"Did anybody stick a pin into Philip Massel?"
No reply.
Here was something entirely beyond Miss Tibbet's experience.
"Will the monitors keep order, please, while I take this boy to the head master!"
Philip knew that sooner or later he would burst into tears. But a great load was off his mind. He was free, he was free! For one moment of dizzy elation a pang of that emotion struck him which long ago made him tremble on a locker in Miss Green's room before the fateful question—"Tell me, Philip, which would you rather be, Jew or Christian?" The sheer poignancy passed, but something of his elation remained, even in the cadaverous sanctum of the head master.
Mr. Tomlinson sat ominous in his chair as he listened to Miss Tibbet's recital.
"Why did you behave in that disgraceful way, Philip Massel?"
"I—I—don't know, sir!"
"What do you mean, you don't know?"
"I don't know, sir!"