precocious
piece of effrontery.

But Paul felt the dismal absurdity of his position. Nothing he had said,
nothing he could say, short of the truth, would avail him, and the truth
was precisely what he felt most unable to tell. He hung his head
resignedly, and held his tongue in confusion.

"Pooh!" said the Doctor at last; "let me have no more of this
tomfoolery, Bultitude. It's getting to be a positive nuisance. Don't
come to me with any more of these ridiculous stories, or some day I
shall be annoyed. There, go away, and be contented where you are, and
try to behave like other people."

"'Contented!'" muttered Paul, when out of hearing, as he went upstairs
and through the empty schoolroom into the playground. "'Behave like
other people!' Ah, yes, I suppose I shall have to come to that in time.
But that letter---- Everything upside down---- Bangle asked to meet a
common clown! That fellow Duke letting me in for gold-mines and
tramways! It's all worse than I ever dreamed of; and I must stay here
and be 'contented!' It's--it's perfectly damnable!"

All through that morning his thoughts ran in the same doleful groove,
until the time for work came to an end, and he found himself in the
playground, and free to indulge his melancholy for a few minutes in
solitude; for the others were still loitering about in the schoolroom,
and a glass outhouse originally intended for a conservatory, but now
devoted to boots and slates, and the books liberally besmeared with
gilt, and telling of the exploits of boy-heroes so beloved of boys.

Mr. Bultitude, only too delighted to get away from them for a little
while, was leaning against the parallel bars in dull despondency, when
he heard a rustling in the laurel hedge which cut off the house garden
from the gravelled playground, and looking up, saw Dulcie slip through
the shrubs and come towards him with an air of determination in her
proud little face.

She looked prettier and daintier than ever in her grey hat and warm fur
tippet; but of course Paul was not of the age or in the mood to be much
affected by such things--he turned his head pettishly away.

"It's no use doing that, Dick," she said: "I'm tired of sulking. I
shan't sulk any more till I have an explanation."

Paul made the sound generally written "Pshaw!"

"You ought to tell me everything. I will know it. Oh, Dick, you might
tell me! I always told you anything you wanted to know; and I let mamma
think it was I broke th