hoped that my damaged face would have
escaped notice, but the master's ferret-eyes singled me out apparently
the instant I entered the room, for he pounced on me at once.

"Boy Leigh," he shouted out in his deep rolling voice, "stand up!"

I obeyed the order, standing up between the table and the form on which
I had been sitting; but Dr Hellyer said nothing further at the time,
after seeing me come to the attitude of "attention," as a drill sergeant
would have termed it, and there I remained while the other pupils
proceeded with their meal. You must remember that I was almost
famishing, for I had had nothing to eat all day beyond the scanty
breakfast which I was too much excited to eat before leaving my uncle's
house at Islington in the morning; while the long journey by rail
combined with the effects of the fresh sea air had made me very hungry.

It may be imagined, therefore, with what wolfish eyes I watched the boys
consuming the piles of bread-and-butter which the old woman distributed,
after serving out the allotted allowance of tea in each pupil's mug!
Tom looked up at me sympathisingly every now and then between the bites
he took out of the thick hunches on his plate; but the fact of my
starving state did not appear to affect his appetite. This made me feel
hurt at my chum's indifference to my sufferings, envying the while every
morsel he swallowed, and wondering when my suspense would cease; and,
although I had not then heard of the tortures of the classic Tantalus,
my feelings must have much resembled those of that mythical person
during this ordeal.

At the expiration of, I suppose, about twenty minutes, within which
interval every one of the busy crowd round the table had made short work
of his portion, not leaving a crumb behind as far as I could notice, the
master, pushing back his armchair, got on his feet, an example
immediately followed by all the boys, and, all standing up, he said
grace.

This ended, the boys, with much shuffling of feet on the bare boards
composing the floor of the apartment, were about to rush out _en masse_,
when Dr Hellyer arrested the movement.

"Stop!" he cried in stentorian tones, drowning the clatter of feet and
whispering of voices; "the pupils will remain in for punishment!"

Every face was turned towards him, with astonishment, expectancy, and
dread marked in each feature; and, with a gratified grin on his broad
flabby countenance, he remained for a moment or two a