occasion, and awaited his next step in terrified suspense.

They all perceived how thoroughly they had mistaken their subject. The
ringleaders would have given all they had to be well out of the scrape.
Mr. Rose ruled by kindness, but he never suffered his will to be
disputed for an instant. He governed with such consummate tact, that
they hardly felt it to be government at all, and hence arose their
stupid miscalculation. But he felt that the time was now come to assert
his paramount authority, and determined to do so at once and for ever.

"Some of you have mistaken me," he said, in a voice so strong and stern
that it almost startled them. "The silly display of passion in one boy
yesterday has led you to presume that you may trifle with me. You are
wrong. For Williams' sake, as a boy who has, or at least once _had_,
something noble in him, I left that matter in the Doctor's hands. I
shall _not_ do so to-night. Which of you put out the candles?"

Dead silence. A pause.

"Which of you had the audacity to throw pieces of bread at me?"

Still silence.

"I warn you that I _will_ know, and it will be far worse for the guilty
if I do not know at once." There was unmistakeable decision in the tone.

"Very well. I know many boys who were _not_ guilty because I saw them
in parts of the room where to throw was impossible. I shall now _ask_
all the rest, one by one, if they took any part in this. And beware of
telling me a lie."

There was an uneasy sensation in the room, and several boys began to
whisper aloud, "Brigson! Brigson!" The whisper grew louder, and Mr. Rose
heard it. He turned on Brigson like a lion, and said--

"They call your name; stand out!"

The awkward, big, ungainly boy, with his repulsive countenance, shambled
out of his place into the middle of the room. Mr. Rose swept him with
one flashing glance. "_That_ is the boy," thought he to himself, "who
has been like an ulcer to this school. These boys shall have a good look
at their hero." It was but recently that Mr. Rose knew all the harm
which Brigson had been doing, though he had discovered, almost from the
first, what _sort_ of character he had.

So Brigson stood out in the room, and as they looked at him, many a boy
cursed him in their hearts for evil taught them, such as a lifetime's
struggle could not unteach. And it was _that_ fellow, that stupid,
clumsy, base compound of meanness and malice, that had ruled like a king
among them. Faugh!

"T