“How shall I answer this, Mr. Fenwick?”
“Please wire him that a special messenger will call upon him to-morrow.”
CHAPTER X
AT MILTON SCHOOL
Milton School was situated in a delightful part of the country. It was broad on the ground, and built of stone, the sides being overgrown with the clinging ivy so abundant in England.
It ought to have been a paradise. Casual visitors always admired it, and declared that the boys who attended it were especially favored.
But they did not know the character of Dr. Peter Musgrave, who had for fifteen years exercised tyrannical sway over the pupils committed to his charge.
He was in the habit of forming sudden prejudices against his pupils, and when he was “down on a boy,” as the saying is, no amount of good behavior softened him. Vivian Bell had been unfortunate enough to incur this man’s enmity, and his life had been a hard one ever since he had entered the school.
Two days before the date of the telegram mentioned at the close of the last chapter, Simon Musgrave, the doctor’s son, ordered Vivian to go on an errand to Milton village.
“I have a bad headache, Simon,” said Vivian. “I don’t feel as if I could sit up.”
“I don’t believe a word of it,” returned the young tyrant. “You’re lazy, that’s all.”