that a reason?"

"Of course it is."

"I only wondered whether--" He did not like to say that he wondered
whether he need do it his first morning.

"By some means or other you must find out--of course you know already,
but you must find out from the boy. I know--I have it! Where's his
health certificate?"

"He had forgotten it."

"Just like them. Well, when he brings it, it will be signed by Mrs. Orr,
and you must look at it and say, 'Orr--Orr--Mrs. Orr?' or something to
that effect, and then the whole thing will come naturally out."

The bell rang, and they went in for the hour of school that concluded
the morning. Varden brought his health certificate--a pompous document
asserting that he had not suffered from roseola or kindred ailments in
the holidays--and for a long time Rickie sat with it before him,
spread open upon his desk. He did not quite like the job. It suggested
intrigue, and he had come to Sawston not to intrigue but to labour.
Doubtless Herbert was right, and Mr. Jackson and Mrs. Orr were wrong.
But why could they not have it out among themselves? Then he thought,
"I am a coward, and that's why I'm raising these objections," called the
boy up to him, and it did all come out naturally, more or less. Hitherto
Varden had lived with his mother; but she had left Sawston at Christmas,
and now he would live with Mrs. Orr. "Mr. Jackson, sir, said it would be
all right."

"Yes, yes," said Rickie; "quite so." He remembered Herbert's dictum:
"Masters must present a united front. If they do not--the deluge." He
sent the boy back to his seat, and after school took the compromising
health certificate to the headmaster. The headmaster was at that time
easily excited by a breach of the constitution. "Parents or guardians,"
he reputed--"parents or guardians," and flew with those words on his
lips to Mr. Jackson. To say that Rickie was a cat's-paw is to put it too
strongly. Herbert was strictly honourable, and never pushed him into an
illegal or really dangerous position; but there is no doubt that on
this and on many other occasions he had to do things that he would not
otherwise have done. There was always some diplomatic corner that had
to be turned, always something that he had to say or not to say. As the
term wore on he lost his independence--almost without knowing it. He had
much to learn about boys, and he learnt not by direct observation--for
which he believed he was unfitted--but by sedulous imitation of