ean to go on about one liking to do a bit
of mechanical work. One can read classics and stick to one's
mathematics all the same, and if I can't write a better paper than he
can it's a queer thing."

Vane turned to go back to the Little Manor, for, in spite of his
defiant, careless way of treating Distin's words, he could not help
feeling too much stung to care about continuing his journey to the
rectory, for the feeling would come to the front that his fellow-pupil
had some excuse for what he had said.

"I suppose I did look like a blacksmith's or bricklayer's boy to-day,"
he said to himself. "But if I did, what business is it of his? There's
nothing disgraceful in it, or uncle would soon stop me. And, besides,
Gilmore and Macey don't seem to mind, and their families are far higher
than Distin's. There: I don't care. I was going to give up all kind of
work that dirties one's hands, but now I will not, just out of spite.
Dirty work, indeed! I'll swear I never looked half so dirty over my
carpentering and turning and scheming as I've seen him look after a game
at football on a wet day."

But all the same, the evening at the Little Manor seemed to be a very
dull one; and when, quite late, the carrier's cart stopped at the gate,
and cook got down, Vane felt no interest in knowing what she would say
about the alterations in her kitchen, nor in knowing whether Aunt Hannah
had spoken to her about not lighting the kitchen-fire.

But he revived a little after his supper, and was eager to take a candle
and go out of the hall-door and along the gravel-path, shading the
light, on his way to the greenhouse, where he had a good quiet
inspection of his work, and was delighted to find that the india-rubber
joints hardly leaked in the least, and no more than would be cured by
the swelling of the caoutchouc, as soon as the pipes were made hot, and
the rings began to fit more tightly, by filling up the uneven places in
the rough iron.

Everything looked delightfully fresh and perfect; the pipes glistened of
an ebon blackness; the two brass taps shone new and smooth; and the
various plants and flowers exhaled their scent and began to master that
of the Brunswick black.

Soon after satisfying himself that all was right, he made his way up to
his bedroom, so thoroughly tired out by the bodily exertion of the two
past days that he dropped off at once into a heavy, dreamless sleep,
which was brought to an end about eight o'clock