if he was pinched now and then by the elaborate wheels.

"Mr. Ansell!" cried his wife, laughing somewhat shrilly. "Aha! Now I
understand. It's just the kind of thing poor Mr. Ansell would say. Well,
I'm brutal. I believe it does Varden good to have his ears pulled now
and then, and I don't care whether they pull them in play or not. Boys
ought to rough it, or they never grow up into men, and your mother would
have agreed with me. Oh yes; and you're all wrong about patriotism. It
can, can, create a sentiment."

She was unusually precise, and had followed his thoughts with an
attention that was also unusual. He wondered whether she was not right,
and regretted that she proceeded to say, "My dear boy, you mustn't talk
these heresies inside Dunwood House! You sound just like one of that
reactionary Jackson set, who want to fling the school back a hundred
years and have nothing but day-boys all dressed anyhow."

"The Jackson set have their points."

"You'd better join it."

"The Dunwood House set has its points." For Rickie suffered from the
Primal Curse, which is not--as the Authorized Version suggests--the
knowledge of good and evil, but the knowledge of good-and-evil.

"Then stick to the Dunwood House set."

"I do, and shall." Again he was ashamed. Why would he see the other
side of things? He rebuked his soul, not unsuccessfully, and then they
returned to the subject of Varden.

"I'm certain he suffers," said he, for she would do nothing but laugh.
"Each boy who passes pulls his ears--very funny, no doubt; but every day
they stick out more and get redder, and this afternoon, when he didn't
know he was being watched, he was holding his head and moaning. I hate
the look about his eyes."

"I hate the whole boy. Nasty weedy thing."

"Well, I'm a nasty weedy thing, if it comes to that."

"No, you aren't," she cried, kissing him. But he led her back to
the subject. Could nothing be suggested? He drew up some new
rules--alterations in the times of going to bed, and so on--the effect
of which would be to provide fewer opportunities for the pulling of
Varden's ears. The rules were submitted to Herbert, who sympathized
with weakliness more than did his sister, and gave them his careful
consideration. But unfortunately they collided with other rules, and
on a closer examination he found that they also ran contrary to the
fundamentals on which the government of Dunwood House was based. So
nothing was done. Agnes was rat