eet of writing-paper before him, on
which he was writing, not in his usual hand, but in printed characters.
He would have thought nothing of it had not Barkley, on looking up and
seeing him standing there, jumped up in a sudden rage and boxed his ears
furiously, calling him a prying little sneak. The boy could not fix this
to a day, but it was certainly just about the time when this letter was
posted to you.

"The other affair had happened the day previously. He had gone into
Barkley's room with his books on coming down from school at twelve
o'clock, and seeing on his table a letter stamped and ready for the
post, he supposed that as usual he was to post it, and was running
downstairs with it in his hand when he met Barkley coming up. 'What have
you got there?' he asked. 'I am taking your letter to the post,' he
said; whereupon Barkley flew into another rage, called him an officious
little beast, gave him a box in the ear, and took the letter from him. I
asked the boy if he noticed to whom the letter was directed. He said he
had, and that it was to you. Knowing nothing about the suppression of a
letter of Norris's, and thinking that perhaps Barkley had written to his
uncle about the matter, and had then changed his mind about posting it,
this second affair did not strike me as having any importance whatever.
The first matter, however, seemed important, for that just at the time
when a letter was sent to Norris written in printing characters Barkley
should have been seen writing a letter of that sort, struck me as most
remarkable; and although I did not know exactly how the two lads stood
in reference to yourself, it struck me at once that it was at least
possible that we had been wrong, and that it was Barkley after all who
took the note.

"Had I suspected for an instant that he had done it to bring disgrace
upon his cousin, I should at once have communicated with Dr. Litter, and
have probed the affair from the bottom; but I thought that he had taken
the note with the intention of helping his cousin out of his difficulty,
and that when the note was traced, and the matter became public, he had
in a base and cowardly manner allowed Frank to bear the blame. This
would have been bad enough in all conscience, although comparatively
venial to his deliberate attempt to bring disgrace upon Norris.

"However, the matter seemed bad enough to me as it stood; but, as I
said, I shrunk from causing the ruin of another young fellow