p. It is
perfect child's play, and yet you have gone on getting the problem into
a hopeless tangle--a ridiculous tangle. You have made a surd perfectly
absurd, and--"

"Mr Hasnip!" came from the other end of the great room. Mr Hasnip
looked up.

"The drill-master is here. The horse has arrived for Burr junior's
riding lesson. Can you excuse him?"

"Certainly, sir," and Mr Hasnip looked at me, showing his teeth in a
hungry kind of smile, as if a nice morsel were being snatched from him,
and I stood with my heart beating, and the warm blood tingling in my
cheeks, conscious that all the boys were looking at me.

"Here, take your book, Burr junior," said my tutor. "Very glad to go, I
daresay. Now aren't you?"

I looked up at him, but made no reply.

"Do you hear me, sir?"

"Yes, sir."

"I said, `Aren't you glad to go?'"

"Yes, sir."

"Of course. There, be off. You'll never learn anything. You are the
stupidest boy I ever taught."

My cheeks burned, and as I turned to go, there was fat Dicksee grinning
at me in so provoking a way, that if we had been alone, I should in my
vexation have tried one of Lomax's blows upon his round, smooth face.
But as it was, I went back to my place, where Mercer was seated, with
his hands clasped and thrust down between his knees, his back up, and
his head down over his book, apparently grinding up his Euclid, upon
which he kept his eyes fixed.

"Oh ho!" he whispered; "here you are. Without exception, sir, the
stupidest boy I ever taught."

"I'll punch your head by and by, Tom, if you're not quiet," I said.

"Who made the surd absurd?"

"Did you hear what I said?"

"Yes. Oh, you lucky beggar! Who are you, I should like to know, to be
having your riding lessons?"

"Less talking there, Burr junior."

This from Mr Rebble, and I went out, passing close to Burr major, who
looked me up and down contemptuously, as he took out his watch, and said
to the nearest boy,--

"Rank favouritism! if there's much more of it, I shall leave the
school."

But I forgot all this directly, as I stepped out, where I found Lomax
standing up as stiff as a ramrod, and with a walking cane thrust under
his arms and behind his back, trussing him like a chicken, so as to
throw out his chest.

He saluted me in military fashion.

"Mornin', sir. Your trooper's waiting. Looks a nice, clever little
fellow."

"Trooper?" I faltered in a disappointed tone. "What do you mean? I
thou