e had a shilling he wanted to lay out
at a small fancy-shop we were allowed to patronise, and he considered me
the best person to be entrusted with that coin. I was simply to spend
the money on anything I thought best, for he had entire confidence, he
gave me to understand, in my taste and judgment. I think I suspected a
design of some sort, but I did not dare to refuse, and then his manner
to some extent disarmed me.

I took the shilling, therefore, with which I bought some article--I
forget what--and got back to the school at dusk. The boys had all gone
down to tea except Ormsby, who was waiting for me up in the empty
schoolroom.

'Well?' he said, and I displayed my purchase, only to find that I had
fallen into a trap.

When I think how easily I was the dupe of that not too subtle artifice,
which was only half malicious, I could smile, if I did not know how it
ended.

'How much was that?' he asked contemptuously, 'twopence-halfpenny? Well,
if you choose to give a shilling for it, I'm not going to pay, that's
all. So just give me back my shilling!'

Now, as my weekly allowance consisted of threepence, which was
confiscated for some time in advance (as I think he knew), to provide
fines for my mysteriously-stained dictionaries, this was out of the
question, as I represented.

'Then go back to the shop and change it,' said he; 'I won't have that
thing!'

'Tell me what you would like instead, and I will,' I stipulated, not
unreasonably.

He laughed; his little scheme was working so admirably. 'That's not the
bargain,' he said; 'you're bound to get me something I like. I'm not
obliged to tell you what it is.'

But even I was driven to protest against such flagrant unfairness. 'I
didn't know you meant that,' I said, 'or I'm sure I shouldn't have gone.
I went to oblige _you_, Ormsby.'

'No, you didn't,' he said, 'you went because I told you. And you'll go
again.'

'Not unless you tell me what I'm to get,' I said.

'I tell you what I believe,' he said; 'you never spent the whole
shilling at all on that; you bought something for yourself with the
rest, you young swindler! No wonder you won't go back to the shop.'

This was, of course, a mere taunt flung out by his inventive fancy; but
as he persisted in it, and threatened exposure and a variety of
consequences, I became alarmed, for I had little doubt that, innocent as
I was, I could be made very uncomfortable by accusations which would
find willing hearers.