in hue.
And he put on his Sunday clothes,
And he played with saint and with sinner,

For he'd found out a way

To make the thing pay,
And when losing, _He still was the winner!_"
--_Old Legend_.

THE moment Dr. Mildman arrived at home the next day Lawless watched him
into his study, and, as soon as he was safely lodged therein, proceeded,
by the aid of sundry nails and loops previously placed there for the
purpose, to hang his Macintosh right across the passage, so that no
one could leave the study without running against it. He then ambushed
himself near the open door of the pupils' room, where, unseen himself,
he could observe the effect of his arrangements. Coleman and I,
also taking a lively interest in the event, ensconced ourselves in a
favourable position for seeing and hearing. After waiting till our small
stock of patience was nearly exhausted, we were rewarded by hearing the
study-door slowly open, followed by the tread of a well-known footstep
in the passage. The next sound that reached ~60~~our ears was a quick
shuffling of feet upon the oil-cloth, as if the person advancing had
"shyed" at some unexpected object; then came the muttered exclamation,
"Bless my heart, what's this?" And immediately afterwards Dr. Mildman's
face, wearing an expression of the most thorough perplexity and
bewilderment, appeared cautiously peeping from behind the Macintosh.
Having apparently satisfied himself that no enemy was concealed there,
and he had nothing further to fear, but that the whole plot was
centred as it were in the mysterious garment before him, he set himself
seriously to work to examine it. First he pulled out his eye-glass and,
stepping back a pace or two, took a general survey of the whole; he then
approached it again, and taking hold of it in different places with
his hand, examined it in detail so closely that it seemed as if he were
trying to count the number of threads. Being apparently unwilling in so
difficult an investigation to trust to the evidence of any one sense,
he replaced his eye-glass in his waistcoat pocket, and began rubbing
a portion of the skirt between his hands; the sense of touch failing,
however, to throw any new light upon the subject, as a sort of forlorn
hope, he applied his nose to it. The result of this was an indescribable
exclamation, expressive of intense disgust, followed immediately by a
violent sneeze; then came a