t 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