“I dare say you would, Mr. Snowdon, but I don’t think it would be exactly safe. Nat wouldn’t stand it.”
“He’d have to stand it, if I took it into my head to chastise him.”
“If you had a scrimmage, I’d bet on Nat,” said the bold pupil.
“Do you consider scrimmage a classical word?” asked Mr. Snowdon with a sneer.
“Well, not exactly. I suppose you know that Dryden uses it,” said Bernard with a bold flight of imagination.
Now Mr. Snowdon was not sufficiently versed in English classical writers to know whether this statement was correct or not. So he equivocated to conceal his ignorance.
“Dryden is not always a correct writer,” he added. “I never advise my pupils to imitate him. But that is neither here nor there. I have told you that I don’t want you to go round with Nat Barclay.”
“Why not? I am sure he is of good family. His father is a clergyman.”
“It is from respect to his father that I did not chastise him when he was in my school.”
“He says his father does not think much of your scholarship.”