The wizard's cave

Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.
THE coach rolled away from the door of Tudor Hall. The large schoolroom, tenanted only by two small boys crouching close to one of the windows, looked bare and grim.
It was raining so fast that they could not go into the playground. The dusty roads and scorched gardens of the London suburb needed rain badly, but what cared the boys for that? The downpour swelled the sense of wrong which filled the bosom of the elder, Marmaduke (generally known as Duke) Bryden, a well-grown boy of twelve, for this was breaking-up day, and these boys had seen their schoolmates depart gleefully for home while they, having no home, were to spend their holidays at the schoolhouse.
It's a horrid shame, ejaculated Duke Bryden, not for the first time— a horrid shame! That's just what it is, and I don't care who hears me say it!
As there was no one save themselves in the large room, the boast seemed unnecessary.
It's not any good to say it, replied Noel, his brother, a slight, fair boy about eighteen months younger. It does not alter it; we've gone through it before, and we know what it's like. Mrs. Tapson isn't half bad when we're the only boys she has to look after. Do you remember when we went to the sea?
Of course I remember it, Duke said. He had indeed a far clearer recollection than Noel of the summer when their parents took them to Deal, yet it was the younger boy who loved to brood over the vague, sweet memory of joyous days.
Since then, through their father's untimely death, the boys' lives had wholly changed. Their home was broken up and their mother obliged to take a situation. A friend offered to pay for the boys' education. He was a well-to-do man and kindly disposed towards the little fellows, but he had a large family of his own, and his wife could not be troubled with strange boys in the holidays.
The brothers had ceased to talk, and were moodily watching the steady downfall of the rain, when the door opened and a stout, middle-aged lady looked into the room. It was Mrs. Tapson, the matron who took charge of the boys at Tudor Hall.