m 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