my guard."

"Nobody has said a word, because my father put us all upon honour never
to mention it: but I always feel as if all their eyes were upon me all
day,--and sometimes in the night."

"Nonsense! I don't believe anybody has pitched on you particularly. And
when school opens again, all their eyes will be on me, to see how I
manage. But I don't mean to mind that. Anybody may stare that likes."

Hugh sighed, however, after saying this; and Tooke was silent. At length
he declared,--

"Whatever you say against it, I shall always take your part: and you
have only to ask me, and I will always run anywhere, and do anything for
you. Mind you that."

"Thank you," said Hugh. "Now tell me about the new usher; for I dare say
you know more than the other boys do. Holt and I shall be under him
altogether, I suppose."

"Yes: and you will be well off, by what I hear. He is as little like Mr.
Carnaby as need be."

All the rest of the afternoon was taken up with stories of Mr. Carnaby
and other ushers, so that the boys were surprised when the maid came to
tell them that tea was ready.

Agnes was making tea. Hugh was so eager to repeat to his uncle some of
the good stories that he had just heard, that he did not observe, as his
aunt did, how red his sister's fingers were, and how she shivered still.

"My dear," said Mrs. Shaw, "you have let these boys keep you away from
the fire."

"Yes, aunt. Never mind! I shall be warm enough presently."

"But you should not allow it, Agnes. How are they ever to learn manners,
if they are not made to give way to young ladies while they are young?
Boys are sure to be rude enough, at any rate. Their sisters should know
better than to spoil them."

While poor Agnes' hardships were ending with a lecture, Hugh was
chattering away, not at all aware that he had treated his sister much as
Phil had treated him on his going to Crofton. If any one had told him
that he was tyrannical, he would have been as much surprised as he had
been at Phil's tyranny over him. He did not know indeed that his sister
had been in the cold and in the dark; but he might have felt that he had
used her with a roughness which is more painful to a loving heart than
cold and darkness are to the body.

CHAPTER XII.

HOLT AND HIS DIGNITY.

There was no reason now why Hugh should not go to church. He and his
crutches went between his uncle and aunt in the gig one way, and between
his uncle and Agnes home aga