low meeting held at some place
in the New Cut, and that the ten pounds had been given him as
compensation, he having threatened to come and complain to me.

"He was ignorant of the name of the boy, but he had received the note
from a prize-fighter named Perkins, who keeps a low public-house down at
Millbank. I sent a note to the man, requesting him to be good enough to
call upon me this morning early. He did so. I told him that I had heard
that he had paid to that man ten pounds as compensation for an injury
which he had received from one of my boys, and I asked him from whom he
had received it.

"He told me that nothing whatever would have induced him to tell; but as
he knew the young gent would himself confess the instant the question
was put, for he had told him he should do so did it come to my ears,
there was no motive in his keeping silence, and it was Mr. Norris who
had given it to him. On inquiry I find that the meeting in question was
held between half-past nine and eleven; therefore, to have been present,
Norris must have broken out of bounds and got into the boarding-house at
night.

"This, in itself, would be a very grave offence, but it is as nothing by
the side of the other. I am most reluctantly obliged to admit that I can
come to but one conclusion: Norris, having broken bounds, and got into a
disgraceful fray, was afraid that the matter would come to my ears. It
was absolutely necessary for him to procure ten pounds to buy the
silence of this man; my own very culpable carelessness, which I most
deeply regret, left the note on the table, and the temptation was too
much for him.

"I have questioned him how he got it. If he had said that he had picked
it up in the yard, and, not knowing to whom it belonged, had very
improperly, without making inquiry, devoted it to the purpose of
silencing this man, I should have gladly believed him--for hitherto he
has stood high in my estimation, and I should certainly have considered
him incapable of an act of theft. But he tells me that it was sent to
him in an envelope, by whom he does not know; and this absurd story is,
to my mind, a clear proof that he must have stolen it from the table."

The two masters had at first looked at Frank with incredulous surprise,
but as the narrative continued and the proofs appeared to accumulate,
the expression changed, and they regarded him with horror, not unmixed
with pity. For a minute there was silence, then Mr. Richards s