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