The adjuration fell flat, for not a boy uttered a sound, save one who exclaimed, “Oh, what a shame!” and then went off to the cricket-field, trying hard, poor little fellow! to suppress the natural desire to cry out and sob, for Slegge had “fetched him,” as he termed it, a sounding slap upon the cheek, which echoed in the silence and cut the boy’s lips against a sharp white tooth.
“What’s the Doctor want?” whispered Singh, as they followed the footman into the house.
“A wigging, I’m afraid, gentlemen,” said the man who heard his words. “But don’t you mind. You write out your lines and do your imposition like men. It was fine! What you did this morning has made every one think no end of you, and it will never be forgotten so long as this ’ere’s a school.”
A tap of the knuckles, which sounded hollow and strange, for they had reached the study-door.
“Come in!” in the Doctor’s deepest and most severe tones, and the next moment the two boys were standing separated from their preceptor by the large study-table, while he sat back in his revolving chair with his finger-tips joined, frowning at them severely from beneath his up-pushed gold-rimmed spectacles.
There was silence for quite a minute, and it was not the Doctor who spoke first, but Glyn, who, under the impression that the Doctor was deep in thought and had forgotten their presence, ventured to say, “I beg your pardon, sir; you sent for us,” and put an end to the mental debate as to the form in which the subject should be approached.
“Yes, sir,” said the Doctor sternly. “I have sent for you both, as it is better that any lapse from the strict rules of my establishment should be dealt with immediately; not that I wish to be too severe, for you are both new pupils and strange to the regulations of a high-class school in England. You gather, of course, that I am alluding to your very undignified conduct in the sight of all your fellow-pupils.”
“Yes, sir,” said Glyn; “about our riding the elephant?”
“Of course. It was disgraceful. You, to whom I should have looked for the conduct and demeanour of a gentleman, being the son of an eminent officer in the army, behaving like some little common street-boy, and leading your fellow-pupil, in whom from his ignorance of English customs and etiquette such a lapse might be excused. It was only the other day that your father the Colonel, sir, told me that you would set an example to the young Prince, and here I find you directly snatching at the opportunity to behave as you have done.”
“I beg your pardon, sir,” cried Glyn, in a voice full of protest, “it was—”