“What! not want to be shaken hands with and blessed by the holy Mansfield? You naughty boy, to neglect such a short cut to peace and plenty!”
“I don’t want to toady to anybody,” said Heathcote, bitterly.
“Of course you don’t. But I’m afraid your courage will cost you something in impositions and detentions, and that sort of thing.”
“What do I care? I’d sooner have any amount of them than be a humbug and truckle to anybody.”
“Every one,” said Pledge, with an approving smile, “made sure when your friend Richardson came to do homage, that you would come too. I was quite pleased to find I knew better and was right.”
“I don’t know what made Dick go,” said Heathcote.
“No? Can’t you guess? Isn’t Dick a good boy, and doesn’t he always do what good boys do?”
Heathcote laughed.
“I don’t think he’s very much in that line.”
“Well, he imitates it very well,” said Pledge, watching his man carefully, “and I’ve no doubt he will find it worth his while.”