to the effect that the wallet
was taken by another pupil, a nephew of the principal."

"That's too thin!"

"I don't know. It may be true. I don't like the boy, but I hardly think
it probable he would steal."

"You think better of him than I do. I suppose he wants to get into your
good graces again?"

"No; he says he shall leave school at the end of this week, and will not
again look to me for support."

"That's jolly!" exclaimed Guy, much pleased. "You're well rid of him,
papa. Let him go away and make a living as he can. He'll have to
turn newsboy, or something of that sort--perhaps he'll have to be a
bootblack. Wouldn't that be a good come down for a boy like Hector?"

Guy spoke with great glee, but his father did not seem to enjoy his
release as well as Guy. He showed that he understood the boy better when
he said:

"Hector will not have to resort to any such employment. He has a good
education, and he can get some decent position, probably. On the whole,
I am sorry he is going to leave my protection, for friends of the family
may, perhaps, blame me."

"But it isn't your fault, papa. He is taking his own course."

"To be sure. You are right there!"

Mr. Roscoe thought so much on the subject, however, that the next day he
went to Smith Institute to see Hector, without telling Guy where he was
going.

Arrived there, he asked to see Mr. Smith.

The latter did not appear to be in a happy frame of mind.

"How do you do, Mr. Roscoe?" he said.

"Very well," answered Mr. Roscoe, briefly. "Mr. Smith, I wish to see my
ward."

"I am sorry you cannot see him, Mr. Roscoe."

"Cannot see him! Why not?"

"Because he has left the institute."

Allan Roscoe frowned.

"Why has he left?" he asked.

"He has left against my will. I think he has been influenced by an usher
in my employ who has behaved very ungratefully. I took him, sir, when he
was in danger of starving, and now he leaves me at a day's notice, after
doing all he can to break up my school."

"I feel no particular interest in your usher," said Allan Roscoe,
coldly. "I wish to obtain information about the boy I placed under your
charge. Do you know where he has gone?"

"No; he did not tell me," answered the principal.

"You wrote me that he had been detected in stealing a wallet!"

"Yes," answered Socrates, embarrassed. "Appearances were very much
against him."

"Do you still think he took it?"

"I may have been mistaken," answered Mr. Smit