which the Sixth Form assembled for the lesson in Geometry
was on the top floor of the Study building; the windows overlooked the
pond behind the Gymnasium. The teacher's desk was on a platform in the
corner; a blackboard extended along two walls; and there were steps
beneath the blackboard on which the students stood to make their
demonstrations.

Irving arrived a minute before the hour and found his class already
assembled--a suspicious circumstance. There was, too, he felt, an air of
subdued, joyous expectancy. He took his seat and, adjusting his
spectacles, peered round the room; his eyesight was very bad, and he
had, moreover, like so many bookworms, never trained his faculty of
observation.

He read the roll of the class; every boy was there.

"Scarborough, you may go to the blackboard and demonstrate the Fifth
Theorem; Dennison, you the Sixth; Westby, you the Eighth. The rest of
you will solve at your seats this problem."

He mounted to the blackboard himself and wrote out the question. While
he had his back turned, he heard some whispering; he looked over his
shoulder. Westby was lingering in his seat and had obviously been
holding communication with his neighbor.

"Westby,"--Irving's voice was sharp,--"were you trying to get help at the
last moment?"

"I was not." Westby's answer was prompt.

"Then don't delay any longer, please; go to the blackboard at once."

"Yes, sir."

Westby moved to the blackboard on the side of the room--the one at right
angles to that on which Irving and Scarborough were at work.

Irving finished his writing, dusted the chalk from his fingers, and
returned to his seat. The boys before him were now bent industriously
over their tablets; Scarborough, Westby, and Dennison were drawing
figures on the blackboard, using the long pointers for rulers and making
beautiful circles by means of chalk attached to pieces of string. A
glance at Westby showed that youth apparently intent upon solving the
problem assigned him and at work upon it intelligently. Irving began to
feel serene; he proceeded to correct the algebra exercises of the Fourth
Form, which he had received the hour before.

A sudden titter from some one down in front, hastily suppressed and
transformed into a cough, caused him to look up. Morrill, with his mouth
hidden behind his hand, was glancing off toward Westby, and Irving
followed the direction of the glance.

Westby had completed his geometrical figures and was n