hen he did yield, under threats of actual expulsion
from the school, he made such a point of comparing everything I did and
said with the far superior manner in which Smith did and said it, that
for a time it was rather uphill work. At length, however, he quieted
down, and displayed no small aptitude for instruction, which was
decidedly encouraging.

At the office Hawkesbury, ever since the uncomfortable meeting at his
father's, had been very constrained in his manner to Jack and me,
attempting no longer to force his society on us, and, indeed, relapsing
into an almost mysterious reserve, which surprised more of those who
knew him than our two selves.

As Doubleday said--who had never quite got over his sense of injury--"he
had shut himself up with his petty-cash, and left us to get on the best
we could without him."

Smith and I would both, for his father's sake, have liked if possible to
befriend him or do him a good turn. But he seemed studiously to avoid
giving us the opportunity, and was now as distant to us as we had once
been to him.

However, in other respects our life at Hawk Street proceeded pleasantly
enough, not the least pleasant thing being a further rise in both our
salaries, an event which enabled me to set aside so much more every week
to repay Flanagan his generous loan, as well as to clear myself finally
of debt.

Things were going on thus smoothly, and it was beginning to seem as if
the tide of life was set calm for both of us, when an event happened
which once more suddenly stirred us to excitement and perturbation.

It was a Sunday evening, the evening preceding Jack's examination. He
had been working hard, too hard, night after night for weeks past, and
was now taking a literal day of rest before his ordeal. We were in our
room with Mr Smith the elder, who was a regular Sunday visitor. He had
devoted whatever spare time he could give of late to Jack's
preparations, "coaching" him in Latin and Greek, and reading with him
Ancient History. And now he was almost as excited and anxious about the
result as either of us two.

Indeed, Jack himself took the whole matter so coolly that it seemed he
must either have been perfectly confident of success, or perfectly
indifferent to it, and this evening he was doing quite as much to keep
up our spirits as we his.

The examination, which was to last two days, was to begin at nine next
morning, and Jack had received a gratifying permission from th