n Louis' forehead, and the tears spring to his eyes. The painful feelings
called forth by his master's speech prevented him from speaking for a few
minutes. He was roused by Dr. Wilkinson saying--

"The discovery of this Key in your possession would involve your
immediate dismissal from the second class, a sufficient disgrace, but
the matter assumes a far more serious aspect from these assertions of
innocence. If you had not used the book when discovered, it must have
been taken either by you, or another, for use. The question is now,
who took it?"

"I did not, sir," said Louis, in great alarm.

"Who did, then? Were any of your class with you?"

"No, sir."

"Was any one with you?"

Louis paused. A sudden thought flashed across him--a sudden recollection
of seeing that book passed over and slipped among his books; an action he
had taken no notice of at the time, and which had never struck him till
this moment. He now glanced eagerly at Ferrers, and then, in a tremulous
voice, said, "I remember now, Ferrers put it there--I am almost sure."

"Ferrers!" exclaimed the young men, with one voice.

"What humbugging nonsense!" said Salisbury, in a low tone.

"Do you hear, Mr. Ferrers?" said the doctor: "how came you to put that
Key among Louis Mortimer's books?"

"I, sir--I never," stammered Ferrers. "What should I want with it?
What good could I get by it? Is it likely?"

"I am not arguing on the possibility of such an event, I simply wish
to know if you did it?" said the doctor.

"I, sir--no," exclaimed Ferrers, with an air of injured innocence.
"If I had done it, why did he not accuse me at once, instead of
remembering it all of a sudden?"

"Because I only just remembered that I saw you moving something
towards me, and I am _almost_ sure it was that book now--I think
so," replied Louis.

"You'd better be quite sure," said Ferrers.

Dr. Wilkinson looked from one to the other, and his look might have made
a less unprincipled youth fear to persist in so horrible a falsehood.

"Were you learning your lessons in the school-room yesterday afternoon,
Mr. Ferrers, at the same time with Louis Mortimer?" Ferrers acknowledging
this, Dr. Wilkinson sent for Mr. Witworth, and asked him if he had
observed either Ferrers or Louis go into the study during the afternoon,
and if he knew what each brought out with him. Mr. Witworth replied that
both went in, but he did not know what for.

"I went in to get an atlas for Ferre