s
beginning to see that the railway carriage, with all those boys sitting
by and staring, would be an inconvenient place for so delicate and
difficult a confession.

The guard having warned intending passengers to take their seats, and
Jolland, who had been unaccountably missing all this time, having
appeared from the direction of the refreshment buffet, furtively
brushing away some suspicious-looking flakes and crumbs from his coat,
and contrived to join the party unperceived, they all got into a
first-class compartment--Paul with the rest.

He longed for moral courage to stand out boldly and refuse to leave
town, but, as we have seen, it was beyond his powers, and he temporised.
Very soon the whistle had sounded and the train had begun to glide
slowly out beyond the platform and arch, past the signal boxes and long
low sheds and offices which are the suburbs of a large terminus--and
then it was too late.

4. _A Minnow amongst Tritons_

"Boys are capital fellows in their own way among their mates; but
they are unwholesome companions for grown people."--_Essays of
Elia._

For some time after they were fairly started the Doctor read his evening
paper with an air of impartial but severe criticism, and Mr. Bultitude
as he sat opposite him next to the window, found himself overwhelmed
with a new and very unpleasant timidity.

He knew that, if he would free himself, this utterly unreasonable
feeling must be wrestled with and overcome; that now, if ever, was the
time to assert himself, and prove that he was anything but the raw youth
he was conscious of appearing. He had merely to speak and act, too, in
his ordinary everyday manner; to forget as far as possible the change
that had affected his outer man, which was not so very difficult to do
after all--and yet his heart sank lower and lower as each fresh
telegraph post flitted past.

"I will let him speak first," he thought; "then I shall be able to feel
my way." But there was more fear than caution in the resolve.

At last, however, the Doctor laid down his paper, and, looking round
with the glance of proprietorship on his pupils, who had relapsed into a
decorous and gloomy silence, observed: "Well, boys, you have had an
unusually protracted vacation this time--owing to the unprecedented
severity of the weather. We must try to make up for it by the zest and
ardour with which we pursue our studies during the term. I intend to
reduce the Easte