est bond of sympathy, and Riddell
positively beamed on his rival in recognition of his salute.

"I trust your mother," said Mrs Patrick, "whose indisposition we were
regretting on the last occasion when you were here, is now better?"

"Very well indeed, I hope," replied the captain, hardly knowing what he
said. "Thank you."

"And I trust, Mr Riddell," chimed in Miss Stringer, "that you were
gratified by the result of the election."

"No, thank you," replied Riddell, beginning to shake in his shoes.

"Indeed? If I remember right you professed yourself to be a Liberal?"

"Yes--that is--the Radical got in," faltered Riddell, wondering why in
common charity no one came to his rescue.

"And pray, Mr Riddell," continued Miss Stringer, ruthlessly, "can you
tell us the difference between a Liberal and a Radical? I have often
longed to know--and you I have no doubt are an authority?"

Riddell at this point seriously meditated a forced retreat, and there is
no saying what desperate act he might have committed had not the doctor
providentially come to the rescue.

"The election altogether," said he, laughing, "is rather a sore point in
the school. I told you, my dear, about the manner in which Mr
Cheeseman's letter was received?"

"You did," replied Mrs Patrick, who for some few moments had had her
eyes upon Bloomfield, with a view to draw him out.

"Now do you really suppose, Mr Bloomfield, that the boys in your house,
for instance, attached any true importance at all to the issue of the
contest?"

Bloomfield, who had not been aware till this question was half over that
it had been addressed to him, started and said--the most fatal
observation he could have made--

"Eh? I beg your pardon, that is."

"I inquired," said Mrs Patrick, fixing him with her eye, "whether you
really supposed that the boys in your house, for instance, attached any
true importance at all to the issue of the contest?"

Bloomfield received this ponderous question meekly, and made a feeble
effort to turn it over in his mind, and then dreading to hear it
repeated once more, answered, "Oh, decidedly, ma'am."

"In what respect?" inquired the lady, settling herself down on the
settee, and awaiting, with raised eyebrows, her victim's answer.

Poor Bloomfield was no match for this deliberate style of tactics.

"They were all yellow," he replied, feebly.

"All what, sir?" demanded Mrs Patrick.

"All Whig, I mean," he said.

"Exactly.