y,
"if you will excuse me, sir."

"I must, however, beg that you will, if you please," replied the doctor.

"I really know nothing positively, I can say nothing certainly. You
would not wish, sir, that any imagination of mine should prejudice
you to Louis Mortimer's disadvantage; I am not able to say any thing,"
and Hamilton turned away in some confusion, vexed that he should have
been appealed to.

Dr. Wilkinson looked half perplexed--he paused a moment and fixed his
eyes on the table. Louis ventured to say, "Mr. Hamilton saw a book once
before with my lesson books, but I never used it."

"What do you mean by _saw a book_?" asked the doctor. "What book did
Mr. Hamilton see? How came it there, and why was it there?"

"It was 'Kenrick's Greek Exercises,' sir."

"You mean the 'Key,' I suppose?"

Louis answered in the affirmative.

"Whose was it?" asked the doctor, with a countenance more ominous
in its expression.

"It was the one you took from Harrison, sir," replied Louis.

"Humph! I thought I took it away. Bring it here." Louis obeyed,
and the doctor having looked at it, continued, "Well, you had this
_with your lesson books_, you say. How did it come there?"

"One of the boys gave it to me, sir," replied Louis.

"And why did you not put it away?"

"I was going, sir;" and the color rushed into Louis' pale face. "I did
not use it--and I hope I should not."

"Who left the book?" asked Dr. Wilkinson.

"Churchill, sir."

"Call Churchill, Salisbury."

Salisbury obeyed; and during his absence a profound silence reigned in
the room, for all the first class were watching the proceedings in deep
interest. Dr. Wilkinson seemed lost in thought; and Louis, in painful
anxiety, scanned the strongly marked countenance of his master, now
wearing its most unpleasing mask, and those of Hamilton and Trevannion,
alternately. Hamilton did not look at him, but bent over a table at
a book, the leaves of which he nervously turned. Trevannion eyed him
haughtily as he leaned in his most graceful attitude against the wall
behind the doctor's chair; and poor Louis read his condemnation in his
eyes, as well as in the faces of most present.

Salisbury at length returned with Churchill, who was the more awe-struck
at the unwonted summons, as he was so low in the school as seldom to have
any business with the principal.

"Churchill," said the doctor, gravely, "I have sent for you to hear what
is said of you. Now, Louis Mortim