er than his father, that she was not likely to complain
of anything, and that the only danger lay in the chance of being
discovered in the deed. One day when the master had left the room to
confer with some visitor at the door, he spied Annie in the act of
tying her shoe. Perceiving, as he believed, at a glance, that Alec
Forbes was totally unobservant, he gave her an ignominious push from
behind, which threw her out on her face in the middle of the floor. But
Alec did catch sight of him in the very deed, was down upon him in a
moment, and, having already proved that a box on the ear was of no
lasting effect, gave him a downright good thrashing. He howled
vigorously, partly from pain, partly in the hope that the same
consequences as before would overtake Forbes; and therefore was still
howling when Mr Malison re-entered.

"Robert Bruce, come up," bawled he, the moment he opened the door.

And Robert Bruce went up, and notwithstanding his protestations,
received a second, and far more painful punishment from the master,
who, perhaps, had been put out of temper by his visitor. But there is
no good in speculating on that or any other possibility in the matter;
for, as far at least as the boys could see, the master had no fixed
principle as to the party on whom the punishment should fall.
Punishment, in his eyes, was perhaps enough in itself. If he was
capable of seeing that _punishment_, as he called it, falling on the
wrong person, was not _punishment_, but only _suffering_, certainly he
had not seen the value of the distinction.

If Bruce howled before, he howled tenfold now, and went home howling.
Annie was sorry for him, and tried to say a word of comfort to him; but
he repelled her advances with hatred and blows. As soon as he reached
the shop he told his father that Forbes had beaten him without his
having even spoken to him, which was as correct as it was untrue, and
that the master had taken Forbes's part, and _licked_ him over again,
of which latter assertion there was proof enough on his person. Robert
the elder was instantly filled with smouldering wrath, and from that
moment hated Alec Forbes. For, like many others of low nature, he had
yet some animal affection for his children, combined with an endless
amount of partisanship on their behalf, which latter gave him a full
right to the national motto of Scotland. Indeed, for nothing in the
world but money, would he have sacrificed what seemed to him their
int