“The Guinea-pigs and Tadpoles,” said the Dominican, “looked quite unearthly in their cleanliness. It was commonly reported that one or two of them had washed their faces twice in one week. But this is hardly credible. It is, however, a fact that Bramble was shut up in his study for half an hour with his grandmother and a basin of hot water, and that the conclusion come to from the yells and shrieks which proceeded from the torture-chamber that evening, and the appearance of the dear child next day, is that he undoubtedly underwent one scrubbing this term.”
Bramble’s face turned so purple at the reading of this that it was impossible to say whether or not any traces of the scouring still remained. He favoured Paul, who stood in front of him, with a furious kick, which that young gentleman, always punctual in his obligations, promptly repaid, and the two combatants somehow managed to miss a good deal of what immediately followed.
After describing the other incidents of prize-day, the Dominican went on as follows:
“But the event of the day was the presentation of the Nightingale Scholarship, which will be sufficiently fresh in our readers’ memories to need no comment here, save this one word—that the only Dominican who behaved himself like a gentleman during that remarkable scene was the winner of the scholarship himself!”
This was coming round with a vengeance! The Fifth had half expected it, and now they felt more uncomfortable than ever.
Nor did the succeeding paragraphs leave them much chance of recovery.
“The Waterston Exhibition, our readers will be glad to hear, has been won—and won brilliantly—by Oliver Greenfield, now of the Sixth. No fellow in Saint Dominic’s deserves the honour better.”
Then, as if his penitence were not yet complete, Pembury went on boldly farther on:
“Speaking of Greenfield senior, it is time some of us who have been doing him injustice for a whole term did what little we could to make amends now. So here goes. Take notice, all of you, that we, the undersigned, are heartily ashamed of our conduct to Greenfield senior, and desire all Saint Dominic’s to know it. Signed, A. Pembury, H. Wraysford, T. Bullinger.”
The effect of this manifesto was curious. Pembury himself had been unable to prophesy how it would be taken. The boys in front of the board, as they heard it read out, couldn’t tell exactly whether to laugh or be serious over the paragraph. Most, however, did the latter, and hurried on to the next sentence: