il many years later to be more
clumsily rendered as "what is coming to him.") Something was bound to
take him down, some day, and they only wanted to be there! But Georgie
heard nothing of this, and the yearners for his taking down went
unsatisfied, while their yearning grew the greater as the happy day
of fulfilment was longer and longer postponed. His grandeur was not
diminished by the Malloch Smith story; the rather it was increased, and
among other children (especially among little girls) there was added to
the prestige of his gilded position that diabolical glamour which must
inevitably attend a boy who has told a minister to go to hell.

Chapter III

Until he reached the age of twelve, Georgie's education was a domestic
process; tutors came to the house; and those citizens who yearned for
his taking down often said: "Just wait till he has to go to public
school; then he'll get it!" But at twelve Georgie was sent to a private
school in the town, and there came from this small and dependent
institution no report, or even rumour, of Georgie's getting anything
that he was thought to deserve; therefore the yearning still persisted,
though growing gaunt with feeding upon itself. For, although Georgie's
pomposities and impudence in the little school were often almost
unbearable, the teachers were fascinated by him. They did not like
him--he was too arrogant for that--but he kept them in such a state of
emotion that they thought more about him than they did about all of the
other ten pupils. The emotion he kept them in was usually one resulting
from injured self-respect, but sometimes it was dazzled admiration. So
far as their conscientious observation went, he "studied" his lessons
sparingly; but sometimes, in class, he flashed an admirable answer, with
a comprehension not often shown by the pupils they taught; and he passed
his examinations easily. In all, without discernible effort, he acquired
at this school some rudiments of a liberal education and learned nothing
whatever about himself.

The yearners were still yearning when Georgie, at sixteen, was sent
away to a great "Prep School." "Now," they said brightly, "he'll get it!
He'll find himself among boys just as important in their home towns as
he is, and they'll knock the stuffing out of him when he puts on his
airs with them! Oh, but that would be worth something to see!" They were
mistaken, it appeared, for when Georgie returned, a few months later,