Captain Vallery at last consented that Norman should begin learning.
Mrs Leslie found him a very refractory pupil, for although he evidently could learn, he would not attend to what she told him, and she was therefore glad to give him over to Mrs Norton. That lady had no idea of allowing a little boy to have his own way, so she kept Master Norman every morning close by her side till he had finished the task she set him. In a few days he knew all the letters, and could soon read short words without difficulty. He however did not feel at all as grateful as he ought to have done, for the instruction given him, and gladly escaped from the schoolroom when Mrs Norton devoted her attention to Fanny.
One day his grandmamma had driven out with his papa and mamma, to call on some friends, when Norman having finished his lessons, Mrs Norton said to him, “You may go out and play on the lawn for an hour, till I call you in again.”
Norman ran off, well pleased to be at liberty, but not knowing exactly what to do with himself.
“If I had my football I might kick it about, and have some fun,” he thought, “no one has taken the trouble to mend it. I should think Fanny, who is so nimble with her fingers as granny says, might have done so.
I must have a game at battledore and shuttlecock, I can play that alone.”
He went into the drawing-room to get one of the battledores, which were kept in an Indian cabinet. No sooner had he opened the door than his eye fell on Miss Lucy, seated in a large arm-chair, where Fanny, who had brought her down to try on a new frock which her mamma had made, had incautiously left her.
“You are there, are you!” said Norman, slowly approaching, “you look as if you were laughing at me. I should like to know what business Fanny has with you, when I have not my football to play with.”
He stopped for a minute or more, looking at the doll with his fists clenched; and instead of trying to drive away the evil thought which had entered his mind, took a pleasure in encouraging it. Still, he did not touch the doll. “I will carry you out, and hide you in a bush, where Fanny cannot find you,” he muttered.