CHAPTER XIV
TOP OF THE SCHOOL
The Christmas vacation went past in a whirl of merry-making. It was delightful to be at home again, and to do all the accustomed things. Dorothy hugged her happiness, and told herself she was just the most fortunate girl in the world.
Tom at home was a very different person from Tom at school, swanking round with Rhoda Fleming. Dorothy felt she had her chum back for the time, and she made the most of it. Her common sense told her that when they were back at school once more he might easily prove as disappointing as he had done in the past, so it was up to her to make the most of him now that he was so satisfactory.
One bit of news he told her three days after they got home which interested her immensely. She was sitting by the dining-room fire in the twilight making toast for her father’s tea, because he was out on a long, cold round in the country.
Tom was lolling in a big chair on the other side of the fire, when suddenly he shoved his hands deeper in his pocket, and pulling out two half-crowns, tossed them into her lap, saying with a chuckle, “There is your last loan returned with many thanks. I did not have to pay up after all.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, as she picked up the money and looked at it.
Tom laughed again. “Some sort of a microbe bit Bobby Felmore, and bit him uncommon sharp, too. He suddenly turned good, and paid back all the money he had won from the sweepstake, treated us to a full-blown lecture on the immorality of gambling, and announced that in the future he stood for law and order, and all the rest of that sort of piffle. Of course we cheered him to the echo, for we had got our money back, but we reckoned him a mug for not having the sense to keep it when he had got it.”
Dorothy felt the colour surge right up to the roots of her hair; she was very thankful it was too dark for Tom to see how red her face was. Then, because she had to say something, she asked, “What made him do that?”
“He had got a bee in his bonnet, I should say,” answered Tom with an amused laugh. “It was great to hear old Bobby lecturing us on what sort of citizens we have got to be, and rot of that sort. Of course we took it meekly enough—why not? We had got our money back, and could do a flutter in some other direction if we wished. Oh, he is a mug, is Bobby. He doesn’t think small beer of himself either. They are county people, the Felmores. In fact, I rather wonder that they come to the Compton Schools. But they say that old Felmore has great faith in boys and girls being educated side by side, as it were, and allowed to mix and mingle in recreation time. There would be more sense, to my way of thinking, if the mixing and the mingling were not so messed up and harassed by silly little rules.”