The notion of Mr. Henry's having a wife and family was so rich, that the boys laughed till their sides ached. Which rather offended Brown major.
"I'm sure I've heard those foreign French fellows often marry at twenty-one; Germans too," quoth he. "You needn't grin. When a man's got a wife and family, he has to keep 'em. His money must go somewhere. Dick Loftus saw some new boots come home for him the other day, and he couldn't pay for them. What are you staring at, Trace?"
Trace was not staring at Brown major or any one else in particular. The mention of the boots called up a train of ideas that half startled him. This incident of the boots had occurred on the very evening of the loss; the following day (when they were in the midst of searching for the pencil) Mr. Henry had gone by train into London after morning school, and was not back until three o'clock. Soon after he returned, Trace, by the merest accident, saw him take out his purse, and there were several sovereigns in it. The thing, to Trace's mind, seemed to be getting unpleasantly clear. But he said nothing.
"What are you all doing here?" exclaimed Gall, coming up at this juncture. "Holding a council?"
They told him in an undertone: that the German master had been pacing about before the study-window the night the pencil must have been lost out of the room; and they spoke of his hard work, his want of money, of all the rest they had been saying and hinting at.
Gall stopped the grave hint in its bud. The suspicion was perfectly absurd as regarded Mr. Henry; most unjustifiable, he assured them; and they had better get rid of it at once.
It was rather a damper, and in the check to their spirits, they began to disperse. Gall had a great deal of good plain common sense; and his opinion was always listened to. Trace rose from the projecting base of a pillar on which he had been seated, knees to nose, put his arm within Gall's and drew him away.
He told him everything; adding this fact of seeing the money in Mr. Henry's purse, which he had not disclosed to the rest. Gall would not be convinced. It might look a little suspicious, he acknowledged, but he felt sure Mr. Henry was not one to do such a thing: he'd not dare to do it. Besides, think of his high character, as given to the Head Master from the university of Heidelberg.
Trace maintained his own opinion. He thought there were ways and means of getting those high characters furnished, when people had a need for them; he said he had mistrusted the man from the first moment he saw him. "Look at his peaching about the smoking! Look at the mean way he lives, the food he eats!" continued Trace, impressively. "He must have private expenses of some sort; or else what makes him so poor?"
"He may have left debts behind him in Germany," suggested Gall, after a pause of reflection.