And so the Doctor’s visitation came to an end. It made a very deep impression on the youthful members of the Fourth Junior. Most of them felt very much ashamed of themselves; and nearly every one felt his veneration and admiration for the Doctor greatly heightened. Only a few incorrigibles like Bramble professed to make light of the scene through which they had just passed, and even he, it was evident, was considerably chastened by his experience.
That evening, after the first bed-bell, Dr Senior requested some of the masters to meet with him for a few minutes in his study.
“Do any of you know,” asked the head master, “anything about this newspaper, the Dominican, which I see hanging outside the Fifth door?”
“I hear a great many boys talking about it,” said Mr Jellicott of the Fifth. “It is the joint production of several of the boys in my form.”
“Indeed! A Fifth form paper!” said the Doctor. “Has any one perused it?”
“I have,” said Mr Rastle. “It seems to me to be cleverly managed, though perhaps a little personal.”
“Ah, only natural with schoolboys,” said the Doctor. “I should like to see it. Can you fetch it, Rastle?”
“It is nailed to the wall,” said Mr Rastle, smiling, “like Luther’s manifesto; but I can get one of the boys, I dare say, to unfasten it for you.”
“No, do not do that,” said the Doctor. “If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, you know, Mahomet and his disciples must go to the mountain, eh, Mr Harrison? I think we might venture out and peruse it where it hangs.” So half-stealthily, when the whole school was falling asleep, Dr Senior and his colleagues stepped out into the passage, and by the aid of a candle satisfied their curiosity as to the mysterious Dominican.
A good deal of its humour was, of course, lost upon them, as they could hardly be expected to understand the force of all the allusions it contained. But they saw quite enough to enable them to gather the general tenor of the paper; it amused and it concerned them.