“Roy, you're a chump,” said Shealey.

“Yes, and a gump,” added Jack Beecham.

“And my quota of abuse is,” said Bracebridge, who by this time understood the drift of the talk, “is that you are a—what shall I say—oh! yes—that you are a frump, whatever that is; it rhymes anyway.”

Roy bowed low, as if receiving compliments and bouquets. When he left to go to his classroom to write to his father, Jack Beecham said:

“That fellow is a second Bayard—sans reproche.”

“So say all who know him,” added Shealey, and Ambrose said: “Amen.”


CHAPTER XIX