evening?"

Riddell turned pale at the bare suggestion, and would probably have
invented some wild excuse to get off the dreaded honour had not the
doctor continued, "I'm sorry Mrs Patrick and her sister are from home;
they take a great interest in you, I can assure you."

"Oh, not at all," cried Riddell, whom the bare mention of those ladies'
names was sufficient to confuse hopelessly.

"Come at seven o'clock, will you?" said the doctor, pleasantly, not
noticing his head boy's perturbation.

Riddell continued his walk in a state of considerable perplexity. For
some moments he could not get beyond the fact that Mrs Patrick and Miss
Stringer were from home, and the relief of that reflection was
unspeakable. But what could the doctor want him for? Was it to tell
him he did not consider him equal to the duties of captain, and to
relieve him of his office? Riddell devoutly wished it might be so. And
yet he hardly fancied from the head master's manner this was to be the
subject of their interview.

Perhaps it was to cross-examine him as to the boat-race. That wretched
boat-race! Riddell had hardly had a minute's peace since that
afternoon. The burden of the whole affair seemed to rest upon him. The
taunts of the disappointed Parretts, which glanced harmless off minds
like Fairbairn's and Porter's, wounded him to the quick, and, until the
mystery should be solved, Riddell felt almost like a guilty party
himself. He rather hoped the doctor did want to talk about this. It
would be a relief to unburden his mind, at any rate. But even these
troubles were slight compared with Riddell's concern about his old
friend's brother. In spite of all his efforts young Wyndham was going
wrong. He was getting more irregular in his visits to Riddell's study,
and when he did come he was more reserved and secret, and less inclined
to confide in his friend than before. It was easy to guess the reason,
and Riddell felt baffled and dispirited as he thought about it. To save
young Wyndham from his bad friends would be worth to him more even than
to secure the order of Willoughby, or to discover the perpetrator of the
boat-race outrage.

In this troubled state of mind Riddell passed the day till the time
arrived for him to present himself at the doctor's.

He entered warily and suspiciously, as though not quite sure whether,
after all, the two ladies might be lying in ambush somewhere for him.
But no, there was no deception, on