'Never heard of it myself before. Won't Taylor be mad when I tell him, for if there is one thing he hates it is swat! He says it's low and vulgar, and not fit for a school like Torrington's.'
'But you know father doesn't think that, and I am sure you ought to know that father is wiser than Taylor, if he is the biggest boy in the school.'
'As if that made any difference! You're just as much of a duffer as ever, to think such a thing,' he added.
'Well, what is it about Taylor that makes you call him the "cock of the walk?" I met him at a party last week, and I did not think much of him, I can tell you.'
'Ah! that's because you are a girl, and don't know anything. Taylor is a jolly fellow.'
'Well, I'm glad he's not my brother, for he is not very kind to his sister, and he was quite rude to his mother. He is no gentleman, and so he has no right to find fault with father because he sent a board school boy to sit with him at Torrington's.'
Leonard only laughed at his sister's denunciation of his hero; but he was curious to learn what had been said about this swatting club—whether she had heard it spoken of before to-day. 'I should like to know how long they have been at it, and who are in it,' he said.
'Father said Warren and the scholarship boy; he was telling mother about it when you came in.'
'Oh, that scholarship boy is at the bottom of the whole mischief, of course,' said Leonard; 'but I should like to know how many more are in it; it's no good going to Taylor with half a tale. Won't he be mad, when he hears of this last move! Warren is forbidden to fight, too! I wonder why that is? Something wrong with his head, I shouldn't wonder,' added Leonard, after a minute's thought.
'Why, what makes you think that?' asked Florence.