te 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.

"