“I’ve told no one, of course.”
The man seemed honestly relieved. He began to ask questions about school and the new life; the conversation opened on to a wider field. Time passed.
It must have been an hour later that his father at last held out both hands, said good-bye abruptly and turned away. Bobbie watched him as he went slowly back along the pathway, and for the first time since he had been at school he was conscious of a kind of home-sickness. His father was so evidently lonely.
He did not turn until the figure on the pathway had passed out of sight, and then he did so regretfully and started back to school. And as he went his father’s warning drummed in his head: “Just this once and then, I think, never again. But until it is over you must promise me that not even your best friend here shall know your secret. You can’t understand as I can what they would say of you here if they knew. And I may not be able to keep my right name out of the papers.”
Those had been his father’s final words. And all the way back to the school he kept remembering them.
Outside Morley’s Coles met him. He was carrying a handful of belongings and he wore a cunning smile upon his countenance.
“Carr,” said he, “I have something to say to you.”
“Yes,” said Bobbie.
“I’m leaving Morley’s.” He paused. “It’s the Head,” he explained. “For some reason or other he wants me in Seymour’s. There’s no help for it. I’ll have to go. It’s an order.”
He gazed into the distance. Bobbie’s heart beat quickly with delight. To lose Coles would be an unprecedented joy. It was a stroke of luck upon which he had never reckoned. He turned to Coles with shining eyes and seemed about to thank him cordially for going.