m to himself in a corner. A very good thing too! Where else
should a great gawky schoolboy be?"

"Safe at home, where I wish he would let me be," muttered Norman, though
he contrived to smile, and followed Flora out of the room, without
subjecting himself to the imputation of offended dignity.

Ethel was displeased, and began her defence: "Papa, I wish--" and there
she checked herself.

"Eh! Miss Ethel's bristles up!" said her father, who seemed in a
somewhat mischievous mood of teasing.

"How could you, papa?" cried she.

"How could I what, Miss Etheldred?"

"Plague Norman,"--the words would come. "Accuse him of airs."

"I hate to see young fellows above taking an honour from their elders,"
said Dr. May.

"Now, papa, papa, you know it is no such thing. Dr. Hoxton's parties are
very dull--you know they are, and it is not fair on Norman. If he
was set up and delighted at going so often, then you would call him
conceited."

"Conceit has a good many lurking-places," said Dr. May. "It is harder to
go and be overlooked, than to stay at home."

"Now, papa, you are not to call Norman conceited," cried Ethel. "You
don't believe that he is any such thing."

"Why, not exactly," said Dr. May, smiling. "The boy has missed it
marvellously; but, you see, he has everything that subtle imp would wish
to feed upon, and it is no harm to give him a lick with the rough side
of the tongue, as your canny Scots grandfather used to say."

"Ah! if you knew, papa--" began Ethel.

"If I knew?"

"No, no, I must not tell."

"What, a secret, is there?"

"I wish it was not; I should like to tell you very much, but then, you
see, it is Norman's, and you are to be surprised."

"Your surprise is likely to be very much like Blanche's birthday
presents, a stage aside."

"No, I am going to keep it to myself."

Two or three days after, as Ethel was going to the schoolroom after
breakfast, Dr. May beckoned her back to the dining-room, and, with his
merry look of significance, said, "Well, ma'am, I have found out your
mystery!"

"About Norman? Oh, papa! Did he tell you?"

"When I came home from the hospital last night, at an hour when all
respectable characters, except doctors and police, should be in their
warm beds, I beheld a light in Norman's window, so methought I would see
what Gravity was doing out of his bed at midnight--"

"And you found him at his Greek--"

"So that was the meaning of his looking so lank and careworn,