Being a half-holiday, prayers were read at the end of morning-school. And now the time was come. Harry walked to Mr Prichard's desk, who conducted him at once across the room to Dr Palmer. The latter looked over his spectacles, surprised. Indeed, Harry had always been one of the "model boys."
"What is the matter, Mr Prichard?" he inquired. "Has Campbell been misbehaving himself?"
"Yesterday morning, sir," answered Mr Prichard, "during the examination, I detected Campbell deliberately looking over Egerton's paper, who you know at present stands next to him in class."
"No, sir, indeed I wasn't," burst in Harry.
"Silence, sir!" sharply said Dr Palmer.
"Had this been all," resumed Mr Prichard, "I should have punished him myself, severely, without troubling you; but, in the afternoon, as I was collecting the papers, and passing close by Campbell's desk, which was open at the time, I found this book in it," and he handed the delectus-crib. "And Campbell says—"
"It isn't mine, sir!" pleaded Harry. "Some one must have put it there!"
"Silence, sir!" said Dr Palmer, sharply again. "You will have to answer presently. Well, Mr Prichard?"
"Campbell makes the matter, as I told him, far worse by persistently denying that he is the owner of the book. And yet his name is in it."
"Campbell," said Dr Palmer, gravely, "this is a most serious charge against you. I had always thought you were an honourable boy. You always have been very industrious, and your work has been well done, as I hear; but this matter alters the whole case. It shows how one can be deceived in a boy."