Philip, flushing, looked at him quickly. But knowing him well by now, without answering, he waited for him to go on.
“I’ve been dissatisfied with you lately. You’ve been slack and inattentive. You seem to take no interest in your work. It’s been slovenly and bad.”
“I’m very sorry, sir,” said Philip.
“Is that all you have to say for yourself?”
Philip looked down sulkily. How could he answer that he was bored to death?
“You know, this term you’ll go down instead of up. I shan’t give you a very good report.”
Philip wondered what he would say if he knew how the report was treated. It arrived at breakfast, Mr. Carey glanced at it indifferently, and passed it over to Philip.
“There’s your report. You’d better see what it says,” he remarked, as he ran his fingers through the wrapper of a catalogue of second-hand books.
Philip read it.
“Is it good?” asked Aunt Louisa.