thrust himself
perpetually into the foremost place, he was not without success.

"What a much better fellow Saurin is now he has given up going to that
Slam's yard!" said one of his intimates, and his hearers acquiesced. He
had never repeated that abominable hint about the possibility of
Crawley's not having lost the money at all; but Gould had taken up the
idea, and the gossip had spread, as such ill-natured talk about any one
who is popular or in a higher position than others, is sure to do. Very
few, if any, really believed that there was a grain of truth in the
notion, but some thought it clever to talk as if they did, just to be
different from the majority. Others might jump to a conclusion,
swallowing all that the popular idol chose to tell them, but they
withheld their judgment. Unluckily these rumours reached Crawley's
ears; some friendly ass "thought he ought to know," as is always the
case when anything unpleasant is said, and it fretted and annoyed him
exceedingly.

It also had the effect of annulling a movement which was being set on
foot to make up the missing money by subscription, the notion of which
emanated curiously enough from the same source as the scandal. Saurin
had thrown out the hint as a sneer, not a suggestion, but it was taken
up by some honest lad in the latter sense. It had been submitted to the
masters, who not only approved but were anxious to head the
subscription, and the whole thing could have been done at once without
anyone feeling it. But Crawley called a special meeting, and the pupil-
room was crammed to overflowing this time to hear what he had to say,
which was this: "I have asked you to come for a personal and not a
public reason. I am told that it is proposed to raise a subscription to
make up the four pounds twelve the fund has been robbed of. Now, though
I was perhaps not careful enough, I could hardly expect my keys to be
taken out of a coat and the box opened during a short absence, and so I
should have been very glad not to have to bear this loss, for which, of
course, I am solely responsible, alone. But some kind friends (Gould, I
believe, started the idea) are pleased to say that I have robbed myself;
that is, I have spent the money intrusted to me and invented the story
of a robbery." ("Oh! oh! shame! shame!") "Well, yes, I think it was
rather a shame, and I am glad you are indignant about it. But the
accusation having been once made, of course I cannot ac