"Silence yourself, buffoon!" retorted Distin, sharply, and poor Macey
sank down in his chair, startled, or assuming to be.

"No, Mr Gilmore," said Distin, haughtily, "you are not Vane Lee, you
said, and--and what?"

"I'll tell you," cried the lad, with his brow lowering. "I will not sit
still and let you bully me. He may not think it worth his while to hit
out at a foreign-bred fellow who snaps and snarls like an angry dog, but
I do; and if you speak to me again as you did just now, I'll show you
how English-bred fellows behave. I'll punch your head."

"No, you will not, Gil," said Vane, half rising in his seat. "I don't
want to quarrel, but if there must be one, it's mine. So look here,
Distin: you've done everything you could for months past to put me out
of temper."

"He--aw!--he--aw!" cried Macey, in parliamentary style.

"Be quiet, jackass," cried Distin; and Macey began to lower himself, in
much dread, under the table.

"I say," continued Vane, "you have done everything you could to put me
out of temper, and I've put up with it patiently, and behaved like a
coward."

"He--aw, he--aw!" said Macey again; and Vane shook his fist at him
good-humouredly.

"Amen. That's all, then," cried Macey; and then, imitating the rector
again, "Now, gentlemen, let us resume our studies."

"Be quiet, Aleck," said Gilmore, angrily; "I--"

He did not go on, for he saw Distin's hand stealing toward a heavy
dictionary, and, at that moment, Vane said firmly:--

"I felt it was time to show you that I am not quite a coward. I did
mean it as an insult, as you call it. What then?"

"That!" cried Distin, hurling the dictionary he had picked up with all
his might at his fellow-pupil, across the table, but without effect.
Vane, like most manly British lads, knew how to take care of himself,
and a quick movement to one side was sufficient to allow the big book to
pass close to his ear, and strike with a heavy bang against the door
panel just as the handle rattled, and a loud "Hum--ha!" told that the
rector was coming into the room for the morning's reading.

CHAPTER FOUR.

MARTHA'S MISTAKE.

As quickly as if he were fielding a ball, Vane caught up the volume from
where it fell, and was half-way back to his seat as the rector came in,
looking very much astonished, partly at the noise of the thump on the
door, partly from an idea that the dictionary had been thrown as an
insult to him.

Macey was generally rather