string that could touch him, but
it seemed beneath him to own it. At that moment a carriage approached,
the boy's whole face lighted up, and he jumped forward. "Our own!" he
cried. "There she is!"

She was, of course, his mother; and Norman, though turning hastily away
that his presence might prove no restraint, saw the boy fly over the
door of the open carriage, and could have sobbed at the thought of what
that meeting was.

"Who was that with you?" asked Mrs. Larkins, when she had obtained leave
to have her boy with her, while she did her shopping.

"That was May senior, our dux."

"Was it? I am very glad you should be with him, my dear George. He is
very kind to you, I hope?"

"He is a jolly good fellow," said Larkins sincerely, though by no means
troubling himself as to the appropriateness of the eulogy, nor thinking
it necessary to explain to his mother the terms of the conversation.

It was not fruitless; Larkins did avoid mischief when it was not
extremely inviting, was more amenable to May senior, and having been put
in mind by him of his home, was not ashamed to bring the thought to the
aid of his eyes, when, on Sunday, during a long sermon of Mr. Ramsden's,
he knew that Axworthy was making the grimace which irresistibly incited
him to make a still finer one.

And Ballhatchet was so much convinced of "that there young May" being in
earnest, that he assured his persuasive customers that it was as much as
his licence was worth to supply them.

Evil and insubordination were more easily kept under than Norman had
expected, when he first made up his mind to the struggle. Firmness had
so far carried the day, and the power of manful assertion of the right
had been proved, contrary to Cheviot's parting auguries, that he would
only make himself disliked, and do no good.

The whole of the school was extremely excited this summer by a
proceeding of Mr. Tomkins, the brewer, who suddenly closed up the
footway called Randall's Alley, declaring that there was no right of
passage through a certain field at the back of his brewery. Not only the
school, but the town was indignant, and the Mays especially so. It
had been the doctor's way to school forty years ago, and there were
recollections connected with it that made him regard it with personal
affection. Norman, too, could not bear to lose it; he had not entirely
conquered his reluctance to pass that spot in the High Street, and the
loss of the alley would be a pos