k_--_thud_! Morton's return
sounding like an echo of my blow.

There was a buzz of excitement. Coats flew off; two of our fellows
eagerly pressed forward to act as seconds; my shirt-sleeves were rolled
up over my thin arms, and in another instant we two fellow-pupils were
squaring at each other, and I was gathering myself up to deliver as hard
a blow as I could when--

"Stop! halt!" came in a sharp harsh voice, and General Crucie, with the
great scar upon his white forehead looking red and inflamed as it always
did when he was angry, strode up, thumped down his thick malacca cane,
so that the ferule went into the grass and it stood alone, while he
looked from one to the other fiercely.

"Upon my word!" he cried. "Very pretty! Two gentlemen flying at each
others' throats like a couple of street boys. A regular blackguardly
fight. I'm ashamed of you, gentlemen. What does it all mean?"

"Well, sir, it was like this," began Hendry, my second.

"Silence, sir! I will not hear a word. I pretty well know what it all
means. You, Vincent, as usual; that nasty overbearing temper of yours
again. Is it utterly impossible for you to live in unity with your
fellow-students?"

"No, sir; not if they would let me be, and not fasten quarrels on me," I
cried in an ill-used tone.

"Stuff, sir! rubbish, sir! nonsense, sir!" cried the general. "I know
you better than you know yourself; and, mark my words, you will never
succeed in your profession until you learn to behave like a gentleman.
How can you expect to command men if you cannot command yourself.
There, I'll hear no more, for I'm sure you have been in the wrong."

The general pointed in _so_ unmistakable a manner that I walked off with
my uniform jacket half on, slowly thrusting my arm into the vacant
sleeve, and thinking bitterly, with my head bent and my forehead
wrinkled up like that of an old man.

I was not long in reaching my little room, a favourite one amongst our
fellows; and as I shut myself in, and locked the door, my conscience
reproached me with certain passages in the past which led to my having
that room, when a fellow-student gave way in my favour, and I don't
think it was from kindly feeling towards me.

"I'm a miserable, unhappy wretch," I said, as I threw myself in a chair
which resented the rough usage by creaking violently and threatening to
break one leg. "Nobody likes me. I'm always getting into trouble, and
every one will be glad when