I was up in good time next morning, to find that Tom Mercer was
beforehand with me, waiting in the shrubbery, and making signs now as
soon as he saw me; but I turned away, and with a disconsolate look, he
dropped down among the bushes, and crouched where he would be screened.

He disappeared at breakfast-time, but he was back there before dinner,
and for a time after, but he suddenly rushed away, and I supposed that
some of the boys were coming round to that side of the great house.

Then came another weary time of waiting, and I was beginning to think
that I should escape again, when there were steps on the stairs--the
decided, heavy steps of Mr Rebble, who always stamped when he came up
by the boys' bedrooms--to give him importance, we used to say.

It was not a meal-time, so I felt that at last I was to be taken down to
the Doctor's library. Then the door was unlocked, thrown open, and the
master said loudly, "Burr junior, the Doctor wishes to see you in his
room."

My heart began to beat heavily as I followed him down-stairs, and then
through the door on to the front staircase with its thick carpet. The
hall was reached, and Mr Rebble crossed to the library, waited till I
was on the mat, threw the door wide-open and seemed to scoop me in.

A low murmur of voices fell on my ear as the door was opened, and I knew
that I was not to see the Doctor alone, but I did not anticipate facing
such a gathering as I gazed at wildly, with my heart throbbing, my
cheeks hot, and a film coming over my eyes.

For there before me were the Doctor and his lady, Mr Hasnip, and
Mercer, Burr major, and Dicksee. I saw them at a glance, my eyes hardly
resting upon them, for there were three strangers in the room, and I
divined now why it was that I had not been fetched before.

I was to meet those who had placed me at the school; while beside my
mother and my uncle there stood the old General, gazing at me with a
very severe scowl.

For a few moments no one spoke, and I felt giddy. A mist was before my
eyes, and everything looked blurred and strange, but through it all I
could see my mother's eyes gazing yearningly at me, and she half rose
from her seat to take me to her heart, but my uncle laid his hand upon
her arm and said firmly,--

"Wait, dear. Let us know the whole business first."

And then, as my mother sank back into her seat, I saw Mrs Doctor take a
seat by her side, whisper something, and my mother took her hand.