istened with what gravity he could command.

"You're quite right," he said in reply. "Tootle's behaviour was
especially scandalous to-day. I should certainly take some kind of
notice of it."

"Notuss, sir, notuss! I'll take that amount of notuss of it that all
the metropoluss shall hear of my wrongs. I'll assault 'um, sir; I'll
assault 'um in the face of the school,--the very next time he dares to
provoke me! I'll rise in my might, and smite his bald crown with his
own ruler! I'm not a tall man, Mr. Waymark, but I can reach his crown,
and that he shall be aware of before he knows ut. He sets me at naught
in my own class, sir; he pooh-poohs my mathematical demonstrations,
sir; he encourages my pupils in insubordination! And Mrs. Tootle!
Bedad, if I don't invent some device for revenging myself on that
supercilious woman. The very next time she presumes to address me
disrespectfully at the dinner-table, sir, I'll rise in my might,
sir,--see if I don't!--and I'll say to her, 'Mrs. Tootle, ma'am, you
seem to forget that I'm a gentleman, and have a gentleman's
susceptibilities. When I treat _you_ with disrespect, ma'am, pray tell
me of ut, and I'll inform you you speak an untruth!'"

Waymark smiled, with the result that the expression of furious wrath
immediately passed from his colleague's countenance, giving place to a
broad grin.

"Waymark, look here!" exclaimed the Irishman, snatching up a piece of
chalk, and proceeding to draw certain outlines upon a black-board.
"Here's Tootle, a veritable Goliath;--here's me, as it were David.
Observe; Tootle holds in his hand his 'little compendium,' raised in
haughty superciliousness. Observe me with the ruler!--I am on tiptoe; I
am taking aim; there is wrath in every sinew of my arrum! My arrum
descends on the very centre of Tootle's bald pate--"

"Mr. O'Gree!"

The tableau was most effective. Unnoticed by either the Irishman or
Waymark, the door had opened behind them, and there had appeared a
little red-faced woman, in slatternly dress. It was Mrs. Tootle. She
had overheard almost the whole of O'Gree's vivid comment upon his
graphic illustration, in silence, until at length she could hold her
peace no longer, and gave utterance to the teacher's name in a voice
which trembled with rage and mortification.

"Mr. O'Gree! Are you aware of my presence, sir?"

The chalk dropped from O'Gree's fingers, but otherwise his attitude
remained unaltered; struck motionless with horror,