CHAPTER V
MASTER TURNS PUPIL
The rector received Irving with a smile. “Well,” he said, “I think you must be a believer in the maxim, ‘Hit hard and hit first.’ Would you mind telling me what was the trouble?”
“It wasn’t so much any one thing,” replied Irving. “It was a culmination of little things.—Oh, I suppose I started in wrong with the fellows somehow.”
He was silent for a moment, in dejection.
“A good many do that,” said Dr. Davenport. “There would be small progress in the world if there never was any rectifying of false starts.”
“I can hardly help it if I look young,” said Irving. “That’s one of my troubles. I suppose I ought to avoid acting young. I haven’t, altogether. They call me Kiddy.”
“We get hardened to nicknames,” observed the rector. “But often they’re affectionate. At least I like to cherish that delusion with regard to mine; my legs have the same curve as Napoleon’s, and I have been known as ‘Old Hoopo’ for years.”