to
another as they crossed and passed one another in that afternoon's
promenade. There was no falling into one another's arms in bursts of
mutual sympathy. There was no forced gaiety and indifference, as though
one would say "I don't think much of the place after all." No. With
blunt English pride, each boy bridled up a bit as a stranger drew near,
and looked straight in front of him, till the coast was clear.

At length the bell above the matron's door began to toll, and there was
a general movement among the stragglers in its direction.

About twenty boys, mostly of our heroes' age, assembled in the tea room.
Their small band looked almost lost in that great hall, as they
clustered, of one accord, for warmth and comfort, at one end of the long
table.

The matron entered and said grace, and then proceeded to pour out tea
for her hungry family, while the boys themselves, at her injunction,
passed round the bread-and-butter and eggs.

A meal is one of the most civilising institutions going; and Dick, after
two cups of Templeton tea, and several cubic inches of Templeton bread-
and-butter, felt amiably inclined towards his left-hand neighbour, a
little timorous-looking boy, who blushed when anybody looked at him, and
nearly fainted when he heard his own voice answering Mrs Partlett's
enquiry whether he wanted another cup.

Apart from a friendly motive, it seemed to Dick it would be good
practice to begin talking to a youth of this unalarming aspect. He
therefore enquired, "Are you a new boy?"

The boy started to hear himself addressed; then looking shyly up in the
speaker's face, and divining that no mischief lurked there, he replied--

"Yes."

Dick took another gulp of tea, and continued, "Where do you live--in
London?"

"No--I live in Devonshire."

Dick returned to his meal again, and exchanged some sentences with
Heathcote before he resumed.

"What school were you at before?"

"I wasn't at any--I had lessons at home."

"A tutor?"

The boy blushed very much, and looked appealingly at Dick, as though to
beg him to receive the disclosure he was about to make kindly.

"No--my mother taught me."

Dick did receive it kindly. That is, he didn't laugh. He felt sorry
for the boy and what was in store for him when the news got abroad. He
also felt much less reserved in continuing the conversation.

"Heathcote here and I were at Mountjoy; so we're pretty well used to
kicking about," said he, patron