eye at
+once, and you will stay in and write out French verbs for two days. That
+will put an end to any more gorging in the garden for a time, at least."
+
+Jolland seemed stupefied, though relieved, by the unexpected
+construction put upon his conduct, as he gulped down the intercepted
+fragments of pudding, while the rest diligently cleared their plates
+with as much show of appreciation as they could muster.
+
+Mr. Bultitude shuddered at this one more narrow escape. If he had been
+detected--as he must have been in another instant--in smuggling pudding
+in an envelope he might have incautiously betrayed his real motives, and
+then, as the Doctor was morbidly sensitive concerning all complaints of
+the fare he provided, he would have got into worse trouble than the
+unfortunate Jolland, to say nothing of the humiliation of being detected
+in such an act.
+
+It was a solemn warning to him of the dangers he was exposed to hourly,
+while he lingered within those walls; but his position was still more
+strongly brought home to him by the terrible discovery he made shortly
+afterwards.
+
+He was alone in the schoolroom, for the others had all gone down into
+the playground, except Jolland, who was confined in one of the
+class-rooms below, when the thought came over him to test the truth of
+Dick's hint about a name cut on the Doctor's writing-table.
+
+He stole up to it guiltily, and, lifting the slanting desk which stood
+there, examined the surface below. Dick had been perfectly correct.
+There it was, glaringly fresh and distinct, not large but very deeply
+cut and fearfully legible. "R. Bultitude." It might have been done that
+day. Dick had probably performed it out of bravado, or under the
+impression that he was not going to return after the holidays.
+
+Paul dropped the desk over the fatal letters with a shudder. The
+slightest accidental shifting of it must disclose them--nothing but a
+miracle could have kept them concealed so long. When they did come to
+light, he knew from what he had seen of the Doctor, that the act would
+be considered as an outrage of the blackest and most desperate kind. He
+would most unquestionably get a flogging for it!
+
+He fetched a large pewter ink-pot, and tried nervously to blacken the
+letters with the tip of a quill, to make them, if possible, rather less
+obtrusive than they were. All in vain; they only stood out with more
+startling vividness when picked out in black upon the brown-stained
+deal. He felt very like a conscience-stricken murderer trying to hide a
+corpse that _wouldn't_ be buried. He gave it up at last, having only
+made a terrible mess with the ink.
+
+That settled it. He must fly. The flogging must be avoided at all
+hazards. If an opportunity delayed its coming, why, he must do without
+the opportunity--he must make one. For good or ill, his mind was made up
+now for immediate flight.
+
+All that afternoon, while he sat trying to keep his mind upon long sums
+in Bills of Parcels, which disgusted him as a business man, by the
+glaring improbability of their details, his eye wandered furtively down
+the long tables to where the Doctor sat at the head of the class. Every
+chance movement of the principal's elbow filled him with a sickening
+dread. A hundred times did those rudely carved letters seem about to
+start forth and denounce him.
+
+It was a disquieting afternoon for Paul.
+
+But the time dragged wearily on, and still the desk loyally kept its
+secret. The dusk drew on and the gas-burners were lit. The younger boys
+came up from the lower class-room and were sent out to play; the Doctor
+shortly afterwards dismissed his own class to follow them, and Paul and
+his companions had the room to themselves.
+
+He sat there on the rough form with his slate before him, hearing
+half-unconsciously the shouts, laughter, and ring of feet coming up from
+the darkness outside, and the faint notes of a piano, which filtered
+through the double doors from one of the rooms, where a boy was
+practising Haydn's "Surprise," from Hamilton's exercise book, a surprise
+which he rendered as a mildly interjectional form of astonishment.
+
+All the time Paul was racked with an intense burning desire to get up
+and run for it then, before it became too late; but cold fits of doubt
+and fear preserved him from such lunacy--he would wait, his chance might
+come before long.
+
+His patience was rewarded; the Doctor came in, looking at his watch, and
+said, "I think these boys have had enough of it, Mr. Tinkler, eh? You
+can send them out now till tea-time."
+
+Mr. Tinkler, who had been entangling himself frightfully in intricate
+calculations upon the blackboard, without making a single convert, was
+only too glad to take advantage of the suggestion, and Paul followed the
+rest into the playground with a sense of relief.
+
+The usual "chevy" was going on there, with more spirit than usual,
+perhaps, because the darkness allowed of practical jokes and surprises,
+and offered great facilities for paying off old grudges with secrecy and
+despatch, and as the Doctor had come to the door of the greenhouse, and
+was looking on, the players exerted themselves still more, till the
+"prison" to which most of one side had been consigned by being run down
+and touched by their fleeter enemies was filled with a long line of
+captives holding hands and calling out to be released.
+
+Paul, who had run out vaguely from his base, was promptly pursued and
+made prisoner by an unnecessarily vigorous thump in the back, after
+which he took his place at the bottom of the line of imprisoned ones.
+
+But the enemy's spirit began to slacken; one after another of the
+players still left to the opposite side succeeded in outrunning pursuit
+and touching the foremost prisoner for the time being, so as to set him
+free by the rules of the game. The Doctor went in again, and the enemy
+relapsed as usual into total indifference, so that Paul, without exactly
+knowing how, soon found himself the only one left in gaol, unnoticed and
+apparently forgotten.
+
+He could not see anything through the darkness, but he heard the voices
+of the boys disputing at the other side of the playground; he looked
+round; at his right was the indistinct form of a large laurel bush,
+behind that he knew was the playground gate. Could it be that his chance
+had come at last?
+
+He slipped behind the laurel and waited, holding his breath; the dispute
+still went on; no one seemed to have noticed him, probably the darkness
+prevented all chance of that; he went on tip-toe to the gate--it was not
+locked.
+
+He opened it very carefully a little way; it was forbearing enough not
+to creak, and the next moment he was outside, free to go where he would!
+
+Escape, after all, was simple enough when he came to try it; he could
+hardly believe at first that he really was free at last; free with money
+enough in his pocket to take him home, with the friendly darkness to
+cover his retreat; free to go back and confront Dick on his own ground,
+and, by force, or fraud, get the Garuda Stone into his own hands once
+more.
+
+As yet he never doubted that it would be easy enough to convince his
+household, if necessary, of the truth of his story, and enlist them one
+and all on his side; all that he required, he thought, was caution; he
+must reach the house unobserved, and wait and watch, and the deuce would
+be in it if the stone were not safe in his pocket again before twelve
+hours had gone by.
+
+All this time he was still within a hundred yards or so of the
+playground wall; he must decide upon some particular route, some
+definite method of ordering his flight; to stay where he was any longer
+would clearly be unwise, yet, where should he go first?
+
+If he went to the station at once, how could he tell that he should be
+lucky enough to catch a train without having to wait long for it, and
+unless he did that, he would almost certainly be sought for first on the
+station platform, and might be caught before a train was due?
+
+At last, with an astuteness he had not suspected himself of possessing,
+which was probably the result of the harrowing experiences he had lately
+undergone, he hit upon a plan of action. "I'll go to a shop," he
+thought, "and change this sovereign, and ask to look at a
+timetable--then, if I find I can catch a train at once, I'll run for it;
+if one is not due for some time, I can hang about near the station till
+it comes in."
+
+With this intention he walked on towards the town till he came to a
+small terrace of shops, when he went into the first, which was a
+stationer's and toy-dealer's, with a stock in trade of cheap wooden toys
+and incomprehensible games, drawing slates, penny packets of stationery
+and cards of pen and pencil-holders, and a particularly stuffy
+atmosphere; the proprietor, a short man with a fat white face with a
+rich glaze all over it and a fringe of ragged brown whisker meeting
+under his chin, was sitting behind the counter posting up his ledger.
+
+Paul looked round the shop in search of something to purchase, and at
+last said, more nervously than he expected to do, "I want a pencil-case,
+one which screws up and down." He thought a pencil-case would be an
+innocent, unsuspicious thing to ask for. The man set rows of cards
+containing pencil-cases of every imaginable shape on the counter before
+him, and when Mr. Bultitude had chosen and paid for one, the stationer
+asked if there would be anything else, and if he might send it for him.
+"You're one of Dr. Grimstone's young gentlemen up at Crichton House,
+aren't you, sir?" he added.
+
+A guilty dread of discovery made Paul anxious to deny this at once.
+"No," he said; "oh no; no connection with the place. Ah, could you allow
+me to look at a time-table?"
+
+"Certainly, sir; expectin' some one to-night or to-morrow p'raps. Let me
+see," he said, consulting a table which hung behind him. "There's a
+train from Pancras comes in in half an hour from now, 6.5 that is;
+there's another doo at 8.15, and one at 9.30. Then from Liverpool Street
+they run----"
+
+"Thank you," said Mr. Bultitude, "but--but I want the up-trains."
+
+"Ah," said the man, with a rather peculiar intonation, "I thought maybe
+your par or mar was comin' down. Ain't Dr. Grimstone got the times the
+trains go?"
+
+"Yes," said Paul desperately, without very well knowing what he said,
+"yes, he has, but ah, not for this month; he--he sent me to inquire."
+
+"Did he though?" said the stationer. "I thought you wasn't one of his
+young gentlemen?"
+
+Mr. Bultitude saw what a fearful trap he had fallen into and stood
+speechless.
+
+"Go along with you!" said the little stationer at last, with a not
+unkindly grin. "Lor bless you, I knew your face the minnit you come in.
+To go and tell me a brazen story like that! You're a young pickle, you
+are!"
+
+Mr. Bultitude began to shuffle feebly towards the door. "Pickle, eh?" he
+protested in great discomposure. "No, no. Heaven knows I'm no pickle.
+It's of no consequence about those trains. Don't trouble. Good evening
+to you."
+
+"Stop," said the man, "don't be in such a nurry now. You tell me what
+you want to know straightforward, and I don't mean to say as I won't
+help you so far as I can. Don't be afraid of my telling no tales. I've
+bin a schoolboy myself in my time, bless your 'art. I shouldn't wonder
+now if I couldn't make a pretty good guess without telling at what
+you're after. You've bin a catchin' of it hot, and you want to make a
+clean bolt of it. I ain't very far off, now, am I?"
+
+"No," said Paul; for something in the man's manner inspired confidence.
+"I do want to make a bolt of it. I've been most abominably treated."
+
+"Well, look here, I ain't got no right to interfere; and if you're
+caught, I look to you not to bring my name in. I don't want to get into
+trouble up at Crichton House and lose good customers, you see. But I
+like the looks of you, and you've always dealt 'ere pretty regular. I
+don't mind if I give you a lift. Just see here. You want to get off to
+London, don't you? What for is your business, not mine. Well, there's a
+train, express, stops at only one station on the way, in at 5.50. It's
+twenty minnits to six now. If you take that road just oppersite, it'll
+bring you out at the end of the Station Road; you can do it easy in ten
+minnits and have time to spare. So cut away, and good luck to you?"
+
+"I'm vastly obliged to you," said Paul, and he meant it. It was a new
+experience to find anyone offering him assistance. He left the close
+little shop, crossed the road, and started off in the direction
+indicated to him at a brisk trot.
+
+His steps rang out cheerfully on the path ironbound with frost. He was
+almost happy again under the exhilarating glow of unusual exercise and
+the excitement of escape and regained freedom.
+
+He ran on, past a series of villa residences enclosed in varnished
+palings and adorned with that mediaeval abundance of turrets, balconies,
+and cheap stained-glass, which is accepted nowadays as a guarantee of
+the tenant's culture, and a satisfactory substitute for effective
+drainage. After the villas came a church, and a few yards farther on the
+road turned with a sharp curve into the main thoroughfare leading to the
+station.
+
+He was so near it that he could hear the shrill engine whistles, and the
+banging of trucks on the railway sidings echoed sharply from the
+neighbouring houses. He was saved, in sight of haven at last!
+
+Full of delight at the thought, he put on a still greater pace, and
+turning the corner without looking, ran into a little party of three,
+which was coming in the opposite direction.
+
+Fate's vein of irony was by no means worked out yet. As he was
+recovering from the collision, and preparing to offer or accept an
+apology, as the case might be, he discovered to his horror that he had
+fallen amongst no strangers.
+
+The three were his old acquaintances, Coker, Coggs, and the virtuous
+Chawner--of whom he had fondly hoped to have seen the last for ever!
+
+The moral and physical shock of such an encounter took all Mr.
+Bultitude's remaining breath away. He stood panting under the sickly
+rays of a street-lamp, the very incarnation of helpless, hopeless
+dismay.
+
+"Hallo!" said Coker, "it's young Bultitude!"
+
+"What do you mean by cannoning into a fellow like this?" said Coggs.
+"What are you up to out here, eh?"
+
+"If it comes to that," said Paul, casting about for some explanation of
+his appearance, "what are you up to here?"
+
+"Why," said Chawner, "if you want to know, Dick, we've been to fetch the
+_St. James' Gazette_ for the Doctor. He said I might go if I liked, and
+I asked for Coker and Coggs to come too; because there was something I
+wanted to tell them, very important, and I have told them, haven't I,
+Corny?"
+
+Coggs growled sulkily; Coker gave a tragic groan, and said: "I don't
+care when you tell, Chawner. Do it to-night if you like. Let's talk
+about something else. Bultitude hasn't told us yet how he came out here
+after us."
+
+His last words suggested a pretext to Paul, of which he hastened to make
+use. "Oh," he said, "I? I came out here, after you, to say that Dr.
+Grimstone will not require the _St. James' Gazette_. He wants the
+_Globe_ and, ah, the _Star_ instead."
+
+It did not sound a very probable combination; but Paul used the first
+names that occurred to him, and, as it happened, aroused no suspicions,
+for the boys read no newspapers.
+
+"Well, we've got the other now," said Coker. "We shall have to go back
+and get the fellow at the bookstall to change it, I suppose. Come on,
+you fellows!"
+
+This was at least a move in the right direction; for the three began at
+once to retrace their steps. But, unfortunately, all these explanations
+had taken time, and before they had gone many yards, Mr. Bultitude was
+horrified to hear the station-bell ring loudly, and immediately after a
+cloud of white steam rose above the station roof as the London train
+clanked cumbrously in, and was brought to with a prolonged screeching of
+brakes.
+
+The others were walking very slowly. At the present pace it would be
+almost impossible to reach the train in time. He looked round at them
+anxiously. "H-hadn't we better run, don't you think?" he asked.
+
+"Run!" said Coker scornfully. "What for? I'm not going to run. You can,
+if you like."
+
+"Why, ah, really," said Paul briskly, very grateful for the permission;
+"do you know, I think I will!"
+
+And run he did, with all his might, rushing headlong through the gates,
+threading his way between the omnibuses and under the Roman noses of the
+mild fly-horses in the enclosure, until at length he found himself
+inside the little booking-office.
+
+He was not too late; the train was still at the platform, the engine
+getting up steam with a dull roar. But he dared not risk detection by
+travelling without a ticket. There was time for that, too. No one was at
+the pigeon-hole but one old lady.
+
+But, unhappily, the old lady considered taking a ticket as a solemn rite
+to be performed with all due caution and deliberation. She had already
+catechised the clerk upon the number of stoppages during her proposed
+journey, and exacted earnest assurances from him that she would not be
+called upon to change anywhere in the course of it; and as Paul came up
+she was laying out the purchase-money for her ticket upon the ledge and
+counting it, which, the fare being high and the coins mostly halfpence,
+seemed likely to take some time.
+
+"One moment, ma'am, if you please," cried Mr. Bultitude, panting and
+desperate. "I'm pressed for time."
+
+"Now you've gone and put me out, little boy," said the old lady fussily.
+"I shall have to begin all over again. Young man, will you take and
+count the other end and see if it adds up right? There's a halfpenny
+wrong somewhere; I know there is."
+
+"Now then," shouted the guard from the platform. "Any more going on?"
+
+"I'm going on!" said Paul. "Wait for me. First single to St. Pancras,
+quick!"
+
+"Drat the boy!" said the old lady angrily. "Do you think the world's to
+give way for you? Such impidence! Mind your manners, little boy, can't
+you? You've made me drop a threepenny bit with your scrouging!"
+
+"First single, five shillings," said the clerk, jerking out the precious
+ticket.
+
+"Right!" cried the guard at the same instant. "Stand back there, will
+you!"
+
+Paul dashed towards the door of the booking-office which led to the
+platform; but just as he reached it a gate slammed in his face with a
+sharp click, through the bars of it he saw, with hot eyes, the tall,
+heavy carriages which had shelter and safety in them jolt heavily past,
+till even the red lamp on the last van was quenched in the darkness.
+
+That miserable old woman had shattered his hopes at the very moment of
+their fulfilment. It was fate again!
+
+As he stood, fiercely gripping the bars of the gate, he heard Coggs'
+hateful voice again.
+
+"Hallo! so you haven't got the _Globe_ and the other thing after all,
+then; they've shut you out?"
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Bultitude in a hollow voice; "they've shut me out!"
+
+
+
+
+16. _Hard Pressed_
+
+     "Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles,
+     How he outruns the wind, and with what care
+     He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles:
+         The many musets through the which he goes
+         Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes."
+
+
+As soon as the gate was opened, Paul went through mechanically with the
+others on to the platform, and waited at the bookstall while they
+changed the paper. He knew well enough that what had seemed at the time
+a stroke of supreme cunning would now only land him in fresh
+difficulties, if indeed it did not lead to the detection of his scheme.
+But he dared not interfere and prevent them from making the unlucky
+exchange. Something seemed to tie his tongue, and in sullen leaden
+apathy he resigned himself to whatever might be in store for him.
+
+They passed out again by the booking-office. There was the old lady
+still at the pigeon-hole, trying to persuade the much-enduring clerk to
+restore a lucky sixpence she had given him by mistake, and was quite
+unable to describe. Mr. Bultitude would have given much just then to go
+up and shake her into hysterics, or curse her bitterly for the mischief
+she had done; but he refrained, either from an innate chivalry, or from
+a feeling that such an outburst would be ill-judged.
+
+So, silent and miserable, with slow step and hanging head, he set out
+with his gaolers to render himself up once more at his house of
+bondage--a sort of involuntary Regulus, without the oath.
+
+"Dickie, you were very anxious to run just now," observed Chawner,
+after they had gone some distance on their homeward way.
+
+"We were late for tea--late for tea," explained Paul hastily.
+
+"If you think the tea worth racing like that for, I don't," said Coggs
+viciously; "it's muck."
+
+"You don't catch me racing, except for something worth having," said
+Coker.
+
+One more flash of distinct inspiration came to Paul's aid in the very
+depths of his gloom. It was, in fact, a hazy recollection from English
+history of the ruse by which Edward I., when a prince, contrived to
+escape from his captors at Hereford Castle.
+
+"Why--why," he said excitedly, "would you race if you had something
+worth racing for, hey? would you now?"
+
+"Try us!" said Coker emphatically.
+
+"What do you call 'something'?" inquired Chawner suspiciously.
+
+"Well," said Mr. Bultitude; "what do you say to a shilling?"
+
+"You haven't got a shilling," objected Coggs.
+
+"Here's a shilling, see," said Paul, producing one. "Now then, I'll give
+this to any boy I see get into tea first!"
+
+"Bultitude thinks he can run," said Coker, with an amiable unbelief in
+any disinterestedness. "He means to get in first and keep the shilling
+himself, I know."
+
+"I'll back myself to run him any day," put in Coggs.
+
+"So will I," added Chawner.
+
+"Well, is it agreed?" Paul asked anxiously. "Will you try?"
+
+"All right," said Chawner. "You must give us a start to the next
+lamp-post, though. You stay here, and when we're ready we'll say 'off'!"
+
+They drew a line on the path with their feet to mark Paul's starting
+point, and went on to the next lamp. After a moment or two of anxious
+waiting he heard Coggs shout, all in one breath, "One-two-three-off!"
+and the sound of scampering feet followed immediately.
+
+It was a most exciting and hotly contested race. Paul saw them for one
+brief moment in the lamplight. He saw Chawner scudding down the path
+like some great camel, and Coker squaring his arms and working them as
+if they were wings. Coggs seemed to be last.
+
+He ran a little way himself just to encourage them, but, as the sound of
+their feet grew fainter and fainter, he felt that his last desperate
+ruse had taken effect, and with a chuckle at his own cleverness, turned
+round and ran his fastest in the opposite direction. He felt little or
+no interest in the result of the race.
+
+Once more he entered the booking-office and, kneeling on a chair,
+consulted the time-board that hung on the wall over the sheaf of texts
+and the missionary box.
+
+The next train was not until 7.25. A whole hour and twenty-five minutes
+to wait! What was he to do? Where was he to pass the weary time till
+then? If he lingered on the platform he would assuredly be recaptured.
+His absence could not remain long undiscovered and the station would be
+the first place they would search for him.
+
+And yet he dared not wander away from the neighbourhood of the station.
+If he kept to the shops and lighted thoroughfares he might be recognised
+or traced. If, on the other hand, he went out farther into the country
+(which was utterly unknown to him), he had no watch, and it would be
+only too easy to lose his way, or miscalculate time and distance in the
+darkness.
+
+To miss the next train would be absolutely fatal.
+
+He walked out upon the platform, and on past the refreshment and waiting
+rooms, past the weighing machine, the stacked trucks and the lamp-room,
+meeting and seen by none--even the boy at the bookstall was busy with
+bread and butter and a mug of tea in a dark corner, and never noticed
+him.
+
+He went on to the end of the platform where the planks sloped gently
+down to a wilderness of sheds, coaling stages and sidings; he could just
+make out the bulky forms of some tarpaulined cattle-vans and open
+coal-trucks standing on the lines of metals which gleamed in the scanty
+gaslights.
+
+It struck him that one of these vans or trucks would serve his purpose
+admirably, if he could only get into it, and very cautiously he picked
+his way over the clogging ballast and rails, till he came to a low
+narrow strip of platform between two sidings.
+
+He mounted it and went on till he came to the line of trucks and vans
+drawn up alongside; the vans seemed all locked, but at the end he found
+an empty coal-waggon in which he thought he could manage to conceal
+himself and escape pursuit till the longed-for 7.25 train should arrive
+to relieve him.
+
+He stepped in and lay down in one corner of it, listening anxiously for
+any sound of search, but hearing nothing more than the dismal dirge of
+the telegraph wires overhead; he soon grew cold and stiff, for his
+enforced attitude was far from comfortable, and there was more coal-dust
+in his chosen retreat than he could have wished. Still it was secluded
+enough; it was not likely that it would occur to anyone to look for him
+there. Ten days ago Mr. Paul Bultitude would have found it hard to
+conceive himself lying down in a hard and grimy coal-truck to escape his
+son's schoolmaster, but since then he had gone through too much that was
+unprecedented and abnormal to see much incongruity in his situation--it
+was all too hideously real to be a nightmare.
+
+But even here he was not allowed to remain undisturbed; after about half
+an hour, when he was beginning to feel almost secure, there came a sharp
+twanging of wires beneath, and two short strokes of a bell in the
+signal-box hard by.
+
+He heard some one from the platform, probably the station-master,
+shout, "Look alive, there, Ing, Pickstones, some of you. There's those
+three trucks on the A siding to go to Slopsbury by the 6.30
+luggage--she'll be in in another five minutes."
+
+There were steps as if some persons were coming out of a cabin
+opposite--they came nearer and nearer: "These three, ain't it, Tommy?"
+said a gruff voice, close to Paul's ear.
+
+"That's it, mate," said another, evidently Tommy's--"get 'em along up to
+the points there. Can't have the 6.30 standing about on this 'ere line
+all night, 'cos of the Limited. Now then, all together, shove! they've
+got the old 'orse on at the other end."
+
+And to Paul's alarm he felt the truck in which he was begin to move
+ponderously on the greasy metals, and strike the next with its buffers
+with a jarring shock and a jangling of coupling chains.
+
+He could not stand this; unless he revealed himself at once, or managed
+to get out of this delusive waggon, the six-whatever-it-was train would
+be up and carry him off to Slopsbury, a hundred miles or so farther from
+home; they would have time to warn Dick--he would be expected--ambushes
+laid for him, and his one chance would be gone for ever!
+
+There was a whistle far away on the down line, and that humming
+vibration which announces an approaching train: not a moment to lose--he
+was afraid to attempt a leap from the moving waggons, and resolved to
+risk all and show himself.
+
+With this intention he got upon his knees, and putting his head above
+the dirty bulwark, looked over and said softly, "Tommy, I say, Tommy!"
+
+A porter, who had been laboriously employed below, looked up with a
+white and scared face, and staggered back several feet; Mr. Bultitude in
+a sudden panic ducked again.
+
+"Bill!" Paul heard the porter say hoarsely, "I'll take my Bible oath
+I've never touched a drop this week, not to speak of--but I've got 'em
+again, Bill, I've got 'em again!"
+
+"Got what agin?" growled Bill. "What's the matter now?"
+
+"It's the jumps, Bill," gasped the other, "the 'orrors--they've got me
+and no mistake. As I'm a livin' man, as I was a shovin' of that there
+truck, I saw a imp--a gashly imp, Bill, stick its hugly 'ed over the
+side and say, 'Tommy,' it ses, jest like that--it ses, 'Tommy, I wants
+you!' I dursn't go near it, Bill. I'll get leave, and go 'ome and lay
+up--it glared at me so 'orrid, Bill, and grinned--ugh! I'll take the
+pledge after this 'ere, I will--I'll go to chapel Sundays reg'lar!"
+
+"Let's see if there ain't something there first," said the practical
+Bill. "Easy with the 'oss up there. Now then," here he stepped on the
+box of the wheel and looked in. "Shin out of this, whatever y'are, we
+don't contrack to carry no imps on this line--Well, if ever I--Tommy,
+old man, it's all right, y'ain't got 'em this time--'ere's yer imp!"
+
+And, reaching over, he hauled out the wretched Paul by the scruff of his
+neck in a state of utter collapse, and deposited him on the ground
+before him.
+
+"That ain't your private kerridge, yer know, that ain't--there wasn't no
+bed made up there for you, that I know on. You ain't arter no good, now;
+you're a wagabone! that's about your size, I can see--what d'yer mean by
+it, eh?"
+
+"Shet yer 'ed, Bill, will yer?" said Tommy, whose relief probably
+softened his temper, "this here's a young gent."
+
+"Young gent, or no young gent," replied Bill sententiously, "he's no
+call to go 'idin' in our waggins and givin' 'ard-workin' men a turn.
+'Old 'im tight, Tommy--here's the luggage down on us."
+
+Tommy held him fast with a grip of iron, while the other porters coupled
+the trucks, and the luggage train lumbered away with its load.
+
+After this the men slouched up and stood round their captive, staring
+at him curiously.
+
+"Look here, my men," said Paul, "I've run away from school, I want to go
+on to town by the next train, and I took the liberty of hiding in the
+truck, because the schoolmaster will be up here very soon to look for
+me--you understand?"
+
+"I understand," said Bill, "and a nice young party _you_ are."
+
+"I--I don't want to be caught," said Paul.
+
+"Naterally," assented Tommy sympathetically.
+
+"Well, can't you hide me somewhere where he won't see me? Come, you can
+do that?"
+
+"What do you say, Bill?" asked Tommy.
+
+"What'll the Guv'nor say?" said Bill dubiously.
+
+"I've got a little money," urged Paul. "I'll make it worth your while."
+
+"Why didn't you say that afore?" said Bill; "the Guv'nor needn't know."
+
+"Here's half-a-sovereign between you," said Paul, holding it out.
+
+"That's something like a imp," said Tommy warmly; "if all bogeys acted
+as 'andsome as this 'ere, I don't care how often they shows theirselves.
+We'll have a supper on this, mates, and drink young Delirium Trimminses'
+jolly good 'ealth. You come along o' me, young shaver, I'll stow you
+away right enough, and let you out when yer train comes in."
+
+He led Paul on to the platform again and opened a sort of cupboard or
+closet. "That's where we keeps the brooms and lamp-rags, and them," he
+said; "it ain't what you may call tidy, but if I lock you in no one
+won't trouble you."
+
+It was perfectly dark and the rags smelt unpleasantly, but Mr. Bultitude
+was very glad of this second ark of refuge, even though he did bruise
+his legs over the broom-handles; he was gladder still by-and-by, when he
+heard a rapid heavy footfall outside, and a voice he knew only too
+well, saying, "I want to see the station-master. Ha, there he is. Good
+evening, station-master, you know me--Dr. Grimstone, of Crichton House.
+I want you to assist me in a very unpleasant affair--the fact is, one of
+my pupils has had the folly and wickedness to run away."
+
+"You don't say so!" said the station-master.
+
+"It's only too true, I'm sorry to say; he seemed happy and contented
+enough, too; it's a black ungrateful business. But I must catch him, you
+know; he must be about here somewhere, I feel sure. You don't happen to
+have noticed a boy who looked as if he belonged to me? They can't tell
+me at the booking-office."
+
+How glad Paul was now he had made no inquiries of the station-master!
+
+"No," said the latter, "I can't say I have, sir, but some of my men may
+have come across him. I'll inquire--here, Ing, I want you; this
+gentleman here has lost one of his boys, have you seen him?"
+
+"What sort of a young gentleman was he to look at?" Paul heard Tommy's
+voice ask.
+
+"A bright intelligent-looking boy," said the Doctor, "medium height,
+about thirteen, with auburn hair."
+
+"No, I ain't seen no intelligent boys with median 'eight," said Tommy
+slowly, "not leastways, to speak to positive. What might he 'ave on,
+now, besides his oburn 'air?"
+
+"Black cloth jacket, with a wide collar," was the answer; "grey
+trousers, and a cloth cap with a leather peak."
+
+"Oh," said Tommy, "then I see 'im."
+
+"When--where?"
+
+"'Bout arf an 'our since."
+
+"Do you know where he is now?"
+
+"Well," said Tommy, to Paul's intense horror, for he was listening,
+quaking, to every word of this conversation, which was held just outside
+his cupboard door.
+
+"I dessay I could give a guess if I give my mind to it."
+
+"Out with it, Ing, now, if you know; no tricks," said the
+station-master, who had apparently just turned to go away. "Excuse me,
+sir, but I've some matters in there to see after."
+
+When he had gone, the Doctor said rather heatedly, "Come, you're keeping
+something from me, I _will_ have it out of you. If I find you have
+deceived me, I'll write to the manager and get you sent about your
+business--you'd better tell me the truth."
+
+"You see," said Tommy, very slowly, and reluctantly, "that young gent o'
+yourn _was_ a gent."
+
+"I tried my very best to render him so," said the Doctor stiffly, "here
+is the result--how did you discover he was one, pray?"
+
+"'Cos he acted like a gent," said Tommy; "he took and give me a
+'arf-suffering."
+
+"Well, I'll give you another," said the Doctor, "if you can tell me
+where he is."
+
+"Thankee, sir, don't you be afraid--you're a gent right enough, too,
+though you do 'appen to be a schoolmaster."
+
+"Where is the unhappy boy?" interrupted the Doctor.
+
+"Seems as if I was a roundin' on 'im, like, don't it a'most, sir?" said
+Tommy, with too evident symptoms of yielding in his voice. Paul shook so
+in his terror that he knocked down a broom or two with a clatter which
+froze his blood.
+
+"Not at all," said the Doctor, "not at all, my good fellow;
+you're--ahem--advancing the cause of moral order."
+
+"Oh, ah," said Tommy, obviously open to conviction. "Well, if I'm a
+doin' all that, I can't go fur wrong, can I? And arter all, we mayn't
+like schools or schoolmasters, not over above, but we can't get on
+without 'em, I s'pose. But, look ye here, sir--if I goes and tells you
+where you can get hold of this here boy, you won't go and wallop him
+now, will ye?"
+
+"I can make no bargains," said the Doctor; "I shall act on my own
+discretion."
+
+"That's it," said Tommy, unaccountably relieved, "spoke like a merciful
+Christian gen'leman; if you don't go actin' on nothing more nor your
+discretion, you can't hurt him much, I take it. Well then, since you've
+spoke out fair, I don't mind putting you on his track like."
+
+If the door of the cupboard had not been locked, Paul would undoubtedly
+have burst out and yielded himself up, to escape the humiliation of
+being sold like this by a mercenary and treacherous porter. As it was,
+he had to wait till the inevitable words should be spoken.
+
+"Well, you see," went on Tommy, very slowly, as if struggling with the
+remnants of a conscience, "it was like this here--he comes up to me, and
+says--your young gen'leman, I mean--says he, 'Porter, I wants to 'ide,
+I've run away.' And I says to him, says I, 'It's no use your 'anging
+about 'ere,' I says, ''cause, if you do, your guv'nor (meanin' no
+offence to you, sir) 'll be comin' up and ketchin' of you on the 'op.'
+'Right you are, porter,' says he to me, 'what do you advise?' he says.
+'Well,' I says, 'I don't know as I'm right in givin' you no advice at
+all, havin' run away from them as has the care on you,' I says; 'but if
+_I_ was a young gen'leman as didn't want to be ketched, I should just
+walk on to Dufferton; it ain't on'y three mile or so, and you'll 'ave
+time for to do it before the up-train comes along there.' 'Thankee,
+porter,' he says, 'I'll do that,' and away he bolts, and for anything I
+know, he's 'arf way there by this time."
+
+"A fly!" shouted the Doctor excitedly, when Tommy had come to the end of
+his veracious account. "I'll catch the young rascal now--who has a good
+horse? Davis, I'll take you. Five shillings if you reach Dufferton
+before the up-train. Take the----"
+
+The rest was lost in the banging of the fly door and the rumble of
+wheels; the terrible man had been got safely off on a wrong scent, and
+Paul fell back amongst the lumber in his closet, faint with the suspense
+and relief.
+
+Presently he heard Tommy's chuckling whisper through the keyhole: "Are
+you all right in there, sir? he's safe enough now--orf on a pretty
+dance. You didn't think I was goin' to tell on ye, did ye now? I ain't
+quite sech a cur as that comes to, particular when a young gent saves me
+from the 'orrors, and gives me a 'arf-suffering. I'll see you through,
+you make yourself easy about that."
+
+Half an hour went slowly by for Mr. Bultitude in his darkness and
+solitude. The platform gradually filled, as he could tell by the tread
+of feet, the voices, and the scent of cigars, and at last, welcome
+sound, he heard the station bell ringing for the up-train.
+
+It ran in the next minute, shaking the cupboard in which Paul crouched,
+till the brushes rattled. There was the usual blind hurry and confusion
+outside as it stopped. Paul waited impatiently inside. The time passed,
+and still no one came to let him out. He began to grow alarmed. Could
+Tommy have forgotten him? Had he been sent away by some evil chance at
+the critical moment? Two or three times his excited fancy heard the
+fatal whistle sound for departure. Would he be left behind after all?
+
+But the next instant the door was noiselessly unlocked. "Couldn't do it
+afore," said honest Tommy. "Our guv'nor would have seen me. Now's your
+time. Here's a empty first-class coach I've kept for ye. In with you
+now."
+
+He hoisted Paul up the high footboard to an empty compartment, and shut
+the door, leaving him to sink down on the luxurious cushions in
+speechless and measureless content. But Tommy had hardly done so before
+he reappeared and looked in. "I say," he suggested, "if I was you, I'd
+get under the seat before you gets to Dufferton, otherways your
+guv'nor'll be spottin' you. I'll lock you in."
+
+"I'll get under now; some one might see me here," said Paul; and, too
+anxious for safety to thank his preserver, he crawled under the low,
+blue-cushioned seat, which left just room enough for him to lie there in
+a very cramped and uncomfortable position. Still he need not stay there
+after the train had once started, except for five minutes or so at
+Dufferton.
+
+Unfortunately he had not been long under the seat before he heard two
+loud imperious voices just outside the carriage door.
+
+"Porter! guard! Hi, somebody! open this door, will you; it's locked."
+
+"This way, sir," he heard Tommy's voice say outside. "Plenty of room
+higher up."
+
+"I don't want to go higher up. I'll go here. Just open it at once, I
+tell you."
+
+The door was opened reluctantly, and two middle-aged men came in.
+"Always take the middle carriage of a train," said the first. "Safest in
+any accident, y'know. Never heard of a middle carriage of a train
+getting smashed up, to speak of."
+
+The other sat heavily down just over Paul, with a comfortable grunt, and
+the train started, Paul feeling naturally annoyed by this intrusion, as
+it compelled him to remain in seclusion for the whole of the journey.
+"Still," he thought, "it is lucky that I had time to get under here
+before they came in; it would have seemed odd if I had done it
+afterwards." And he resigned himself to listen to the conversation which
+followed.
+
+"What was it we were talking about just now?" began the first. "Let me
+see. Ah! I remember. Yes; it was a very painful thing--very, indeed, I
+assure you."
+
+There is a certain peculiar and uncomfortable suspicion that attacks
+most of us at times, which cannot fairly be set down wholly to
+self-consciousness or an exaggerated idea of our own importance. I mean
+the suspicion that a partly-heard conversation must have ourselves for
+its subject. More often than not, of course, it proves utterly
+unfounded, but once in a way, like most presentiments, it finds itself
+unpleasantly fulfilled.
+
+Mr. Bultitude, though he failed to recognise either of the voices, was
+somehow persuaded that the conversation had something to do with
+himself, and listened with eager attention.
+
+"Yes," the speaker continued; "he was never, according to what I hear, a
+man of any extraordinary capacity, but he was always spoken of as a man
+of standing in the City, doing a safe business, not a risky one, and so
+on, you know. So, of course, his manner, when I called, shocked me all
+the more."
+
+"Ah!" said the other. "Was he violent or insulting, then?"
+
+"No, no! I can only describe his conduct as eccentric--what one might
+call reprehensibly eccentric and extravagant. I didn't call exactly in
+the way of business, but about a poor young fellow in my house, who is,
+I fear, rather far gone in consumption, and, knowing he was a Life
+Governor, y'know, I thought he might give me a letter for the hospital.
+Well, when I got up to Mincing Lane----"
+
+Paul started. It was as he had feared, then; they _were_ speaking of
+him!
+
+"When I got there, I sent in my card with a message that, if he was
+engaged or anything, I would take the liberty of calling at his private
+house, and so on. But they said he would see me. The clerk who showed me
+in said: 'You'll find him a good deal changed, if you knew him, sir.
+We're very uneasy about him here,' which prepared me for something out
+of the common. Well, I went into a sort of inner room, and there he was,
+in his shirt-sleeves, busy over some abomination he was cooking at the
+stove, with the office-boy helping him! I never was so taken aback in my
+life. I said something about calling another time, but Bultitude----"
+
+Paul groaned. The blow had fallen. Well, it was better to be prepared
+and know the worst.
+
+"Bultitude says, just like a great awkward schoolboy, y'know, 'What's
+your name? How d'ye do? Have some hardbake, it's just done?' Fancy
+finding a man in his position cooking toffee in the middle of the day,
+and offering it to a perfect stranger!"
+
+"Softening of the brain--must be," said the other.
+
+"I fear so. Well, he asked what I wanted, and I told him, and he
+actually said he never did any business now, except sign his name where
+his clerks told him. He'd worked hard all his life, he said, and he was
+tired of it. Business was, I understood him to say, 'all rot!'"
+
+"Then he wouldn't promise me votes or give me a letter or anything,
+without consulting his head clerk; he seemed to know nothing whatever
+about it himself, and when that was over, he asked me a quantity of
+frivolous questions which appeared to have a sort of catch in them, as
+far as I could gather, and he was exceedingly angry when I wouldn't
+humour him."
+
+"What kind of questions?"
+
+"Well, really I hardly know. I believe he wanted to know whether I would
+rather be a bigger fool than I looked or look a bigger fool than I was,
+and he pressed me quite earnestly to repeat some foolishness after him,
+about 'being a gold key,' when he said 'he was a gold lock,' I was very
+glad to get away from him, it was so distressing."
+
+"They tell me he has begun to speculate, too, lately," said the other.
+"You see his name about in some very queer things. It's a pitiful affair
+altogether."
+
+Paul writhed under his seat with shame. How could he, even if he
+succeeded in ousting Dick and getting back his old self, how could he
+ever hold up his head again after this?
+
+Why, Dick must be mad. Even a schoolboy would have had more caution when
+so much depended on it. But none would suspect the real cause of the
+change. These horrible tales were no doubt being circulated everywhere!
+
+The conversation fell back into a less personal channel again after
+this; they talked of "risks," of some one who had only been "writing" a
+year and was doing seven thousand a week, of losses they had been "on,"
+and of the uselessness of "writing five hundred on everything," and
+while at this point the train slackened and stopped--they had reached
+Dufferton.
+
+There was an opening of doors all along the train, and sounds of some
+inquiry and answer at each. The voices became audible at length, and, as
+he had expected, Paul found that the Doctor, not having discovered him
+on the platform, was making a systematic search of the train, evidently
+believing that he had managed to slip in somewhere unobserved.
+
+It was a horrible moment when the door of his compartment was flung open
+and a stream of ice-cold air rushed under the blue cloth which,
+fortunately for Paul, hung down almost to the floor.
+
+Some one held a lantern up outside, and by its rays Paul saw from behind
+the hanging the upper half of Dr. Grimstone appear, very pale and
+polite, at the doorway. He remained there for some moments without
+speaking, carefully examining every corner of the compartment.
+
+The two men on the seats drew their wraps about them and shivered, until
+at length one said rather testily--"Get in, sir; kindly get in if you're
+coming on, please. This draught is most unpleasant!"
+
+"I do not propose to travel by this train, sir," said the Doctor; "but,
+as a person entrusted with the care of youth, permit me to inquire
+whether you have seen (or, it may be assisted to conceal) a small boy of
+intelligent appearance----"
+
+"Why should we conceal small boys of intelligent appearance about us,
+pray?" demanded the man who had described his visit to Mincing Lane.
+"And may we ask you to shut that door, and make any communications you
+wish to make through the window, or else come in and sit down?"
+
+"That's not an answer to my question, sir," retorted the Doctor. "I
+notice you carefully decline to say whether you have seen a boy. I
+consider your manner suspicious, sir; and I shall insist on searching
+this carriage through and through till I find that boy!"
+
+Mr. Bultitude rolled himself up close against the partition at these
+awful words.
+
+"Guard, guard!" shouted the first gentleman. "Come here. Here's a
+violent person who will search this carriage for something he has lost.
+I won't be inconvenienced in this way without any reason whatever! He
+says we're hiding a boy in here!"
+
+"Guard!" said the Doctor, quite as angrily, "I insist upon looking under
+these seats before you start the train. I've looked through every other
+carriage and he must be in here. Gentlemen, let me pass, I'll get him if
+I have to travel in this compartment to town with you!"
+
+"For peace and quietness sake, gentlemen," said the guard, "let him look
+round, just to ease his mind. Lend me your stick a minute, sir, please.
+I'll turn him out if he's anywhere about this here compartment!"
+
+And with this he pulled Dr. Grimstone down from the footboard and
+mounted it himself; after which he began to rummage about under the
+seats with the Doctor's heavy stick.
+
+Every lunge found out some tender part in Mr. Bultitude's person and
+caused him exquisite torture; but he clenched his teeth hard to prevent
+a sound, while he thought each fresh dig must betray his whereabouts.
+
+"There," said the guard at last; "there really ain't no one there, sir,
+you see. I've felt everywhere and---- Hello, I certainly did feel
+something just then, gentlemen!" he added, in an undertone, after a
+lunge which took all the breath out of Paul's body. All was lost now!
+
+"You touch that again with that confounded stick if you dare!" said one
+of the passengers. "That's a parcel of mine. I won't have you poking
+holes through it in that way. Don't tell that lunatic behind you, he'll
+be wanting it opened to see if his boy's inside! Now perhaps you'll let
+us alone!"
+
+"Well, sir," said the guard at last to the Doctor, as he withdrew, "he
+ain't in there. There's nothing under any of the seats. Your boy'll be
+comin' on by the next train, most likely--the 8.40. We're all behind.
+Right!"
+
+"Good night, sir," said the first passenger as he leant out of the
+window, to the baffled schoolmaster on the platform. "You've put us to
+all this inconvenience for nothing, and in the most offensive way too. I
+hope you won't find your boy till you're in a better temper, for his
+sake."
+
+"If I had you out on this platform, sir," shouted the angry Doctor, "I'd
+horsewhip you for that insult. I believe the boy's there and you know
+it. I----"
+
+But the train swept off and, to Paul's joy and thankfulness, soon left
+the Doctor, gesticulating and threatening, miles behind it.
+
+"What a violent fellow for a schoolmaster, eh?" said one of Paul's
+companions, when they were fairly off again. "I wasn't going to have him
+turning the cushions inside out here; we shouldn't have settled down
+again before we got in!"
+
+"No; and if the guard hasn't, as it is, injured that Indian shawl in my
+parcel, I shall be---- Why, bless my soul, that parcel's not under the
+seat after all! It's up in the rack. I remember putting it there now."
+
+"The guard must have fancied he felt something; and yet---- Look here,
+Goldicutt; just feel under here with your feet. It certainly does seem
+as if something soft was--eh?"
+
+Mr. Goldicutt accordingly explored Paul's ribs with his boot for some
+moments, which was very painful.
+
+"Upon my word," he said at last, "it really does seem very like it. It's
+not hard enough for a bag or a hat-box. It yields distinctly when you
+kick it. Can you fetch it out with your umbrella, do you think? Shall we
+tell the guard at the next----? Lord, it's coming out of its own accord.
+It's a dog! No, my stars--it's the boy, after all!"
+
+For Paul, alarmed at the suggestion about the guard, once more felt
+inclined to risk the worst and reveal himself. Begrimed with coal,
+smeared with whitewash, and covered with dust and flue, he crawled
+slowly out and gazed imploringly up at his fellow-passengers.
+
+After the first shock of surprise they lay back in their seats and
+laughed till they cried.
+
+"Why, you young rascal!" they said, when they recovered breath, "you
+don't mean to say you've been under there the whole time?"
+
+"I have indeed," said Paul. "I--I didn't like to come out before."
+
+"And are you the boy all this fuss was about? Yes? And we kept the
+schoolmaster off without knowing it! Why, this is splendid, capital!
+You're something like a boy, you little dog, you! This is the best joke
+I've heard for many a day!"
+
+"I hope," said Paul, "I haven't inconvenienced you. I could not help it,
+really."
+
+"Inconvenienced us? Gad, your schoolmaster came very near
+inconveniencing us and you too. But there, he won't trouble any of us
+now. To think of our swearing by all our gods there was no boy in here,
+and vowing he shouldn't come in, while you were lying down there under
+the seat all the time! Why, it's lovely! The boy's got pluck and manners
+too. Shake hands, young gentleman, you owe us no apologies. I haven't
+had such a laugh for many a day!"
+
+"Then you--you won't give me up?" faltered poor Paul.
+
+"Well," said the one who was called Goldicutt, and who was a jovial old
+gentleman with a pink face and white whiskers, "we're not exactly going
+to take the trouble of getting out at the next station, and bringing
+you back to Dufferton, just to oblige that hot-tempered master of yours,
+you know; he hasn't been so particularly civil as to deserve that."
+
+"But if he were to telegraph and get some one to stop me at St.
+Pancras?" said Paul nervously.
+
+"Ah, he might do that, to be sure--sharp boy this--well, as we've gone
+so far, I suppose we must go through with the business now and smuggle
+the young scamp past the detectives, eh, Travers?"
+
+The younger man addressed assented readily enough, for the Doctor had
+been so unfortunate as to prejudice them both from the first by his
+unjustifiable suspicions, and it is to be feared they had no scruples in
+helping to outwit him.
+
+Then they noticed the pitiable state Mr. Bultitude was in, and he had to
+give them a fair account of his escape and subsequent adventures, at
+which even their sympathy could not restrain delighted shouts of
+laughter--though Paul himself saw little enough in it all to laugh at;
+they asked his name, which he thought more prudent, for various reasons,
+to give as "Jones," and other details, which I am afraid he invented as
+he went on, and altogether they reached Kentish Town in a state of high
+satisfaction with themselves and their protege.
+
+At Kentish Town there was one more danger to be encountered, for with
+the ticket collector there appeared one of the station inspectors. "Beg
+pardon, gentlemen," said the latter, peering curiously in, "but does
+that young gent in the corner happen to belong to either of you?"
+
+The white-whiskered gentleman seemed a little flustered at this
+downright inquiry, but the other was more equal to the occasion. "Do you
+hear that, Johnny, my boy," he said, to Paul (whom they had managed
+during the journey to brush and scrape into something approaching
+respectability), "they want to know if you belong to me. I suppose
+you'll allow a son to belong to his father to a certain extent, eh?" he
+asked the inspector.
+
+The man apologised for what he conceived to be a mistake. "We've orders
+to look out for a young gent about the size of yours, sir," he
+explained; "no offence meant, I'm sure," and he went away satisfied.
+
+A very few minutes more and the train rolled in to the terminus, under
+the same wide arch beneath which Paul had stood, helpless and
+bewildered, a week ago.
+
+"Now my advice to you, young man," said Mr. Goldicutt, as he put Paul
+into a cab, and pressed half-a-sovereign into his unwilling hand, "is to
+go straight home to Papa and tell him all about it. I daresay he won't
+be very hard on you--here's my card, refer him to me if you like.
+Good-night, my boy, good-night, and good luck to you. Gad, the best joke
+I've had for years!"
+
+And the cab rolled away, leaving them standing chuckling on the
+platform, and, as Paul found himself plunging once more into the welcome
+roar and rattle of London streets, he forgot the difficulties and
+dangers that might yet lie before him in the thought that at last he was
+beyond the frontier, and, for the first time since he had slipped
+through the playground gate, he breathed freely.
+
+
+
+
+17. _A Perfidious Ally_
+
+     "But homeward--home--what home? had he a home?
+     His home--he walk'd;
+     Then down the long street having slowly stolen,
+     His heart foreshadowing all calamity,
+     His eyes upon the stones, he reached his home."
+
+
+Paul had been careful, whilst in the hearing of his friends, to give the
+cabman a fictitious address, but as soon as he reached the Euston Road,
+he stopped the man and ordered him to put him down at the church near
+the south end of Westbourne Terrace, for he dared not drive up openly to
+his own door.
+
+At last he found himself standing safely on the pavement, looking down
+the long line of yellow lamps of his own terrace, only a few hundred
+yards from home.
+
+But though his purpose was now within easy reach, his spirits were far
+from high; his anxiety had returned with tenfold power; he felt no
+eagerness or exultation; on the contrary, the task he had set himself
+had never before seemed so hopeless, so insurmountable.
+
+He stood for some time by the railing of the church, which was lighted
+up for evening service, listening blankly to the solemn drone of the
+organ within, unable to summon up resolution to move from the spot and
+present himself to his unsuspecting family.
+
+It was a cold night, with a howling wind, and high in the blue black sky
+fleecy clouds were coursing swiftly along; he obliged himself to set out
+at last, and walked down the flags towards his house, shivering as much
+from nervousness as cold.
+
+There was a dance somewhere in the terrace that evening, a large one; as
+far as he could see there were close ranks of carriages with blazing
+lamps, and he even fancied he could hear the shouts of the link-boys and
+the whistles summoning cabs.
+
+As he came nearer, he had a hideous suspicion, which soon became a
+certainty, that the entertainment was at his own house; worse still, it
+was of a kind and on a scale calculated to shock and horrify any prudent
+householder and father of a family.
+
+The balcony above the portico was positively hung with gaudy Chinese
+lanterns, and there were even some strange sticks and shapes up in one
+corner that looked suspiciously like fireworks. Fireworks in Westbourne
+Terrace! What would the neighbours think or do?
+
+Between the wall which separates the main road from the terrace and the
+street front there were no less than four piano-organs, playing, it is
+to be feared, by express invitation; and there was the usual crowd of
+idlers and loungers standing about by the awning stretched over the
+portico, listening to the music and loud laughter which came from the
+brilliantly lighted upper rooms.
+
+Paul remembered then, too late, that Barbara in that memorable letter
+of hers had mentioned a grand children's party as being in
+contemplation. Dick had held his tongue about it that morning; and he
+himself had not thought it was to be so soon.
+
+For an instant he felt almost inclined to turn away and give the whole
+thing up in sick despair--even to return to Market Rodwell and brave the
+Doctor's anger; for how could he hope to explain matters to his family
+and servants, or get the Garuda Stone safely into his hands again before
+all these guests, in the whirl and tumult of an evening party?
+
+And yet he dared not, after all, go back to Crichton House--that was too
+terrible an alternative, and he obviously could not roam the world to
+any extent, a runaway schoolboy to all appearance, and with less than a
+sovereign in his pocket!
+
+After a short struggle, he felt he must make his way in, watch and wait,
+and leave the rest to chance. It was his evil fate, after all, that had
+led him on to make his escape on this night of all others, and had
+allowed him to come through so much, only to be met with these
+unforeseen complications just when he might have imagined the worst was
+over.
+
+He forced his way through the staring crowd, and went down the steps
+into the area; for he naturally shrank from braving the front door, with
+its crowd of footmen and hired waiters.
+
+He found the door in the basement open, which was fortunate, and slipped
+quietly through the pantry, intending to reach the hall by the kitchen
+stairs. But here another check met him. The glass door which led to the
+stairs happened to be shut, and he heard voices in the kitchen, which
+convinced him that if he wished to escape notice he must wait quietly in
+the darkness until the door was opened for him, whenever that might be.
+
+The door from the pantry to the kitchen was partly open, however, and
+Mr. Bultitude could not avoid hearing everything that passed there,
+although every fresh word added to his uneasiness, until at last he
+would have given worlds to escape from his involuntary position of
+eavesdropper.
+
+There were only two persons just then in the kitchen: his cook, who,
+still in her working dress, was refreshing herself after her labours
+over the supper with a journal of some sort, and the housemaid, who, in
+neat gala costume, was engaged in fastening a pin more securely in her
+white cap.
+
+"They haven't give me a answer yet, Eliza," said the cook, looking up
+from her paper.
+
+"Lor, cook!" said Eliza, "you couldn't hardly expect it, seeing you only
+wrote on Friday."
+
+"No more I did, Eliza. You see it on'y began to come into my mind sudden
+like this last week. I'm sure I no more dreamt----. But they've answered
+a lady who's bin in much the same situation as me aperiently. You just
+'ark to this a minute." And she proceeded to read from her paper:
+"'_Lady Bird._--You ask us (1) what are the signs by which you may
+recognise the first dawnings of your lover's affection. On so delicate a
+matter we are naturally averse from advising you; your own heart must be
+your best guide. But perhaps we may mention a few of the most usual and
+infallible symptoms'--What sort of a thing is a symptim, Eliza?"
+
+"A symptim, cook," explained Eliza, "is somethink wrong with the inside.
+Her at my last place in Cadogan Square had them uncommon bad. She was
+what they call aesthetical, pore young thing. Them infallible ones are
+always the worst."
+
+"It don't seem to make sense though, Eliza," objected cook doubtfully.
+"Hear how it goes on: 'Infallible symptoms. If you have truly inspired
+him with a genuine and lasting passion' (don't he write beautiful?)
+'passion, he will continually haunt those places in which you are most
+likely to be found' (I couldn't tell you the times master's bin down in
+my kitching this last week); 'he will appear awkward and constrained in
+your presence' (anything more awkward than master _I_ never set eyes on.
+He's knocked down one of the best porcelain vegetables this very
+afternoon!); 'he will beg for any little favours, some trifle, it may
+be, made by your own hand' (master's always a-asking if I've got any of
+those doughnuts to give away); 'and, if granted, he will treasure them
+in secret with pride and rapture' (I don't think master kep' any of them
+doughnuts though, Eliza. I saw him swaller five; but you couldn't
+treasure a doughnut, not to mention---- I'll make him a pincushion when
+I've time, and see what he does with it). 'If you detect all these
+indications of liking in the person you suspect of paying his addresses
+to you, you may safely reckon upon bringing him to your feet in a very
+short space of time. (2) Yes, fuller's earth will make them exquisitely
+white.'"
+
+"There, Eliza!" said cook, with some pride, when she had finished; "if
+it had been meant for me it couldn't have been clearer. Ain't it written
+nice? And on'y to think of my bringing master to my feet! It seems
+almost too much for a cook to expect!"
+
+"I wouldn't say so, cook; I wouldn't. Have some proper pride. Don't let
+him think he's only to ask and have! Why, in the _London Journal_ last
+week there was a dook as married a governess; and I should 'ope as a
+cook ranked above a governess. Nor yet master ain't a dook; he's only in
+the City! But are you sure he's not only a-trifling with your
+affections, cook? He's bin very affable and pleasant with all of us
+lately."
+
+"It ain't for me to speak too positive, Eliza," said cook almost
+bashfully, "nor to lay bare the feelings of a bosom, beyond what's right
+and proper. You're young yet, Eliza, and don't understand these
+things--leastways, it's to be hoped not" (Eliza having apparently tossed
+her head); "but do you remember that afternoon last week as master
+stayed at home a-playin' games with the children? I was a-goin' upstairs
+to fetch my thimble, and there, on the bedroom landin', was master all
+alone, with one of Master Dick's toy-guns in his 'and, and a old slouch
+'at on his head.
+
+"'Have you got a pass, cook?' he says, and my 'art came right up into my
+mouth, he looked that severe and lofty at me. I thought he was put out
+about something."
+
+"I said I didn't know as it was required, but I could get one, I says,
+not knowing what he was alludin' to all the same."
+
+"But he says, quite soft and tender-like," (here Paul shivered with
+shame), "'No, you needn't do that, cook, there ain't any occasion for
+it; only,' he says, 'if you haven't got no pass, you'll have to give me
+a kiss, you know, cook!' I thought I should have sunk through the
+stairs, I was that overcome. I saw through his rouge with half an eye."
+
+"Why, he said the same to me," said Eliza, "only I had a pass, as luck
+had it, which Miss Barbara give me. I'd ha' boxed his ears if he'd tried
+it, too, master or no master!"
+
+"You talk light, Eliza," said the cook sentimentally, "but you weren't
+there to see. It wasn't only the words, it was the way he said it, and
+the 'ug he gave me at the time. It was as good as a proposial. And, I
+tell you, whatever you may say--and mark my words--I 'ave 'opes!"
+
+"Then, if I was you, cook," said Eliza, "I'd try if I could get him to
+speak out plain in writing; then, whatever came of it, there'd be as
+good as five hundred pounds in your pockets."
+
+"Love-letters!" cried the cook, "why, Lord love you, Eliza---- Why,
+William, how you made me jump! I thought you was up seein' to the
+supper-table."
+
+"The pastrycook's man is looking after all that, Jane," said Boaler's
+voice. "I've been up outside the droring-room all this time, lookin' at
+the games goin' on in there. It's as good as a play to see the way as
+master is a unbendin' of himself, and such a out and out stiff-un as he
+used to be, too! But it ain't what I like to see in a respectable house.
+I'm glad I give warning. It doesn't do for a man in my position to
+compromise his character by such goings on. I never see anything like it
+in any families I lived with before. Just come up and see for yourself.
+You needn't mind about cleanin' of yourself--they won't see you."
+
+So the cook allowed herself to be persuaded by Boaler, and the two went
+up to the hall, and, to Mr. Bultitude's intense relief, forgot to close
+the glazed door which cut him off from the staircase.
+
+As he followed them upstairs at a cautious interval, and thought over
+what he had just so unwillingly overheard, he felt as one who had just
+been subjected to a moral showerbath. "That dreadful woman!" he groaned.
+"Who would have dreamed that she would get such horrible ideas into her
+head? I shall never be able to look either of those women in the face
+again: they will both have to go--and she made such excellent soup, too.
+I do hope that miserable Dick has not been fool enough to write to
+her--but no, that's too absurd."
+
+But more than ever he began to wish that he had stayed in the
+playground.
+
+When he reached the hall he stood there for some moments in anxious
+deliberation over his best course of proceeding. His main idea was to
+lie in wait somewhere for Dick, and try the result of an appeal to his
+better feelings to acknowledge his outcast parent and abdicate
+gracefully.
+
+If that failed, and there was every reason to expect that it would fail,
+he must threaten to denounce him before the whole party. It would cause
+a considerable scandal no doubt, and be extremely repugnant to his own
+feelings, but still he must do it, or frighten Dick by threatening to do
+it, and at all hazards he must contrive during the interview to snatch
+or purloin the magic stone; without that he was practically helpless.
+
+He looked round him: the study was piled up with small boys' hats and
+coats, and in one corner was a kind of refined bar, where till lately a
+trim housemaid had been dispensing coffee and weak lemonade; she might
+return at any moment, he would not be safe there.
+
+Nor would the dining-room be more secluded, for in it there was an
+elaborate supper being laid out by the waiters which, as far as he could
+see through the crack in the door, consisted chiefly of lobsters,
+trifle, and pink champagne. He felt a grim joy at the sight, more than
+he would suffer for this night's festivities.
+
+As he stole about, with a dismal sense of the unfitness of his sneaking
+about his own house in this guilty fashion, he became gradually aware of
+the scent of a fine cigar, one of his own special Cabanas. He wondered
+who had the impudence to trespass on his cigar-chest; it could hardly be
+one of the children.
+
+He traced the scent to a billiard room which he had built out at the
+side of the house, which was a corner one, and going down to the door
+opened it sharply and walked in.
+
+Comfortably imbedded in the depths of a long well-padded lounging chair,
+with a spirit case and two or three bottles of soda water at his elbow,
+sat a man who was lazily glancing through the _Field_ with his feet
+resting on the mantelpiece, one on each side of the blazing fire. He was
+a man of about the middle size, with a face rather bronzed and reddened
+by climate, a nose slightly aquiline and higher in colour, quick black
+eyes with an uneasy glance in them, bushy black whiskers, more like the
+antiquated "Dundreary" type than modern fashion permits, and a wide
+flexible mouth.
+
+Paul knew him at once, though he had not seen him for some years; it was
+Paradine, his disreputable brother-in-law--the "Uncle Marmaduke" who, by
+importing the mysterious Garuda Stone, had brought all these woes upon
+him; he noticed at once that his appearance was unusually prosperous,
+and that the braided smoking coat he wore over his evening clothes was
+new and handsome. "No wonder," he thought bitterly, "the fellow has been
+living on me for a week!" He stood by the cue-rack looking at him for
+some time, and then he said with a cold ironic dignity that (if he had
+known it) came oddly from his boyish lips: "I hope you are making
+yourself quite comfortable?"
+
+Marmaduke put down his cigar and stared: "Uncommonly attentive and
+polite of you to inquire," he said at last, with a dubious smile, which
+showed a row of very white teeth, "whoever you are. If it will relieve
+your mind at all to know, young man, I'm happy to say I am tolerably
+comfortable, thanks."
+
+"I--I concluded as much," said Paul, nearly choked with rage.
+
+"You've been very nicely brought up," said Uncle Marmaduke, "I can see
+that at a glance. So you've come in here, like me, eh? because the
+children bore you, and you want a quiet gossip over the world in
+general? Sit down then, take a cigar, if you don't think it will make
+you very unwell. I shouldn't recommend it myself, you know, before
+supper--but you're a man of the world and know what's good for you. Come
+along, enjoy yourself till you find yourself getting queer--then drop
+it."
+
+Mr. Bultitude had always detested the man--there was an underbred
+swagger and familiarity in his manner that made him indescribably
+offensive; just now he seemed doubly detestable, and yet Paul by a
+strong effort succeeded in controlling his temper.
+
+He could not afford to make enemies just then, and objectionable as the
+man was, his astuteness made him a valuable ally; he determined, without
+considering the risk of making such a confident, to tell him all and ask
+his advice and help.
+
+"Don't you know me, Paradine?"
+
+"I don't think I have the privilege--you're one of Miss Barbara's
+numerous young friends, I suppose? and yet, now I look at you, you
+don't seem to be exactly got up for an evening party; there's something
+in your voice, too, I ought to know."
+
+"You ought," said Paul, with a gulp. "My name is Paul Bultitude!"
+
+"To be sure!" cried Marmaduke. "By Jove, then, you're my young nephew,
+don't you know; I'm your long-lost uncle, my boy, I am indeed (I'll
+excuse you from coming to my arms, however; I never was good at family
+embraces). But, I say, you little rascal, you've never been asked to
+these festivities, you ought to be miles away, fast asleep in your bed
+at school. What in the name of wonder are you doing here?"
+
+"I've--left school," said Paul.
+
+"So I perceive. Sulky because they left you out of all this, eh? Thought
+you'd turn up in the middle of the banquet, like the spectre
+bridegroom--'the worms they crawled in, and the worms they crawled out,'
+eh? Well, I like your pluck, but, ahem--I'm afraid you'll find they've
+rather an unpleasant way of laying your kind of apparitions."
+
+"Never mind about that," said Paul hurriedly; "I have something I must
+tell you--I've no time to lose. I'm a desperate man!"
+
+"You are," Paradine assented with a loud laugh, "oh, you are indeed! 'a
+desperate man.' Capital! a stern chase, eh? the schoolmaster close
+behind with the birch! It's quite exciting, you know, but, seriously,
+I'm very much afraid you'll catch it!"
+
+"If," began Mr. Bultitude in great embarrassment, "if I was to tell you
+that I was not myself at all--but somebody else, a--in fact, an entirely
+different person from what I seem to you to be--I suppose you would
+laugh?"
+
+"I beg your pardon," said his brother-in-law politely, "I don't think I
+quite catch the idea."
+
+"When I assure you now, solemnly, as I stand here before you, that I am
+not the miserable boy whose form I am condemned to--to wear, you'll say
+it is incredible?"
+
+"Not at all--by no means, I quite believe you. Only (really it's a mere
+detail), but I should rather like to know, if you're not that particular
+boy, what other boy you may happen to be. You'll forgive my curiosity."
+
+"I'm not a boy at all--I'm your own unhappy brother-in-law, Paul! You
+don't believe me, I see."
+
+"Oh, pardon me, it's perfectly clear! you're not your own son, but your
+own father--it's a little confusing at first, but no doubt common
+enough. I'm glad you mentioned it, though."
+
+"Go on," said Paul bitterly, "make light of it--you fancy you are being
+very clever, but you will find out the truth in time!"
+
+"Not without external assistance, I'm afraid," said Paradine calmly. "A
+more awful little liar for your age I never saw!"
+
+"I'm tired of this," said Paul. "Only listen to reason and common
+sense!"
+
+"Only give me a chance."
+
+"I tell you," protested Paul earnestly, "it's the sober awful truth--I'm
+not a boy, it's years since I was a boy--I'm a middle-aged man, thrust
+into this, this humiliating form."
+
+"Don't say that," murmured the other; "it's an excellent fit--very
+becoming, I assure you."
+
+"Do you want to drive me mad with your clumsy jeers?" cried Paul. "Look
+at me. Do I speak, do I behave, like an ordinary schoolboy?"
+
+"I really hope not--for the sake of the rising generation," said Uncle
+Marmaduke, chuckling at his own powers of repartee.
+
+"You are very jaunty to-day--you look as if you were well off," said
+Paul slowly. "I remember a time when a certain bill was presented to me,
+drawn by you, and appearing to be accepted (long before I ever saw it)
+by me. I consented to meet it for my poor Maria's sake, and because to
+disown my signature would have ruined you for life. Do you remember how
+you went down on your knees in my private room and swore you would
+reform and be a credit to your family yet? You weren't quite so well
+off, or so jaunty then, unless I am very much mistaken."
+
+These words had an extraordinary effect upon Uncle Marmaduke; he turned
+ashy white, and his quick eyes shifted restlessly as he half rose from
+his chair and threw away his unfinished cigar.
+
+"You young hound!" he said, breathing hard and speaking under his
+breath. "How did you get hold of that--that lying story? Your father
+must have let it out! Why do you bring up bygones like this? You--you're
+a confounded, disagreeable little prig! Who told you to play an
+ill-natured trick of this sort on an uncle, who may have been wild and
+reckless in his youth--was in fact--but who never, never misused his
+relation towards you as--as an uncle?"
+
+"How did I get hold of the story?" said Paul, observing the impression
+he had made. "Do you think if I were really a boy of thirteen I should
+know as much about you as I do? Do you want to know more? Ask, if you
+dare! Shall I tell you how it was you left your army coach without going
+up for examination? Will you have the story of your career in my old
+friend Parkinson's counting-house, or the real reason of your trip to
+New York, or what it was that made your father add that codicil, cutting
+you off with a set of engravings of the 'Rake's Progress,' and a guinea
+to pay for framing them? I can tell you all about it, if you care to
+hear."
+
+"No!" shrieked Paradine, "I won't listen. When you grow up, ask your
+father to buy you a cheap Society journal. You're cut out for an editor
+of one. It doesn't interest me."
+
+"Do you believe my story or not?" asked Paul.
+
+"I don't know. Who could believe it?" said the other sullenly. "How can
+you possibly account for it?"
+
+"Do you remember giving Maria a little sandal-wood box with a small
+stone in it?" said Paul.
+
+"I have some recollection of giving her something of that kind. A
+curiosity, wasn't it?"
+
+"I wish I had never seen it. That infernal stone, Paradine, has done all
+this to me. Did no one tell you it was supposed to have any magic
+power?"
+
+"Why, now I think of it, that old black rascal, Bindabun Doss, did try
+to humbug me with some such story; said it was believed to be a
+talisman, but the secret was lost. I thought it was just his stingy way
+of trying to make the rubbish out as something priceless, as it ought to
+have been, considering all I did for the old ruffian."
+
+"You told Maria it was a talisman. Bindabun what's-his-name was right.
+It is a talisman of the deadliest sort. I'll soon convince you, if you
+will only hear me out."
+
+And then, in white-hot wrath and indignation, Mr. Bultitude began to
+tell the story I have already attempted to sketch here, dwelling
+bitterly on Dick's heartless selfishness and cruelty, and piteously on
+his own incredible sufferings, while Uncle Marmaduke, lolling back in
+his armchair with an attempt (which was soon abandoned) to retain a
+smile of amused scepticism on his face, heard him out in complete
+silence and with all due gravity.
+
+Indeed, Paul's manner left him no room for further unbelief. His tale,
+wild and improbable as it was, was too consistent and elaborate for any
+schoolboy to have invented, and, besides, the imposture would have been
+so entirely purposeless.
+
+When his brother-in-law had come to the end of his sad history, Paradine
+was silent for some time. It was some relief to know that the darkest
+secrets of his life had not been ferreted out by a phenomenally sharp
+nephew; but the change in the situation was not without its
+drawbacks--it remained to be seen how it might affect himself. He
+already saw his reign in Westbourne Terrace threatened with a speedy
+determination unless he played his cards well.
+
+"Well," he said at last, with a swift, keen glance at Paul, who sat
+anxiously waiting for his next words; "suppose I were to say that I
+think there may be something in this story of yours, what then? What is
+it you want me to do for you?"
+
+"Why," said Paul, "with all you owe to me, now you know the horrible
+injustice I have had to bear, you surely don't mean to say that you
+won't help me to right myself?"
+
+"And if I did help you, what then?"
+
+"Why, I should be able to recover all I have lost, of course," said Mr.
+Bultitude. He thought his brother-in-law had grown very dull.
+
+"Ah, but I mean, what's to become of _me_?"
+
+"You?" repeated Paul (he had not thought of that). "Well, hum, from what
+I know and what you know that I know about your past life, you can't
+expect me to encourage you to remain here?"
+
+"No," said Uncle Marmaduke. "Of course not; very right and proper."
+
+"But," said Paul, willing to make all reasonable concessions, "anything
+I can do to advance your prospects--such as paying your passage out to
+New York, you know, and so on--I should be very ready to do."
+
+"Thank you!" said the other.
+
+"And even, if necessary, provide you with a small fund to start afresh
+upon--honestly," said Paul; "you will not find me difficult to deal
+with."
+
+"It's a dazzling proposition," remarked Paradine drily. "You have such
+an alluring way of putting things. But the fact, is, you'll hardly
+believe it, but I'm remarkably well off here. I am indeed. Your son, you
+know, though not you (except as a mere matter of form), really makes, as
+they say of the marmalade in the advertisements, an admirable
+substitute. I doubt, I do assure you, whether you yourself would have
+received me with quite the same warmth and hospitality I have met with
+from him."
+
+"So do I," said Paul; "very much."
+
+"Just so; for, without your admirable business capacity and
+extraordinary firmness of character, you know, he has, if you'll excuse
+my saying so, a more open guileless nature, a more entire and touching
+faith in his fellow-man and brother-in-law, than were ever yours."
+
+"To say that to me," said Paul hotly, "is nothing less than sheer
+impudence."
+
+"My dear Paul (it does seem deuced odd to be talking to a little shrimp
+like you as a grown-up brother-in-law. I shall get used to it presently,
+I daresay). I flatter myself I am a man of the world. We're dealing with
+one another now, as the lawyers have it, at arm's length. Just put
+yourself in my place (you're so remarkably good at putting yourself in
+other people's places, you know). Look at the thing from my point of
+view. Accidentally dropping in at your offices to negotiate (if I could)
+a small temporary loan from anyone I chanced to meet on the premises, I
+find myself, to my surprise, welcomed with effusion into what I then
+imagined to be your arms. More than that, I was invited here for an
+indefinite time, all my little eccentricities unmentioned, overlooked. I
+was deeply touched (it struck me, I confess, at one time that you must
+be touched too), but I made the best use of my opportunities. I made hay
+while the sun shone."
+
+"Do you mean to make me lose my temper?" interrupted Paul. "It will not
+take much more."
+
+"I have no objection. I find men as a rule easier to deal with when they
+have once lost their temper, their heads so often go too. But to return:
+a man with nerve and his fair share of brains, like myself, only wants a
+capitalist (he need not be a millionaire) at his back to conquer the
+world. It's not by any means my first campaign, and I've had my
+reverses, but I see victory in my grasp, sir, in my grasp at last!"
+
+Paul groaned.
+
+"Now you--it's not your fault, I know, a mere defect of constitution;
+but you, as a speculator, were, if I may venture to put it so, not worth
+your salt; no boldness, no dash, all caution. But your promising son is
+a regular whale on speculation, and I may tell you that we stand in
+together in some little ventures that would very probably make your hair
+stand on end--_you_ wouldn't have touched them. And yet there's money in
+every one of them."
+
+"_My_ money!" said Paul savagely; "and it won't come out again."
+
+"You don't know much about these things, you see," said Marmaduke; "I
+tell you I have my eye on some fine openings for capital."
+
+"Your pockets always were very fine openings for capital," retorted
+Paul.
+
+"Ha, ha, deuced sharp that! But, to come to the point, you were always a
+sensible practical kind of a fellow, and you must see, that, for me to
+back you up and upset this young rascal who has stepped into your
+slippers, might be morally meritorious enough, but, treating it from a
+purely pecuniary point of view, it's not business."
+
+"I see," said Mr. Bultitude heavily; "then you side against me?"
+
+"Did I ever say I would side against you? Let us hear first what you
+propose to do."
+
+Paul, upon this, explained that, as he believed the Stone still retained
+its power of granting one wish to any other person who happened to get
+hold of it, his idea was to get possession of it somehow from Dick, who
+probably would have it about him somewhere, and then pass it on to some
+one whom he could trust not to misuse it so basely.
+
+"A good idea that, Paul, my boy," said Paradine, smiling; "but you
+don't imagine our young friend would be quite such an idiot as not to
+see your game! Why, he would pitch the Stone in the gutter or stamp it
+to powder, rather than let you get hold of it."
+
+"He's quite capable of it," said Paul; "in fact, he threatened to do
+worse than that. I doubt if I shall ever be able to manage it myself;
+but what am I to do? I must try, and I've no time to lose about it
+either."
+
+"I tell you this," said Marmaduke, "if you let him see you here, it's
+all up with you. What you want is some friend to manage this for you,
+some one he won't suspect. Now, suppose I were willing to risk it for
+you?"
+
+"You!" cried Paul, with involuntary distrust.
+
+"Why not?" said Marmaduke, with a touch of feeling. "Ah, I see, you
+can't trust me. You've got an idea into your head that I'm a
+thorough-paced rascal, without a trace of human feeling about me. I
+daresay I deserve it, I daresay I do; but it's not generous, my boy, for
+all that. I hope to show you your mistake yet, if you give me the
+chance. You allow yourself to be prejudiced by the past, that's where
+you make your mistake. I only put before you clearly and plainly what it
+was I was giving up in helping you. A fellow may have a hard cynical
+kind of way of putting things, and yet, take my word for it, Paul, have
+a heart as tender as a spring chicken underneath. I believe I'm
+something like that myself. I tell you I'm sorry for you. I don't like
+to see a family man of your position in such a regular deuce of a hole.
+I feel bound to give you a lift out of it, and let my prospects take
+their own chance. I leave the gratitude to you. When I've done, kick me
+down the doorsteps if you like. I shall go out into the world with the
+glow of self-approval (and rapid motion) warming my system. Take my
+advice, don't attempt to tackle Master Dick yourself. Leave him to me."
+
+"If I could only make up my mind to trust you!" muttered Paul.
+
+"The old distrust!" cried Marmaduke; "you can't forget. You won't
+believe a poor devil like me can have any gratitude, any
+disinterestedness left in him. Never mind, I'll go. I'll leave it to
+you. I'll send Dick in here, and we shall see whether he's such a fool
+as you think him."
+
+"No," said Paul, "no; I feel you're right; that would never do."
+
+"It would be for my advantage, I think," said the other, "but you had
+better take me while I am in a magnanimous mood, the opportunity may
+never occur again. Come, am I to help you or not? Yes or no?"
+
+"I must accept," said Paul reluctantly; "I can't find Boaler now, and it
+might take hours to make him see what I wanted. I'll trust to your
+honour. What shall I do?"
+
+"Do? Get away from this, he'll be coming in here very soon to see me.
+Run away and play with the children or hide in the china
+closet--anything but stay here."
+
+"I--I must be here while you are managing him," objected Paul.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Paradine angrily. "I tell you it will spoil all, unless
+you--who's that? it's his step--too late now--dash it all! Behind that
+screen, quick--don't move for your life till I tell you you may come
+out!"
+
+Mr. Bultitude had no choice; there was just time to set up an old
+folding screen which stood in a corner of the room and slip behind it
+before the door opened.
+
+It might not be the highest wisdom to trust everything to his new ally
+in this manner; but what else could he do, except stand by in forced
+inactivity while the momentous duel was being fought out? Just then, at
+all events, he saw no other course.
+
+
+
+
+18. _Run to Earth_
+
+     "The is noon in this hous schuld bynde me this night."
+                                 --_The Coke's Tale of Gamelyn._
+
+
+Dick burst open the door of the billiard-room rather suddenly, and then
+stood holding on to the handle and smiling down upon his relative in a
+happy and affectionate but rather weak manner.
+
+"So here you are!" he said. "Been lookin' for you everywhere. What's
+good of shutting 'self in here? Come up and play gamesh. No? Come in and
+have shupper. I've had shupper."
+
+"So I perceive," observed Uncle Marmaduke; and the fact was certainly
+obvious enough.
+
+"Tell y'what I did," giggled the wretched Dick. "You know I never did
+get what I call regular good blow out--always some one to shay 'had
+quite 'nough' 'fore I'd begun. So I thought this time I would have a
+tuck-in till--till I felt tired, and I--he-he-he--I got down 'fore
+anybody elsh and helped myshelf. Had first go-in. No one to help to
+thingsh. No girlsh to bother. It was prime! When they've all gone up
+again you and me'll go in and have shome more, eh?"
+
+"You're a model host," said his uncle.
+
+"It's a good shupper," Dick went on. "I ought to know. I've had some of
+everything. It'sh almost too good for kids. But it'sh a good thing I
+went in first. After I'd been in a little time I saw a sponge-cake on
+the table, and when I tried it, what d'ye think I found? It was as full
+inside of brandy-an'-sherry as it could be. All it could do to shtand! I
+saw d'rectly it washn't in condition come to table, and I said, 'Take it
+away! take it away! It'sh drunk; it'sh a dishgraceful sight for
+children!' But they wouldn't take it away; sho I had to take it away.
+But you can't take away a whole tipshy-cake!"
+
+"I am quite sure you did your best," murmured Paradine.
+
+"Been having such gamesh upstairs!" said Dick, with another giggle.
+"That lil' Dolly Merridew's jolly girl. Not sho nice as Dulcie, though.
+Here, you, let'sh go up and let off fireworksh on balcony, eh? Letsh
+have jolly lark!"
+
+"No, no," said his uncle. "You and I are too old for that sort of thing.
+You should leave the larks to the young fellows."
+
+"How do you know I'm too old for sorterthing?" said Dick, with an
+offended air.
+
+"Well, you're not a young man any longer, you know. You ought to behave
+like the steady old buffer you look."
+
+"Why?" demanded Dick; "why should I behave like shteady ole buffer, when
+I don't feel shteady ole buffer? What do you want shpoil fun for? Tell
+you I shall do jus' zackly wharriplease. And, if you shay any more, I'll
+punch y' head!"
+
+"No, no," said his uncle, slightly alarmed at this intimation. "Come,
+you're not going to quarrel with me, I'm sure!"
+
+"All ri'," said Dick. "No; I won' quarrel. Don' wanter quarrel anybody."
+
+"That's right," said Paradine. "I knew you were a noble fellow!"
+
+"Sho I am," said Dick, shaking hands with effusion. "Sho are you. Nearly
+ash noble 'sh me. There, you're jolly good fellow. I say, I've goo' mind
+tell you something. Make you laugh. But I won't; not now."
+
+"Oh, you can tell me," said Marmaduke. "No secrets between friends, you
+know."
+
+"Shan't tell you now," said Dick. "Keep shecret little longer."
+
+"Do you know, my friend, that there's something very odd about you I've
+noticed lately? Something that makes me almost fancy sometimes you're
+not what you pretend to be."
+
+Dick sat down heavily on one of the leather benches placed against the
+wall.
+
+"Eh, what d'you shay?" he gasped. "Shay tharragain."
+
+"You look to me," said Marmaduke slowly, "like some one excellently made
+up for the part of heavy father, without a notion how to play it. Dick,
+you young dog, you see I know you! You can't take me in with all this.
+You'd better tell me all about it."
+
+Dick seemed almost sobered by this shock.
+
+"You've found me out," he repeated dully. "Then it's all up. If you've
+found me out, everybody elsh can find me out!"
+
+"No, no; it's not so bad as that, my boy. I've better eyes than most
+people, and then I had the privilege of knowing your excellent father
+rather well once upon a time. You haven't studied his little
+peculiarities closely enough; but you'll improve. By the way, where _is_
+your excellent father all this time?"
+
+"He's all right," said Dick, beginning to chuckle. "He-he. He's at
+school, he is!"
+
+"At school. You mean to say you've put him to school at his time of
+life! He's rather old for that sort of thing, isn't he? They don't take
+him on the ordinary terms, do they?"
+
+"Ah," said Dick, "that'sh where it is. He isn't old, you see, now, to
+look at."
+
+"Not old to look at! Then how on earth---- I should like to know how you
+managed all that. What have you been doing to the poor gentleman?"
+
+"That'sh my affair," said Dick. "An' if I don' tell you you won' find
+that out anyway!"
+
+"There's only one way you could have done it," said Paradine, pretending
+to hesitate. "It must have been done by some meddling with magic. Now
+what---- Let me see--yes---- Surely the Stone I brought your poor mother
+from India was given to me as a talisman of some sort? You can't have
+been sharp enough to get hold of that!"
+
+"How did you know?" cried Dick sharply. "Who told you?"
+
+"I am right, then? Well, you are a clever fellow. I should like to know
+how you did it, now?"
+
+"Did it with the Shtone," said Dick, evidently discomposed by such
+unexpected penetration, but unable to prevent a little natural
+complacency. "All my own idea. No one helped me. It--it washn't sho bad
+for me, wash it?"
+
+"Bad! it was capital!" cried Marmaduke enthusiastically. "It was a
+stroke of genius! And so my Indian Stone has done all this for you.
+Sounds like an Arabian Night, by Jove! By-the-by, you don't happen to
+have it about you, do you? I should rather like to look at it again.
+It's a real curiosity after this."
+
+Paul trembled with anxiety. Would Dick be induced to part with it? If
+so, he was saved! But Dick looked at his uncle's outstretched hand, and
+wagged his head with tipsy cunning.
+
+"I dareshay you would," he said, "but I'm not sho green as all that.
+Don't let that Stone out of my hands for anyone."
+
+"Why, I only wanted to look at it for a minute or two," said Marmaduke;
+"I wouldn't hurt it or lose it."
+
+"You won' get chance," said Dick.
+
+"Oh, very well," said Paradine carelessly, "just as you please, it
+doesn't matter; though when we come to talk things over a little, you
+may find it better to trust me more than that."
+
+"Wha' do you mean?" said Dick uneasily.
+
+"Well, I'll try to explain as well as I can, my boy (drink a little of
+this soda water first, it's an excellent thing after supper); there,
+you're better now, aren't you? Now, I've found you out, as you see; but
+only because I knew something of the powers of this Stone of yours, and
+guessed the rest. It doesn't at all follow that other people, who know
+nothing at all, will be as sharp; if you're more careful about your
+behaviour in future--unless, unless, young fellow----" and here he
+paused meaningly.
+
+"Unless what?" asked Dick suspiciously.
+
+"Unless I chose to tell them what I've found out."
+
+"What would you tell them?" said Dick.
+
+"What? Why, what I know of this talisman; tell them to use their eyes;
+they wouldn't be very long before they found out that something was
+wrong. And when one or two of your father's friends once get hold of the
+idea, your game will be very soon over--you know that as well as I do."
+
+"But," stammered Dick, "you wouldn't go and do beastly mean thing like
+that? I've not been bad fellow to you."
+
+"The meanness, my dear boy, depends entirely upon the view you take of
+it. Now, the question with me, as a man of honour (and I may tell you an
+over-nice sense of honour has been a drawback I've had to struggle
+against all my life), the question with me is this: Is it not my plain
+duty to step in and put a stop to this topsy-turvy state of things, to
+show you up as the barefaced young impostor you are, and restore my
+unhappy brother-in-law to his proper position?"
+
+"Very well expressed," thought Paul, who had been getting uncomfortable;
+"he has a heart, as he said, after all!"
+
+"How does that seem to strike you?" added Paradine.
+
+"It shtrikes me as awful rot," said Dick, with refreshing candour.
+
+"It's the language of conscience, but I don't expect you to see it in
+the same light. I don't mind confessing to you, either, that I'm a poor
+devil to whom money and a safe and respectable position (all of which I
+have here) are great considerations. But whenever I see the finger of
+duty and honour and family affection all beckoning me along a particular
+road, I make a point of obeying their monitions--occasionally. I don't
+mean to say that I never have bolted down a back way, instead, when it
+was made worth my while, or that I never will."
+
+"I wonder what he's driving at now," thought Paul.
+
+"I don't know about duty and honour, and all that," said Dick; "my head
+aches, it's the noise they're making upstairs. Are you goin' to tell?"
+
+"The fact is, my dear boy, that when one has had a keen sense of honour
+in constant use for several years, it's like most other articles, apt to
+become a little the worse for wear. Mine is not what it used to be,
+Dicky (that's your name, isn't it?). Our powers fail as we grow old."
+
+"I don' know what you're talking about!" said Dick helplessly. "Do tell
+me what you mean to do."
+
+"Well then, your head's clear enough to understand this much, I hope,"
+said Paradine a little impatiently, "that, if I did my duty and exposed
+you, you wouldn't be able to keep up the farce for a single hour, in
+spite of all your personal advantages--you know that, don't you?"
+
+"I shpose I know that," said Dick feebly.
+
+"You know too, that if I could be induced--mind, I don't say I can--to
+hold my tongue and stay on here and look after you and keep you from
+betraying yourself by any more of these schoolboy follies, there's not
+much fear that anyone else will ever find out the secret----"
+
+"Which are you going to do, then?" said Dick.
+
+"Suppose I say that I like you, that you have shown me more kindness in
+a single week than ever your respectable father has since I first made
+his acquaintance? Suppose I say that I am willing to let the sense of
+honour and duty, and all the rest of it, go overboard together; that we
+two together are a match for Papa, wherever he may be and whatever he
+chooses to say and do?"
+
+There was a veiled defiance in his voice that seemed meant for more than
+Dick, and alarmed Mr. Bultitude; however, he tried to calm his
+uneasiness and persuade himself that it was part of the plot.
+
+"Will you say that?" cried Dick excitedly.
+
+"On one condition, which I'll tell you by-and-by. Yes, I'll stand by
+you, my boy, I'll coach you till I make you a man of business every bit
+as good as your father, and a much better man of the world. I'll show
+you how to realise a colossal fortune if you only take my advice. And
+we'll pack Papa off to some place abroad where he'll have no holidays
+and give no trouble!"
+
+"No," said Dick firmly; "I won't have that. After all, he's my
+governor."
+
+"Do what you like with him then, he can't do much harm. I tell you, I'll
+do all this, on one condition--it's a very simple one----"
+
+"What is it?" asked Dick.
+
+"This. You have, somewhere or other, the Stone that has done all this
+for you--you may have it about you at this very moment--ah!" (as Dick
+made a sudden movement towards his white waistcoat) "I thought so! Well,
+I want that Stone. You were afraid to leave it in my hands for a minute
+or two just now; you must trust me with it altogether."
+
+Paul was relieved; of course this was merely an artifice to recover the
+Garuda Stone, and Marmaduke was not playing him false after all--he
+waited breathlessly for Dick's answer.
+
+"No," said Dick, "I can't do that; I want it too."
+
+"Why, man, what use is it to you? it only gives you one wish, you can't
+use it again."
+
+Dick mumbled something about his being ill, and Barbara wishing him well
+again.
+
+"I suppose I can do that as well as Barbara," said his uncle. "Come,
+don't be obstinate, give me the Stone; it's very important that it
+should be in safe hands."
+
+"No," said Dick obstinately; he was fumbling all the time irresolutely
+in his pockets; "I mean to keep it myself."
+
+"Very well then, I have done with you. To-morrow morning I shall step up
+to Mincing Lane, and then to your father's solicitor. I think his
+offices are in Bedford Row, but I can easily find out at your father's
+place. After that, young man, you'll have a very short time to amuse
+yourself in, so make the best of it."
+
+"No, don't leave me, let me alone for a minute," pleaded Dick, still
+fumbling.
+
+At this a sudden suspicion of his brother-in-law's motives for wishing
+to get the Stone into his own hands overcame all Paul's prudence. If he
+was so clever in deceiving Dick, might he not be cheating _him_, too,
+just as completely? He could wait no longer, but burst from behind the
+screen and rushed in between the pair.
+
+"Go back!" screamed Paradine. "You infernal old idiot, you've ruined
+everything!"
+
+"I won't go back," said Paul, "I don't believe in you. I'll hide no
+longer. Dick, I forbid you to trust that man."
+
+Dick had risen in horror at the sudden apparition, and staggered back
+against the wall, where he stood staring stupidly at his unfortunate
+father with fixed and vacant eyes.
+
+"Badly as you've treated me, I'd rather trust you than that shifty
+plausible fellow there. Just look at me, Dick, and then say if you can
+let this cruelty go on. If you knew all I've suffered since I have been
+among those infernal boys, you would pity me, you would indeed.... If
+you send me back there again, it will kill me.... You know as well as I
+do that it is worse for me than ever it could be for you.... You can't
+really justify yourself because of a thoughtless wish of mine, spoken
+without the least intention of being taken at my word. Dick, I may not
+have shown as much affection for you as I might have done, but I don't
+think I deserve all this. Be generous with me now, and I swear you will
+never regret it."
+
+Dick's lips moved; there really was something like pity and repentance
+in his face, muddled and dazed as his general expression was by his
+recent over-indulgence, but he said nothing.
+
+"Give papa the Stone by all means," sneered Paradine. "If you do, he
+will find some one to wish the pair of you back again, and then, back
+you go to school again, the laughing-stock of everybody, you silly young
+cub!"
+
+"Don't listen to him, Dick," urged Paul. "Give it to me, for Heaven's
+sake; if you let him have it, he'll use it to ruin us all."
+
+But Dick turned his white face to the rival claimants and said, getting
+the words out with difficulty: "Papa, I'm shorry. It is a shame. If I
+had the Shtone, I really would give it you, upon my word-an'-honour I
+would. But--but, now I can't ever give it up to you. It'sh gone. Losht!"
+
+"Lost!" cried Marmaduke. "When, where? When do you last recollect seeing
+it? you must know!"
+
+"In the morning," said Dick, twirling his chain, where part of the cheap
+gilt fastening still hung.
+
+"No; afternoon. I don't know," he added helplessly.
+
+Paul sank down on a chair with a heartbroken groan; a moment ago he had
+felt himself very near his goal, he had regained something of his old
+influence over Dick, he had actually managed to touch his heart--and now
+it was all in vain!
+
+Paradine's jaw fell; he, too, had had his dreams of doing wonderful
+things with the talisman after he had cajoled Dick to part with it.
+Whether the restoration of his brother-in-law formed any part of his
+programme, it is better, perhaps, not to inquire. His dreams were
+scattered now; the Stone might be anywhere, buried in London mud, lying
+on railway ballast, or ground to powder by cartwheels. There was little
+chance, indeed, that even the most liberal rewards would lead to
+discovery. He swore long and comprehensively.
+
+As for Mr. Bultitude, he sat motionless in his chair, staring in dull,
+speechless reproach at the conscience-stricken Dick, who stood in the
+corner blinking and whimpering with an abject penitence, odd and painful
+to see in one of his portly form. The children had now apparently
+finished supper, for there were sounds above as of dancing, and "Sir
+Roger de Coverley," with its rollicking, never-wearying repetition, was
+distinctly audible above the din and laughter. Once before, a week ago
+that very day, had that heartless piano mocked him with its untimely
+gaiety.
+
+But things were not at their worst even yet, for, while they sat like
+this, there was a sharp, short peal at the house-bell, followed by loud
+and rather angry knocking, for carriages being no longer expected, the
+servants and waiters had now closed the front-door, and left the passage
+for the supper-room.
+
+"The visitors' bell!" cried Paul, roused from his apathy; and he rushed
+to the window which commanded a side-view of the portico; it might be
+only a servant calling for one of the children, but he feared the worst,
+and could not rest till he knew it.
+
+It was a rash thing to do, for as he drew the blind, he saw a large
+person in a heavy Inverness cloak standing on the steps, and (which was
+worse) the person both saw and recognised _him_!
+
+With fascinated horror, Mr. Bultitude saw the Doctor's small grey eyes
+fixed angrily on him, and knew that he was hunted down at last.
+
+He turned to the other two with a sort of ghastly composure: "It's all
+over now," he said. "I've just seen Dr. Grimstone standing on my
+doorstep; he has come after me."
+
+Uncle Marmaduke gave a malicious little laugh: "I'm sorry for you, my
+friend," he said, "but I really can't help it."
+
+"You can," said Paul; "you can tell him what you know. You can save me."
+
+"Very poor economy that," said Marmaduke airily. "I prefer spending to
+saving, always did. I have my own interests to consider, my dear Paul."
+
+"Dick," said poor Mr. Bultitude, disgusted at this exhibition of
+selfishness, "you said you were sorry just now. Will you tell him the
+truth?"
+
+But Dick was quite unnerved, he cowered away, almost crying; "I
+daren't, I daren't," he stammered; "I--I can't go back to the fellows
+like this. I'm afraid to tell him. I--I want to hide somewhere."
+
+And certainly he was in no condition to convince an angry schoolmaster
+of anything whatever, except that he was in a state very unbecoming to
+the head of a family.
+
+It was all over; Paul saw that too well, he dashed frantically from the
+fatal billiard-room, and in the hall met Boaler preparing to admit the
+visitor.
+
+"Don't open the door!" he screamed. "Keep him out, you mustn't let him
+in. It's Dr. Grimstone."
+
+Boaler, surprised as he naturally was at his young master's
+unaccountable appearance and evident panic, nevertheless never moved a
+muscle of his face; he was one of those perfectly bred servants, who, if
+they chanced to open the door to a ghoul or a skeleton, would merely
+inquire, "What name, if you please?"
+
+"I must go and ask your Par, then, Master Dick; there's time to 'ook it
+upstairs while I'm gone. I won't say nothing," he added compassionately.
+
+Paul lost no time in following this suggestion, but rushed upstairs, two
+or three steps at the time, stumbling at every flight, with a hideous
+nightmare feeling that some invisible thing behind was trying to trip up
+his heels.
+
+He rushed blindly past the conservatory, which was lit up by Chinese
+lanterns and crowded with little "Kate Greenaway" maidens crowned with
+fantastic headdresses out of the crackers, and comparing presents with
+boy-lovers; he upset perspiring waiters with glasses and trays, and
+scattered the children sitting on the stairs, as he bounded on in his
+reckless flight, leaving crashes of glass behind him.
+
+He had no clear idea of what he meant to do; he thought of barricading
+himself in his bedroom and hiding in the wardrobe; he had desperate
+notions of getting on to the housetop by means of a step-ladder and the
+sky-light above the nursery landing; on one point he was resolved--he
+would not be retaken _alive_!
+
+Never before in this commonplace London world of ours was an unfortunate
+householder hunted up his own staircase in this distressing manner; even
+his terror did not blind him to the extreme ignominy and injustice of
+his position.
+
+And below he heard the bell ringing more and more impatiently, as the
+Doctor still remained on the wrong side of the door. In another minute
+he must be admitted--and then!
+
+Who will not sympathise with Mr. Bultitude as he approaches the crisis
+of his misfortunes? I protest, for my own part, that as I am compelled
+to describe him springing from step to step in wild terror, like a
+highly respectable chamois before some Alpine marksman, my own heart
+bleeds for him, and I hasten to end my distressing tale, and make the
+rest of it as little painful as I may with honesty.
+
+
+
+
+19. _The Reckoning_
+
+     MONTR.   The father is victorious.
+     BELF.                              Let us haste
+              To gratulate his conquest.
+     1ST CAPT.                          We to mourn
+              The fortune of the son.
+                        MASSINGER. _The Unnatural Combat._
+
+
+Poor Mr. Bultitude, springing wildly upstairs in a last desperate effort
+to avoid capture, had now almost reached his goal. Just above him was
+the nursery landing, with its little wooden gate, and near it, leaning
+against the wall, was a pair of kitchen steps, with which he had hopes
+of reaching the roof, or the cistern loft, or some other safe and
+inaccessible place. Better a night spent on the slates amongst the
+chimney-pots than a bed in that terrible No. 6 Dormitory!
+
+But here, too, fate was against him. He was not more than half-a-dozen
+steps from the top, when, to his unspeakable horror, he saw a small form
+in a white frock and cardinal-red sash come running out of the nursery,
+and begin to descend slowly and cautiously, clinging to the banisters
+with one chubby little hand.
+
+It was his youngest son, Roly, and as soon as he saw this, he lost hope
+once and for all; he could not escape being recognised, the child would
+probably refuse to leave him, and even if he did contrive to get away
+from him, it would be hopeless to make Roly understand that he was not
+to betray his hiding-place.
+
+So he stopped on the stairs, aghast at this new misfortune, and feeling
+himself at the end of all his resources. Roly knew him at once, and
+began to dance delightedly up and down on the stair in his little bronze
+shoes. "Buzzer Dicky," he cried, "dear buzzer Dicky, tum 'ome to party!"
+
+"It's not brother Dicky," said Paul miserably; "it's all a mistake."
+
+"Oh, but it is though," said Roly; "and you don't know what Roly's
+found."
+
+"No, no," said Paul, trying to pass (which, as Roly persisted in leaping
+joyously from side to side of the narrow stair, was difficult); "you
+shall show me another time. I'm in a hurry, my boy, I've got an
+appointment."
+
+"Roly's got something better than that," observed the child.
+
+Mr. Bultitude, in spite of his terror, was too much afraid of hurting
+him by brushing roughly past to attempt such a thing, so he tried
+diplomacy. "Well, what has Roly found--a cracker?"
+
+"No, no, better than a cwacker--you guess."
+
+"I can't guess," said Paul; "never mind, I don't want to know."
+
+"Well then," said Roly, "there." And he slowly unclosed a fat little
+fist, and in it Paul saw, with a revulsion of feeling that turned him
+dizzy and faint, the priceless talisman itself, the identical Garuda
+Stone, with part of the frail gilt ring still attached to it.
+
+The fastening had probably given way during Master Dick's uproarious
+revels in the drawing-room, and Roly must have picked it up on the
+carpet shortly afterwards.
+
+"Isn't it a pitty sing?" said Roly, insisting that his treasure should
+be duly admired.
+
+"A very pretty thing," said his father, hoarse and panting; "but it's
+mine, Roly, it's mine!"
+
+And he tried to snatch it, but Roly closed his fist over it and pouted,
+"It isn't yours," he said, "it's Roly's. Roly found it."
+
+Paul's fears rose again; would he be wrecked in port after all? His ear,
+unnaturally strained, caught the sound of the front door being opened,
+he heard the Doctor's deep voice booming faintly below, then the noise
+of persons ascending.
+
+"Roly shall have it, then," he said perfidiously, "if he will say after
+me what I tell him. Say, 'I wish Papa and Brother Dick back as they were
+before,' Roly."
+
+"Ith it a game?" asked Roly, his face clearing and evidently delighted
+with his eccentric brother Dick, who had run all the way home from
+school to play games with him on the staircase.
+
+"No--yes!" cried Paul, "it's a very funny game; only do what I tell you.
+Now say, 'I wish Papa and Brother Dick back again as they were before.'
+I'll give you a sugar-plum if you say it nicely."
+
+"What sort of sugar-plum?" demanded Roly, who inherited business
+instincts.
+
+"Any sort you like best!" almost shrieked Paul; "oh, do get on!"
+
+"Lots of sugar-plums, then. 'I with'--I forget what you told me--oh, 'I
+with Papa and----' there'th thomebody tummin' upsthairs!" he broke off
+suddenly; "it'h nurth tummin' to put me to bed. I don't want to go to
+bed yet."
+
+"And you shan't go to bed!" cried Paul, for he too thought he heard
+some one. "Never mind nurse, finish the--the game."
+
+--'Papa and Buzzy Dicky back again as--as they were before,' repeated
+Roly at last. "What a funny--ow, ow, it'h Papa! it'h Papa! and he told
+me it wath Dicky. I'm afwaid! Whereth Dicky gone to? I want Bab, take me
+to Bab!"
+
+For the Stone had done its work once more, and this time with happier
+results; with a supreme relief and joy, which no one who has read this
+book can fail to understand, Mr. Bultitude felt that he actually was his
+old self again.
+
+Just when all hope seemed cut off and relief was most unlikely, the
+magic spell that had caused him such intolerable misery for one hideous
+week was reversed by the hand of his innocent child.
+
+He caught Roly up in his arms and kissed him as he had never been kissed
+in his whole life before, at least by his father, and comforting him as
+well as he could, for the poor child had naturally received rather a
+severe shock, he stepped airily down the staircase, which he had mounted
+with such different emotions five minutes before.
+
+On his way he could not resist going into his dressing-room and assuring
+himself by a prolonged examination before the cheval-glass that the
+Stone had not played him some last piece of jugglery; but he found
+everything quite correct; he was the same formal, precise and portly
+person, wearing the same morning dress even as on that other Monday
+evening, and he went on with greater confidence.
+
+He took care, however, to stop at the first window, when he managed,
+after some coaxing, to persuade Roly to give up the Garuda Stone. As
+soon as he had it in his hands again, he opened the window wide and
+flung the dangerous talisman far out into the darkness. Not till then
+did he feel perfectly secure.
+
+He passed the groups of little guests gathered about the conservatory,
+and lower down he met Boaler, the nurse, and one or two servants and
+waiters, rushing up in a state of great anxiety and flurry; even
+Boaler's usual composure seemed shaken. "Please, sir," he asked, "the
+schoolmaster gentleman, Master Dick--he've run upstairs, haven't you
+seen him?"
+
+Paul had almost forgotten Dick in his new happiness; there would be a
+heavy score to settle with him; he had the upper hand once more, and
+yet, somehow, he did not feel as much righteous wrath and desire for
+revenge as he expected to do.
+
+"Don't be alarmed," he said, waving them back with more benignity than
+he thought he had in him. "Master Dick is safe enough. I know all about
+it. Where is Dr. Grimstone? In the library, eh? Very well, I will see
+him there."
+
+And leaving Roly with the nurse, he went down to the library; not, if
+the truth must be told, without a slight degree of nervousness,
+unreasonable and unaccountable enough now, but quite beyond his power to
+control.
+
+He entered the room, and there, surrounded by piles of ticketed hats and
+coats, under the pale light of one gas-burner, he saw the terrible man
+before whom he had trembled for the last seven horrible days.
+
+A feeling of self-defence made Paul assume rather more than his old
+stiffness as he shook hands. "I am very glad to see you, Dr. Grimstone,"
+he said, "but your coming at this time forces me to ask if there is any
+unusual reason for, for my having the--a--pleasure of seeing you here?"
+
+"I am exceedingly distressed to have to say that there is," said the
+Doctor solemnly, "or I should not have troubled you at this hour. Try to
+compose yourself, my dear sir, to bear this blow."
+
+"I will," said Paul, "I will try."
+
+"The fact is then, and I know how sad a story it must be for a parent's
+ear, but the fact is, that your unhappy boy has had the inconceivable
+rashness to quit my roof." And the Doctor paused to watch the effect of
+his announcement.
+
+"God bless my soul!" cried Paul. "You don't say so!"
+
+"I do indeed; he has, in short, run away. But don't be alarmed, my dear
+Mr. Bultitude, I think I can assure you he is quite safe at the present
+moment" ("Thank Heaven, he is!" thought Paul, thinking of his own
+marvellous escape). "I should certainly have recaptured him before he
+could have left the railway station, where he seems to have gone at
+once, only, acting on information (which I strongly suspect now was
+intentionally misleading), I drove on to the station on the up-line,
+thinking to find him there. He was not there, sir, I believe he never
+went there at all; but, guessing how matters were, I searched the train,
+carriage by carriage, compartment by compartment, when it came up."
+
+"I am very sorry you should have had so much trouble," said Paul, with a
+vivid recollection of the exploring stick; "and so you found him?"
+
+"No, sir," said the Doctor passionately, "I did not find him, but he was
+there; he must have been there! but the shameless connivance of two
+excessively ill-bred persons, who positively refused to allow me access
+to their compartment, caused him to slip through my fingers."
+
+Mr. Bultitude observed, rather ungratefully, that, if this was so, it
+was a most improper thing for them to do.
+
+"It was, indeed, but it is of no consequence fortunately. I was forced
+to wait for the next train, but that was not a very slow one, and so I
+was able to come on here before a very late hour and acquaint you with
+what had taken place."
+
+"Thank you very much," said Paul.
+
+"It's a painful thing to occur in a school," observed the Doctor after a
+pause.
+
+"Most unfortunate," agreed Paul, coughing.
+
+"So apt to lead persons who are not acquainted with the facts to imagine
+that the boy was unhappy under my care," continued the Doctor.
+
+"In this case, I assure you, I have no doubts," protested Paul with
+politeness and (seldom a possible combination) perfect truth.
+
+"Very kind of you to say so; really, it's a great mystery to me. I
+certainly, as I felt it my duty to inform you at the time, came very
+near inflicting corporal punishment upon him this morning--very near.
+But then he was pardoned on your intercession; and, besides, the boy
+would never have run away for fear of a flogging."
+
+"Oh, no, perfectly absurd!" agreed Paul again.
+
+"Such a merry, high-spirited lad, too," said the Doctor, sincerely
+enough; "popular with his schoolfellows; a favourite (in spite of his
+faults) with his teachers."
+
+"No, was he though?" said Paul with more surprise, for he had not been
+fortunate enough to reap much vicarious benefit from his son's
+popularity, as he could not help remembering.
+
+"All this, added to the comforts (or, may I say, the luxuries?) he
+enjoyed under my supervision, does make it seem very strange and
+ungrateful in the boy to take this sudden and ill-considered step."
+
+"Very, indeed; but do you know, Dr. Grimstone, I can't help
+thinking--and pray do not misunderstand me if I speak plainly--that,
+perhaps, he had reasons for being unhappy you can have no idea of?"
+
+"He would have found me ready to hear any complaints and prompt to
+redress them, sir," said the Doctor. "But, now I think of it, he
+certainly did appear to have something on his mind which he wished to
+tell me; but his manner was so strange and he so persistently refused to
+come to the point, that I was forced to discourage him at last."
+
+"You did discourage him, indeed!" said Paul inwardly, thinking of those
+attempted confidences with a shudder. "Perhaps some of his schoolfellows
+may have--eh?" he said aloud.
+
+"My dear sir," exclaimed the Doctor, "quite out of the question!"
+
+"Do you think so?" said Paul, not being able to resist the suggestion.
+"And yet, do you know, some of them did not appear to me to look
+very--very good-natured, now."
+
+"A more manly, pleasant, and gentlemanly set of youths never breathed!"
+said the Doctor, taking up the cudgels for his boys, and, to do him
+justice, probably with full measure of belief in his statement. "Curious
+now that they should have struck you so differently!"
+
+"They certainly did strike me very differently," said Paul. "But I may
+be mistaken."
+
+"You are, my dear sir. And, pardon me, but you had no opportunity of
+testing your opinion."
+
+"Oh, pardon me," retorted Paul grimly, "I had indeed!"
+
+"A cursory visit," said the Doctor, "a formal inspection--you cannot
+fairly judge boys by that. They will naturally be reserved and
+constrained in the presence of an elder. But you should observe them
+without their knowledge--you want to know them, my dear Mr. Bultitude,
+you want to go among them!"
+
+It was the very last thing Paul did want--he knew them quite well
+enough, but it was of no use to say so, and he merely assented politely.
+
+"And now," said the Doctor, "with regard to your misguided boy. I have
+to tell you that he is here, in this very house. I tracked him here,
+and, ten minutes ago, saw him with my own eyes at one of your windows.
+
+"Here!" cried Paul, with a well-executed start; "you astonish me!"
+
+"It has occurred to me within the last minute," said the Doctor, "that
+there may be a very simple explanation of his flight. I observe you are
+giving a--a juvenile entertainment on a large scale."
+
+"I suppose I am," Paul admitted. "And so you think----?"
+
+"I think that your son, who doubtless knew of your intention, was hurt
+at being excluded from the festivities and, in a fit of mad wilful
+folly, resolved to be present at them in spite of you."
+
+"My dear Doctor," cried Paul, who saw the conveniences of this theory,
+"that must be it, of course--that explains it all!"
+
+"So grave an act of insubordination," said the Doctor, "an act of double
+disobedience--to your authority and mine--deserves the fullest
+punishment. You agree with me, I trust?"
+
+The memory of his wrongs overcame Mr. Bultitude for the moment: "Nothing
+can be too bad for the little scoundrel!" he said, between his teeth.
+
+"He shall have it, sir, I swear to you; he shall be made to repent this
+as long as he lives. This insult to me (and of course to you also) shall
+be amply atoned for. If you will have the goodness to deliver him over
+to my hands, I will carry him back at once to Market Rodwell, and
+to-morrow, sir, to-morrow, I will endeavour to awaken his conscience in
+a way he will remember!"
+
+The Doctor was more angry than an impartial lover of justice might
+perhaps approve of, but then it must be remembered that he had seen
+himself completely outwitted and his authority set at nought in a very
+humiliating fashion.
+
+However, his excessive wrath cooled Paul's own resentment instead of
+inflaming it; it made him reflect that, after all, it was he who had the
+best right to be angry.
+
+"Well," he said, rather coldly, "we must find him first, and then
+consider what shall be done to him. If you will allow me I will ring
+and----"
+
+But before he could lay his hand upon the bell the library door opened,
+and Uncle Marmaduke made his appearance, dragging with him the unwilling
+Dick: the unfortunate boy was effectually sobered now, pale and
+trembling and besmirched with coal-dust--in fact, in very much the same
+plight as his ill-used father had been in only three hours ago.
+
+There was a brazen smile of triumph on Mr. Paradine's face as he met
+Paul's eyes with a knowing wink, which the latter did not at all
+understand.
+
+Such audacity astonished him, for he could hardly believe that Paradine,
+after his perfidious conduct in the billiard-room, could have the clumsy
+impudence to try to propitiate him now.
+
+"Here he is, my boy," shouted Paradine; "here's the scamp who has given
+us all this trouble! He came into the billiard-room just now and told me
+who he was, but I would have nothing to do with him of course. Not my
+business, as I told him at the time. Then--(I think I have the pleasure
+of seeing Dr. Grimstone? just so) well, then you, sir, arrived--and he
+made himself scarce. But when I saw him in the act of making a bolt up
+the area, where he had been taking shelter apparently in the
+coal-cellar, I thought it was time to interfere, and so I collared him.
+I have much pleasure in handing him over now to the proper authorities."
+
+And, letting Dick go, he advanced towards his brother-in-law, still with
+the same odd expression of having a secret understanding with him, which
+made Paul's blood boil.
+
+"Stand where you are, sir," said Paul to his son. "No, Dr. Grimstone,
+allow me--leave him to me for the present, please."
+
+"That's much better," whispered Paradine approvingly; "capital. Keep it
+up, my boy; keep it up! Papa's as quiet as a lamb now. Go on."
+
+Then Paul understood; his worthy brother-in-law had not been present at
+the last transformation and was under a slight misapprehension: he
+evidently imagined that he had by this last stroke made himself and Dick
+masters of the situation--it was time to undeceive him.
+
+"Have the goodness to leave my house at once, will you!" he said
+sternly.
+
+"You young fool!" said Marmaduke, under his breath, "after all I have
+done for you, too! Is this your gratitude? You know you can't get on
+without me. Take care what you're about!"
+
+"If you can't see that the tables are turned at last," said Paul slowly,
+"you're a duller knave than I take you to be."
+
+Marmaduke started back with an oath: "It's a trick," he said savagely;
+"you want to get rid of me."
+
+"I certainly intend to," said Paul. "Are you satisfied? Do you want
+proofs--shall I give them--I did just now in the billiard-room?"
+
+Paradine went to Dick and shook him angrily: "You young idiot!" he said,
+in a furious aside, "why didn't you tell me? What did you let me make a
+fool of myself like this for, eh?"
+
+"I did tell you," muttered Dick, "only you wouldn't listen. It just
+serves you right!"
+
+Marmaduke soon collected himself after this unexpected shock; he tried
+to shake Paul's hands with an airy geniality. "Only my little joke," he
+said, laughing; "ha, ha, I thought I should take you in!... Why, I knew
+it directly.... I've been working for you all the time--but it wouldn't
+have done to let you see my line."
+
+"No," said Paul; "it was not a very straight one, as usual."
+
+"Well," said Marmaduke, "I shouldn't have stopped Master Dick there if I
+hadn't been on your side, should I now? I knew you'd come out of it all
+right, but I had a difficult game to play, don't you know? I don't
+wonder that you didn't follow me just at first."
+
+"You've lost your game," said Paul; "it's no use to say any more. So
+now, perhaps, you'll go?"
+
+"Go, eh?" said Paradine, without showing much surprise at the failure
+of so very forlorn a hope, "oh, very well, just as you please, of
+course. Let your poor wife's only brother go from your doors without a
+penny in the world!--but I warn you that a trifle or so laid out in
+stopping my mouth would not be thrown away. Some editors would be glad
+enough of a sensation from real life just now, and I could tell some
+very odd tales about this little affair!"
+
+"Tell them, if a character for sanity is of no further use to you," said
+Paul. "Tell them to anyone you can get to believe you--tell the
+crossing-sweeper and the policemen, tell your grandmother, tell the
+horse-marines--it will amuse them. Only, you shall tell them on the
+other side of my front door. Shall I call anyone to show you out?"
+
+Paradine saw his game was really played out, and swaggered insolently to
+the door: "Not on my account, I beg," he said. "Good-bye, Paul, my boy,
+no more dissolving views. Good-bye, my young friend Richard, it was good
+fun while it lasted, eh? like the Servian crown--always a pleasant
+reminiscence! Good evening to you, Doctor. By the way, for educational
+purposes let me recommend a 'Penang lawyer'--buy one as you go back for
+the boys--just to show them you haven't forgotten them!"
+
+And, having little luggage to impede him, the front door closed upon him
+shortly afterwards--this time for ever.
+
+When he had gone, Dick looked imploringly at his father and then at the
+Doctor, who, until Paradine's parting words had lashed him into fury
+again, had been examining the engravings on the walls with a studied
+delicacy during the recent painful scene, and was now leaning against
+the chimney-piece with his arms folded and a sepulchral gloom on his
+brow.
+
+"Richard," said Mr. Bultitude, in answer to the look, "you have not done
+much to deserve consideration at my hands."
+
+"Or at mine!" added the Doctor ominously.
+
+"No," said Dick, "I know I haven't. I've been a brute. I deserve a jolly
+good licking."
+
+"You do," said his father, but in spite of his indignation, the
+broken-down look of the boy, and the memory of his own sensations when
+waiting to be caned that morning, moved him to pity. And then Dick had
+shown some compunction in the billiard-room: he was not entirely lost to
+feeling.
+
+"Well," he said at last, "you've acted very wrongly. Because I thought
+it best that you should not--ahem, leave your studies for this party,
+you chose to disobey me and alarm your master by defying my orders and
+coming home by stealth--that was your object, I presume?"
+
+"Y--yes," said Dick, looking rather puzzled, but seeing that he was
+expected to agree; "that was it."
+
+"You know as well as I do what good cause I have to be angry; but, if I
+consent to overlook your conduct this time, if I ask Dr. Grimstone to
+overlook it too" (the Doctor made an inarticulate protest, while Dick
+stared, incredulous), "will you undertake to behave better for the
+future--will you?"
+
+Dick's voice broke at this, and his eyes swam--he was effectually
+conquered. "Oh, I will!" he cried, "I will, really. I never meant to go
+so far when I began."
+
+"Then, Dr. Grimstone," said Paul, "you will do me a great favour if you
+will take no further notice of this. You see the boy is sorry, and I am
+sure he will apologise to you amply for the grave slight he has done
+you. And by the way--I should have mentioned it before--but he will have
+to leave your care at the end of the term for a public school--I intend
+to send him to Harrow, so he will require some additional preparation,
+perhaps: I may leave that in your hands?"
+
+Dr. Grimstone looked deeply offended, but he only said, "I will see to
+that myself, my dear sir. I am sorry you did not tell me this earlier.
+But, may I suggest that a large public school has its pitfalls for a
+boy of your son's disposition? And I trust this leniency may not have
+evil consequences, but I doubt it--I greatly doubt it."
+
+As for Dick, he ran to his father, and hung gratefully on to his arm
+with a remorseful hug, a thing he had never dared to do, or thought of
+attempting, in his life till then.
+
+"Dad," he said in a choked voice, "you're a brick! I don't deserve any
+of it, but I'll never forget this as long as I live."
+
+Mr. Bultitude too, felt something spring up in his heart which drew him
+towards the boy in an altogether novel manner, but no one will say that
+either was the worse for it.
+
+"Well," he said mildly, "prove to me that I have made no mistake. Go
+back to Crichton House now, work and play well, and try to keep out of
+mischief for the rest of the term. I trust to you," he added, in a lower
+tone, "while you remain at Market Rodwell, to keep my--my connection
+with it a secret; you owe that at least to me. You may probably
+have--ahem, some inconveniences to put up with--inconveniences you are
+not prepared for. You must bear them as your punishment."
+
+And soon afterwards a cab was called, and Dr. Grimstone prepared to
+return to Market Rodwell, with the deserter, by the last train.
+
+As Paul shook hands through the cab window with his prodigal son, he
+repeated his warning. "Mind," he said, "_you_ have been at school all
+this past week; you have run away to attend this party, you understand?
+Good-bye, my boy, and here's something to put in your pocket, and
+another for Jolland; but he need not know it comes from me." And when
+Dick opened his hand afterwards, he found two half-sovereigns in it.
+
+So the cab rolled away, and Paul went up to the drawing-room, where,
+although he certainly allowed the fireworks on the balcony and in the
+garden to languish forgotten on their sticks, he led all the other
+revels up to an advanced hour with jovial _abandon_ quite worthy of
+Dick, and none of his little guests ever suspected the change of host.
+
+When it was all over, and the sleepy children had driven off, Paul sat
+down in an easy chair by the bright fire which sparkled frostily in his
+bedroom, to think gratefully over all the events of the day--events
+which were beginning already to take an unreal and fantastic shape.
+
+Bitterly as he had suffered, and in spite of the just anger and thirst
+for revenge with which he had returned, I am glad to say he did not
+regret the spirit of mildness that had stayed his hand when his hour of
+triumph came.
+
+His experiences, unpleasant as they had been, had had their advantages:
+they had drawn him and his family closer together.
+
+In his daughter Barbara, as she wished him good-night (knowing nothing,
+of course, of the escape), he had suddenly become aware of a girlish
+freshness and grace he had never looked for or cared to see before. Roly
+after this, too, had a claim upon him he could never wish to forget, and
+even with the graceless Dick there was a warmer and more natural feeling
+on both sides--a strange result, no doubt, of such unfilial behaviour,
+but so it was.
+
+Mr. Bultitude would never after this consider his family as a set of
+troublesome and thankless incumbrances; thanks to Dick's offices during
+the interregnum, they would henceforth throw off their reserve and
+constraint in their father's presence, and in so doing, open his eyes to
+qualities of which he had hitherto been in contented ignorance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It would be pleasanter perhaps to take leave of Mr. Bultitude thus, as
+he sits by his bedroom fire in the first flush of supreme and unalloyed
+content.
+
+But I feel almost bound to point out a fact which few will find any
+difficulty in accepting, namely, that, although the wrong had been
+retrieved without scandal or exposure, for which Paul could not be too
+thankful, there were many consequences which could not but survive it.
+
+Neither father nor son found himself exactly in the same position as
+before their exchange of characters.
+
+It took Mr. Bultitude considerable time and trouble to repair all the
+damage his son's boyish excesses had wrought both at Westbourne Terrace
+and in the City. He found the discipline of his clerks' room and
+counting-house sorely relaxed, and his office-boy in particular
+attempted a tone towards him of such atrocious familiarity that he was
+indignantly dismissed, much to his astonishment, the very first day. And
+probably Paul will never quite clear himself of the cloud that hangs
+over a man of business who, in the course of however well regulated a
+career, is known to have been at least once "a little odd."
+
+And his home, too, was distinctly demoralised: his cook was an artist,
+unrivalled at soups and entrees; but he had to get rid of her
+notwithstanding.
+
+It was only too evident that she looked upon herself as the prospective
+mistress of his household, and he did not feel called upon as a parent
+to fulfil any expectations which Dick's youthful cupboard love had
+unintentionally excited.
+
+For some time, as fresh proof of Dick's extravagances came home to him,
+Paul found it cost him no little effort to restrain a tendency to his
+former bitterness and resentment, but he valued the new understanding
+between himself and his son too highly to risk losing it again by any
+open reproach, and so with each succeeding discovery the victory over
+his feelings became easier.
+
+As for Dick, he found the inconveniences at which his father had hinted
+anything but imaginary, as will perhaps be easily understood.
+
+It was an unpleasant shock to discover that in one short week his
+father had contrived somehow to procure him a lasting unpopularity. He
+was obviously looked upon by all, masters and boys, as a confirmed
+coward and sneak. And although some of his companions could not fairly
+reproach him on the latter score, the imputation was particularly
+galling to Dick, who had always treated such practices with sturdy
+contempt.
+
+He was sorely tempted at times to right himself by declaring the real
+state of the case; but he remembered his promise and his father's
+unexpected clemency and his gratitude always kept him silent.
+
+He never quite understood how it was that the whole school seemed to
+have an impression that they could kick and assault him generally with
+perfect impunity; but a few very unsuccessful experiments convinced them
+that this was a popular error on their part.
+
+Although, however, in everything else he did gradually succeed in
+recovering all the ground his father had lost him, yet there was one
+respect in which, I am sorry to say, he found all his efforts to
+retrieve himself hopeless.
+
+His little sweetheart, with the grey eyes and soft brown hair, cruelly
+refused to have anything more to do with him. For Dulcie's pride had
+been wounded by what she considered his shameless perfidy on that
+memorable Saturday by the parallel bars; the last lingering traces of
+affection had vanished before Paul's ingratitude on the following
+Monday, and she never forgave him.
+
+She did not even give him an opportunity of explaining himself, never by
+word or sign up to the last day of the term showing that she was even
+aware of his return. What was worse, in her resentment she transferred
+her favour to Tipping, who became her humble slave for a too brief
+period; after which he was found wanting in polish, and was
+ignominiously thrown over for the shy new boy Kiffin, whose head Dick
+found a certain melancholy pleasure in punching in consequence.
+
+This was Dick's punishment, and a very real and heavy one he found it.
+He is at Harrow now, where he is doing fairly well; but I think there
+are moments even yet when Dulcie's charming little face, her pretty
+confidences, and her chilling disdain, are remembered with something as
+nearly resembling a heartache as a healthy unsentimental boy can allow
+himself.
+
+Perhaps, if some day he goes back once more to Crichton House "to see
+the fellows," this time with the mysterious glamour of a great public
+school about him, he may yet obtain forgiveness, for she is getting
+horribly tired of Kiffin, who, to tell the truth, is something of a
+milksop.
+
+As for the Garuda Stone, I really cannot say what has become of it.
+Perhaps it was dashed to pieces on the cobble-stones of the stables
+behind the terrace, and a good thing too. Perhaps it was not, and is
+still in existence, with all its dangerous powers as ready for use as
+ever it was; and in that case the best I can wish my readers is, that
+they may be mercifully preserved from finding it anywhere, or if they
+are unfortunate enough to come upon it, that they may at least be more
+careful with it than Mr. Paul Bultitude, by whose melancholy example I
+trust they will take timely warning.
+
+And with these very sincere wishes I beg to bid them a reluctant
+farewell.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Vice Versa, by F. Anstey
+
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