“N–no, sir.”
“Thrashed you well, didn’t he, for bullying?”
“I had an encounter with Burr junior, sir.”
“Yes, and he thrashed you well, I know.”
“I beg your pardon, Sir Hawkhurst,” said the Doctor warmly. “My pupil here, Burr major, has, I am well aware, been exceedingly tyrannical to his schoolfellows, and when it reached my ears by a side wind that he had been soundly thrashed by his fellow pupil here, I must own to having been glad; but as his tutor it behoves me to say that he is a boy of strictly honourable feelings, and I do not believe he would speak as he has done if he did not believe the truth of all he has said.”
“Humph!” said the General. “Quite right, Doctor, quite right. I’m afraid I was unjust.”
Then Dicksee, who looked green, made his statement, and before he had done, the General thumped his stick down on the floor loudly.
“Here, Doctor: this fellow won’t do at all. He’s a sneak and a miserable, malicious scoundrel. You can see it all over his face. You’re not going to take up the cudgels for him, are you?”
“I am sorry to say I cannot,” replied the Doctor gravely; “and if this sad business rested upon his word alone, I should not have acted as I have; but, as you have heard and will hear, Sir Hawkhurst, we have terribly strong evidence. I wish it were otherwise.”
And again the weary business went on, with my mental agony increasing as I saw my mother’s eyes fixed upon me. At first imploringly, then they seemed to be full of pain, and later on it seemed to me as if she, were suffering from a sorrow that was too hard for her to bear.