be the best place for you, Jack," he said, patting him on the
back. "You are not too young to go to a public school, and I can vouch
for it that you will thoroughly enjoy the life. It will give you
opportunities of playing games and of making friends that you have never
had here. You will be leaving this house in about a week's time, and
till then, my boy, contrive to live on good terms with Frank. Do not
quarrel with him. A term at school will make all the difference, and
when you return here you two lads will be the best of friends. There,
that will do, Jack."

Captain Somerton had come to a wise determination. His wife was
strongly in favour of home education, and for that purpose a tutor
attended daily at the Grange. But to the captain's mind such a bringing
up was far from judicious. He himself had had a public-school life, and
had rubbed shoulders with hundreds of other boys, and he knew the value
of such a training. He argued, and argued rightly, that in the majority
of cases a boy who has never left his home becomes either a milk-sop or
a conceited youth, and he was strongly of opinion that Jack should go to
school. Now, much to his secret delight, there was an opportunity to
separate the boys and send Jack away from home, and he seized it
promptly.

Within two days of the quarrel between himself and Mrs Somerton, and
between Jack and Frank, he had posted off to a popular and high-class
public school not forty miles from London, where he arranged that Jack
should be sent at once, as the term was about to commence and he was
fortunate in obtaining a vacancy.

Meanwhile Jack had received the news of his impending change in life
with the greatest pleasure. For the past three years his had been
anything but a happy existence, and the knowledge that there was now to
be a change was therefore a source of delight to him. He was not a
quarrelsome lad; far from it. But for all that he was not the lad to
put up with ill-treatment; and his stepbrother's attempts to presume
upon his year of seniority so often approached the verge of
ill-treatment that trouble was constantly occurring.

Still, his father had asked him to be on good terms with Frank till he
left for school, and Jack determined to act up to the promise he had
given. He told his father he was sorry there had been a quarrel, and
retired to the schoolroom again. Frank was there, seated again on the
fire-guard, and greeted him with no very fri