gh to resist them, they said, so much
the worse for him. During the day, indeed, he was saved from many of
the annoyances which Walter had been obliged to endure, by escaping from
the Great Schoolroom to the happy and quiet refuge of Walter's, or
Power's or Eden's study. There he could always be unmolested, and enjoy
the kindness with which he was treated, and the cheerful, healthy
atmosphere which contrasted so strangely in its moral sweetness with the
turbid and polluted air of Noelite society. But in the evening at
Preparation, and afterwards in the dormitories, he was wholly at the
mercy of that bad confederacy which had tried to mould him to its own
will. He was in a large dormitory of ten boys, and as this was the
principal room in Mr Noel's house, it formed the regular refuge every
night for the idle and the mischievously inclined. When the candles
were put out at bed-time it was seldom long before they were relit in
this room--which was somewhat remote from the others, at the end of a
long corridor, and of which the window opened on a secluded part of Dr
Lane's garden. If a scout were placed at the end of the corridor he
could give timely warning of any danger, so that the chance of detection
was very small. Had the candles been relit only for a game of play,
Charlie would have been the first to join in the fun. But the Noelites
were far too vitiated in taste to be long content with mere bolstering
or harmless games. It seemed to Charlie that the candles were relit
chiefly for the purpose of eating and drinking forbidden things, of
playing cards, or of bullying and tormenting those boys who were least
advanced in general wickedness.

"I say, young Evson," said Wilton to him one night soon after the fracas
above narrated, "we're going to have some fun to-night. Stone, like a
brick as he is, has stood a couple of bottles of wine, and Hanley some
cards. We shall have a smoke too."

All this was said in a tone of braggadocio, meant to be exceedingly
telling, but it only made Charlie feel that he loathed this swaggering
little boy with his premature _savoir vivre_, more and more. He
understood, too, the hint that two of the new fellows had contributed to
the house carousal, and fully expected that he would be asked next. He
secretly, however, determined to refuse, because he knew well that a
mere harmless feast was not intended, but rather a smoking and drinking
bout. He had subscribed liberally to all