tual quality; it was hard
for a boy really clever and lively, to be set down at once as an idler
and dunce. And it made Walter very miserable. For meanwhile Mr Paton
had taken quite a wrong view of his character. He answered so well at
times, construed so happily, and showed such bright flashes of
intelligence and interest in parts of his work, that Mr Paton, making
no allowances for new methods and an untrained memory, set him down, by
an error of judgment, as at once able and obstinate, capable of doing
excellently, and wilfully refusing to do so. This was a phase of
character which always excited his indignation; and it was for the boy's
own sake that he set himself to correct it, if possible. On both sides,
therefore, there was some misunderstanding, and a consequent
exacerbation of mind which told injuriously on their daily intercourse.

Walter's vexation and misery reached its acme on the receipt by his
father of his first school character, which document his father sent
back for Walter's own perusal, with a letter which, if not actually
reproachful, was at least uneasy and dissatisfied in tone.

For the character itself Walter cared little, knowing well that it was
founded throughout on misapprehension; but his father's letter stirred
the very depths of his heart, and made them turbid with passion and
sorrow. He received it at dinner-time, and read it as he went across
the court to the detention-room, of which he was now so frequent an
occupant. It was a bright September day, and he longed to be out at
some game, or among the hills, or on the shore. Instead of that, he was
doomed for his failures to two long weary hours of mechanical
pen-driving, of which the results were torn up when the two hours were
over. He had had no exercise for the last week; all his spare time had
been taken up with impositions; Mr Robertson had given him a severe and
angry lecture that morning; even Mr Paton, who rarely used strong
language, had called him intolerable and incorrigible, and had
threatened a second report to the headmaster, because this was the tenth
successive Greek grammar lesson in which he had failed. Added to all
this, he was suffering from headache and lassitude. And now his
father's letter was the cumulus of his misfortunes. A rebellious,
indignant, and violent spirit rose in him. Was he always, for no fault
of his own, to be bullied, baited, driven, misunderstood, and crushed in
this way? If it was