r 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 mi