udent _sang froid_;
and the form tittered again as he walked noisily to his seat. But Mr
Paton, allowing for his violent frame of mind, took no notice of this
last affront.

Whereupon Walter, taking another large piece of paper, and a spluttering
quill pen, wrote on it, with a great deal of scratching--

Due from Evson to Mr Paton.

For missing lesson... 100 lines.
For laying down books... 300 lines.
For laughing... 200 lines.
For writing 200 lines... A caning.

Detention, of course. Thank you for nothing.

And on the other side of the sheet he wrote in large letters--"No Go!"
Which, being done, he passed the sheet along the form _pour encourager
les autres_.

"Evson," said Mr Paton, quietly, "bring me that paper."

Walter took it up--looking rather alarmed this time--but with the side
"_No go_!" uppermost.

"What is this, Evson?"

"Number ninety, sir," said Walter, amid the now unconcealed laughter of
the rest, who knew very well that he had intended it for "No go."

Mr Paton looked curiously at Walter for a minute, and then said,
"Evson, Evson, I could not have thought you so utterly foolish. Well,
you know that each fresh act _must_ have its fresh punishment. You must
leave the room now, and _besides all your other punishments_ I must also
report you to the headmaster. You can best judge with what result."

This was a mistake of Mr Paton's--a mistake of judgment only--for which
he cannot be blamed. But it was a disastrous mistake. Had he been at
all a delicate judge or reader of the phenomena of character, he would
have observed at once that at that moment there was a wild spirit of
anger, a rankling sense of injustice and persecution in Walter's heart,
which no amount of punishment could have cowed. Walter just then might
without the least difficulty have been goaded into some act of violence
which would have rendered expulsion from the school an unavoidable
consequence. So easy is it to petrify the will, to make a boy bad in
spite of himself, and to spoil, with no intentions but those of
kindliness and justice, the promise of a fair young life. For when the
will has once been suffered to grow rigid by obstinacy--a result which
is very easy to avoid--no power on earth can bend it _at the time_. Had
Mr Paton sent Walter out of the room before; had he at the end said,
"Evson, you are not yourself to-day, and I forgive you," Walter would
have been in a moment as docile and as humb