. These imperfect
lessons would be like the damaged links of a chain, and might bring
him trouble again and again, if he did not repair the mischief at
once; and so by the time he went to bed he had well-nigh mastered all
the difficulties, and worked himself into a state of self-content,
which was about the best preparation for the next day's work, for he
went to sleep without a thought beyond his lessons, and took his place
in the class looking bright and cheery once more.

To-day was to be a sort of recapitulation of the previous fortnight's
work in chemistry, and the stupid blunders made the previous day were
more than atoned for, and at last when the boy had worked out a
brilliant result that greatly surprised the master he said, 'Why, you
must have been ill yesterday.'

'No, sir, I was well,' said Horace, seeing the master waited for an
answer. 'I was well enough, but I was not quite happy.'

'Well, then, let me advise you to make yourself happy in future under
any circumstances.' And then he added in an undertone, 'You are a
scholarship lad, and we expect more from you than from some of the
others.'

'Thank you, sir, I'll try,' said Horace; and throughout that day he
did not find it hard to try, as the master had suggested.

The others had their eyes upon him, and were puzzled to account for
his success. They had made up their minds the previous day that they
would only have to carry on their present tactics for a short time,
and Horace would leave the school in disgust, or else he would be
asked to leave by the head master, and thus Torrington's would be
saved from going to the dogs through this scholarship boy. But this
day's experience of what Horace could do under the terrible ban of
their displeasure puzzled them, and they resolved to watch more
closely, to make sure none of those who were suspected of faltering in
allegiance to the decree of their leaders did not speak to him on
their way home.

But Horace himself did not expect this now. The first bitterness of
the trial had worn off, and as soon as he was beyond the school gate
he set off home at a sharp trot, softly whistling to himself, as he
pondered over what would be the probable effect if a certain acid they
had been using was mixed with another substance entirely different
from anything they had used in that day's experiments.

He whistled and thought, and turned the matter over and over in his
mind, and finally ended by wishing that his mo