The vicar stooped for his pen, and the tranter, wishing to show that,
however great their ecclesiastical differences, his mind was not so small
as to let this affect his social feelings, stooped also.

"And have you anything else you want to explain to me, Dewy?" said Mr.
Maybold from under the table.

"Nothing, sir. And, Mr. Mayble, you be not offended? I hope you see our
desire is reason?" said the tranter from under the chair.

"Quite, quite; and I shouldn't think of refusing to listen to such a
reasonable request," the vicar replied. Seeing that Reuben had secured
the pen, he resumed his vertical position, and added, "You know, Dewy, it
is often said how difficult a matter it is to act up to our convictions
and please all parties. It may be said with equal truth, that it is
difficult for a man of any appreciativeness to have convictions at all.
Now in my case, I see right in you, and right in Shiner. I see that
violins are good, and that an organ is good; and when we introduce the
organ, it will not be that fiddles were bad, but that an organ was
better. That you'll clearly understand, Dewy?"

"I will; and thank you very much for such feelings, sir. Piph-h-h-h! How
the blood do get into my head, to be sure, whenever I quat down like
that!" said Reuben, who having also risen to his feet stuck the pen
vertically in the inkstand and almost through the bottom, that it might
not roll down again under any circumstances whatever.

Now the ancient body of minstrels in the passage felt their curiosity
surging higher and higher as the minutes passed. Dick, not having much
affection for this errand, soon grew tired, and went away in the
direction of the school. Yet their sense of propriety would probably
have restrained them from any attempt to discover what was going on in
the study had not the vicar's pen fallen to the floor. The conviction
that the movement of chairs, etc., necessitated by the search, could only
have been caused by the catastrophe of a bloody fight beginning,
overpowered all other considerations; and they advanced to the door,
which had only just fallen to. Thus, when Mr. Maybold raised his eyes
after the stooping he beheld glaring through the door Mr. Penny in full-
length portraiture, Mail's face and shoulders above Mr. Penny's head,
Spinks's forehead and eyes over Mail's crown, and a fractional part of
Bowman's countenance under Spinks's arm--crescent-shaped portions of
other heads and