“Yes, it’s off. I am not sure but it will break out again. You must take care.”
“Oh, bother! let it. I should like to have polished off that Pierce senior as he deserves. A little coin of the same sort would do Galloway no harm. Were I senior of the school, and Arthur not my brother, Mr. Mark should hear a little home truth about sneaks. I’ll tell it him in private, as it is; but I can’t put him up for punishment, or act in it as Gaunt could.”
“Arthur is our brother, therefore we feel it more pointedly than Gaunt,” sensibly remarked Charley.
“I’d advise you not to spell forth that sentimental rubbish, though you are a young lady,” retorted Tom. “A senior boy, if he does his duty, should make every boy’s cause his own, and ‘feel’ for him.”
“Tom,” said the younger and more thoughtful of the two, “don’t let us say anything of this at home.”
“Why not?” asked Tom, hotly. He would have run in open-mouthed.
“It would pain mamma to hear it.”
“Boy! do you suppose she would fear Arthur?”
“You seem to misconstrue all I say, Tom. Of course she would not fear him—you did not fear him; but it stung you, I know, as was proved by your knocking down Pierce.”
“Well, I won’t speak of it before her,” conciliated Tom, somewhat won over, “or before my father, either; but catch me keeping it from the rest.”