in the school who would think with him."

"Nor I, and I can't make out why any one should," said Alick; "to my
mind they are the jolliest evenings we have."

"Oh yes, I should think they would just suit _you_" answered Digby,
with his accustomed sneer, "but they don't suit me. They are precious
slow affairs, and I don't care much for the society of Mrs. B. She
pries into the school affairs a sight too much as it is, and----"

What other objections Digby might have advanced will forever remain
unknown. He had committed high treason in speaking lightly of a name
dear to the heart of every boy there, and a storm of hissing and
hooting greeted his unfinished sentence.

He saw that he had trespassed on ground which was too dangerous for him
to tread any further, and so, with a defiant "Bah!" he threw his
jacket over his shoulder and walked sullenly away.

Many of the boys in Blackrock school would have found a difficulty in
stating the exact grounds of their regard for Mrs. Brier. To some of
them she was a comparative stranger; they could not trace one direct
act in which they were indebted to her. Perhaps the merest commonplaces
in conversation had passed between them, and yet they felt there was a
something in her presence which threw sunshine around them; they felt
that they were thought about, cared for and loved, and in any little
scrape into which, boy-like, they might get, they felt satisfied that
if the matter only came to her knowledge they would get an impartial
judgment on the case, and the best construction that could be put upon
their conduct would be sure to be suggested by her. But out of eighty
boys it would not be reasonable to suppose that all should share this
feeling alike,--we have seen already one exception; yet the disaffected
were in a very small minority, and the majority was so overwhelming,
and had amongst it all the best acknowledged strength and power of the
school, that no one dared to say above his breath one word against Mrs.
Brier, if he cared for a whole skin.

While Digby was returning to the school by one road, Howard and Martin
strolled leisurely along by another path under the trees.

"I can't understand Digby," said Martin; "he has altered so very much
lately that he hardly seems the same fellow he was. Have you noticed
that he cuts all his old chums now? What's happened to him?"

"I'm sure I don't know," answered Howard, "but he certainly has altered
very much. I wish we coul