let me see if it is under
the table," he said at length.

"You have hindered us long enough," said Salisbury; "Smith, Jones, and
I have done nothing to-night. If you will have rows, you must e'en take
the consequences."

"Can't you get under the form?" asked Smith, derisively.

Ferrers was going to make some angry, reply, when Louis dived between
the table and the form, with some trouble, and, at the expense of
receiving a few unceremonious kicks, recovered the book and gave it
to Ferrers, who hardly thanked him, but leaning his head on his hand,
seemed almost incapable of doing any thing. Presently he looked up,
and asked in a tone of mingled anger and weariness, what had become
of the inkstand he had brought.

"Loosing's seeking,
Finding's keeping,"

said Salisbury. "Which is yours? Perhaps it's under the table too."

"Hold your nonsense," cried Ferrers, angrily. "It's very shabby of you
to hinder me in this manner."

Louis quietly slipped an inkstand near him, an action of which Ferrers
was quite aware, and though he pretended not to notice it, he availed
himself presently of the convenience. A racking headache, however,
almost disabled him from thinking, and though he was really unwell,
there was only the boy he had so cruelly injured who felt any sympathy
for his suffering.

Louis carefully avoided any direct manifestation of his anxiety to
return good for evil, for he felt, though he hardly knew why, that
his actions would be misconstrued, but whenever any little opportunity
occurred in which he could really render any service, he was always
as ready to do it for Ferrers as for another; and now, when from his
classmates Ferrers met with nothing but jokes on his "beautiful temper,"
and "placid state of mind," he could not help feeling the gentleness of
Louis' conduct, the absence of pleasure in his annoyance, and the look
of evident sympathy he met whenever he accidentally turned his eyes in
his direction. For a few days after this he was obliged to keep his bed,
and during this time, though Louis only once saw him, he thought of every
little kind attention he could, that might be grateful to the invalid.
Knowing that he was not a favorite, and that few in the school would
trouble themselves about him, he borrowed books and sent them to him for
his amusement, and empowered the old cake man to procure some grapes,
which he sent up to him by a servant, with strict orders to say nothing
of where t