ry to repeat
the vile story that was told of me at our former school. If I pass him
by as a stranger, it will make him more inclined to think ill of me."

Ellis acted according to the impulse of the moment. He walked up to
Barber, and, putting out his hand, said, "Don't you remember me,
Barber!"

"Perfectly," said Barber, with great emphasis, and a sneer on his lips.
"One remembers people sometimes whom one would rather forget."

"What do you mean, Barber?" said Ellis. "You are not so cruel, so
unjust, as--"

"Put what construction you like on my meaning," answered Barber. "I am
a straightforward fellow. I say what I think; and of all the characters
I have ever met, I hate most that of a canting hypocrite. I never trust
such an one. You know best what such a fellow is capable of doing."

Ellis stood by listening calmly, but not unmoved, to this cutting
speech. He turned pale and red, and seemed to have difficulty in
drawing his breath. He looked for a moment imploringly at Barber, but
saw only a sneer on his countenance; so gulping down all the feelings
which were rising in his bosom, and which, had he allowed them to break
forth, would not have tended to harmony, he turned away and rejoined
Bracebridge, who was waiting for him.

"There he goes," sneered Barber. "Just like him. Had any fellow spoken
to me as I did to him, I would have knocked him over with my golf club;
but he did not even move his hand as if he would have struck me."

After hearing these remarks, Blackall, Dawson, and other boys of that
set, thought Barber a very fine spirited fellow, and came to the
conclusion that Ellis was not only a regular sneak, but that he was
probably a convicted thief, or liar, or something fully as bad, if not
worse. He said nothing after rejoining his friends, but his spirits
sank lower than Bracebridge had ever before seen them. He seemed
incapable even of doing his ordinary lessons in the way he had been
accustomed to get through them. Even the Doctor and the masters
observed the change. By degrees, too, many of the boys with whom he had
been accustomed to join in their various games began to look shy at him.
One declined to play with him, and then another, and another, till at
last he found that he was cut by the whole school, with the exception of
the three or four friends who generally sided with Bracebridge--Buttar,
Bouldon, Gregson, and little Eden. Poor fellow! it was a sore trial.
Whatever th