was Skidmore's favourite companion, and if he
helped me in my studies?'"

The unfortunate Skidmore, when he returned, soon found reason to regret
his rash hospitality, for he never heard the last of the cake (which
had, as it happened, been paid for in the usual manner) during the rest
of the term.

There was a slight laugh at the enormity of Mrs. Skidmore's presumption,
and then a long pause, after which some one asked suddenly, "Does any
one know whether Chawner really has left this time?"

"I hope so," said a big, heavy boy, and his hope seemed echoed with a
general fervour. "He's been going to leave every term for the last year,
but I believe he really has done it this time. He wrote and told me he
wasn't coming back."

"Thank goodness!" said several, with an evident relief, and some one was
just observing that they had had enough of the sneaking business, when a
fly was heard to drive up, and the bell rang, whereupon everyone
abandoned his easy attitude, and seemed to brace himself up for a trying
encounter.

"Look out--here's Grimstone!" they whispered under their breaths, as
voices and footsteps were heard in the hall outside.

Presently the door of the schoolroom opened, and another boy entered the
room. Dr. Grimstone, it appeared, had not been the occupant of the fly,
after all. The new-comer was a tall, narrow-shouldered, stooping fellow,
with a sallow, unwholesome complexion, thin lips, and small sunken
brown eyes. His cheeks were creased with a dimpling subsmile, half
uneasy, half malicious, and his tread was mincing and catlike.

"Well, you fellows?" he said.

All rose at once, and shook hands effusively. "Why, Chawner!" they
cried, "how are you, old fellow? We thought you weren't coming back!"

There was a heartiness in their manner somewhat at variance with their
recent expressions of opinion; but they had doubtless excellent reasons
for any inconsistency.

"Well," said Chawner, in a low, soft voice, which had a suggestion of
feminine spitefulness, "I was going to leave, but I thought you'd be
getting into mischief here without me to watch over you. Appleton, and
Lench, and Coker want looking after badly, I know. So, you see, I've
come back after all."

He laughed with a little malevolent cackle as he spoke, and the three
boys named laughed too, though with no great heartiness, and shifting
the while uneasily on their seats.

After this sally the conversation languished until Tom Grimstone