“I trust,” said the doctor, after a pause, “there is no truth in the report that Bloomfield and the monitors of your house are trying to set up a counter authority to Riddell’s.”
“It is true,” said Mr Parrett; “and it is the secret of most of the bad order in the school. But I am not sure, sir, whether it is a matter you would do well to notice. It is one of the difficulties which Riddell has to live down, and which bring him out more than anything else. He has made his mark already on the usurpers.”
“You are quite right,” said the doctor. “I would rather leave a difficulty like that to right itself. And I dare say the reason Riddell is so slow in asserting himself, as you say, is that in his own house he really has not much to do.”
“Exactly,” said Mr Parrett.
The doctor paused for a moment and then started on an apparently fresh topic.
“I am afraid Welch’s house is no better than it was.”
“How can it be?” said Mr Parrett. “It has not a single senior of influence or even character in it.”
“And more than that,” added the doctor, “it contains a few boys—one or two only, I hope—whose influence is distinctly bad.”
Mr Parrett nodded.
“A change of some sort must be made,” said the doctor. “It has occurred to me, Parrett, quite recently, that Riddell might do better there.”