d, without knowing how to begin. I thought he would
have looked me down. I felt the blood receding from my face beneath his
cold gaze, as he said--

"Geoffrey, what do you want here?"

"I came, sir," I at last faltered out, "to make a complaint against Mr.
Jones."

"I never listen to complaints brought by a pupil against his teacher,"
he cried, in a voice which made me recoil over the door-step. "Be gone,
sir! If you come into my presence again on such an errand, I will spurn
you from the room."

This speech, meant to intimidate me, restored my courage. I felt the
hot blood rush to my face in a fiery flood.

"Hear me, sir. Did not you place me under his care in order that I
might learn?"

"And you refuse to do so?"

"No, sir: the reverse is the case: he refuses to teach me, and deprives
me of my books, so that I cannot teach myself."

"A very _probable_ tale," sneered Mr. Moncton; then rising from the
table at which he was seated, he cried out hastily, "Is Mr. Jones in
the study?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then, my new client, come along with me. I will soon learn the truth
of your case."

He clutched me by the arm, which he grasped so tightly that I could
scarcely resist a cry of pain, and hurried me out. In the study we
found Theophilus and Mr. Jones: the one lounging on two chairs, the
other smoking a cigar and reading a novel. Mr. Moncton stood for a
moment in the door-way, regarding the pair with his peculiar glance.

"Gentlemen, you seem _pleasantly_ and _profitably_ employed!"

"Our morning tasks are concluded," said Theophilus, returning the stare
of scrutiny with a steady lie. "'Too much work would make Jack a dull
boy.'"

His father smiled grimly. How well he understood the character of his
son.

"Here is a lad, Mr. Jones, who complains that you not only refuse to
teach him, but deprive him of his books."

"He tells the truth, sir," returned that worthy, casting upon me a
spiteful, sidelong glance, which seemed to say more eloquently than
words, "You shall see, master Geoffrey, what you'll get by tale-bearing.
I'll match you yet." "I have withheld his books, and refused my
instructions for the past week, as a punishment for his insolent and
disrespectful conduct to your son and me; to say nothing of his
impertinent speeches regarding _you_, sir, who are his guardian and
benefactor."

"Do you hear that--sir!" said my uncle, giving me a violent blow on my
cheek, and flinging me from him. "When next