In due time Tilbury came, and received back his six stamps, and a hundred lines of Livy, and an order to send the next boy on the black list to receive a similar reward for his merits. And so the tedious process went on, and that afternoon, in Mills’s study, twenty boys sadly took back six stamps each, and received among them two thousand lines of Livy, to be handed in on Thursday morning. One name remained: the first on the list, and consequently the last in the order in which Railsford had taken it.
“I will return these,” said he, taking up the six remaining stamps, “to Felgate myself.”
Mills made one more appeal.
“Do let me off going to the doctor, sir!” implored he. “Why, sir, I never thought it could be wrong if Felgate went in for it, and they’ve all got their stamps back, sir. Please let me off.”
“I cannot do that. If the doctor treats you less severely than you deserve, it will be because you have made this reparation, instead of carrying out the act of dishonesty you had it in your mind to perpetrate.”
And he left him there, and proceeded, with a heart as heavy as any he had worn since he came to Grandcourt, to Felgate’s study.