'And you didn't offer to fight big Ben Blake?'
'Ben Blake, on the contrary, elbowed us all safe out, because my father was another guess sort of parson!'
'And there was a horrible little cad making faces,' exclaimed Bernard, unable to resist claiming part of the glory, 'and I was just going to have pitched into him——'
'What—you saw the row getting up, and went to stand by Smith?' said Felix.
'Yes,' said Bernard boldly; 'and nobody durst lay a finger on him when we were on each side of him!'
At which everybody burst out laughing, including Mr. Froggatt, and Lance most of all. 'Who was it, then,' he struggled to say gravely, 'that pulled so hard at the back of my coat? I suppose it must have been some little cad. I thought it had been you.'
'Well, it was time to hold you back, when you were going to fight that great lout!'
'For my part,' said Lance, 'I think it must have been Smith and I that were holding the Great Bear back by his tail from fighting big Ben Blake. Eh?'
Bernard, never able to bear being laughed at, looked intensely sulky; and a true description of the affair being asked by Mr. Froggatt, Lance gave it, exactly enough, but with so much of the comic side that every one was in fits of merriment, all of which, in his present mood, the younger boy imagined to be aimed at him. He was too full of angry self-consequence really to attend, so as to see how entirely disconnected with himself the laughter was; all he cared for was that Lance should not betray him; and to assure himself on this head, it must be confessed that he hovered on the upper stairs out of sight, while Felix was lingering on the lower to say to Lance, 'Of course it was only Smith's affair that took you into Smoke-jack Alley?'
'Not exactly,' said Lance.