"
"Did he talk to you about it, Jenkins?" asked Mr. Galloway.
"I did not see him, sir; it was Harper told me afterwards," was the
reply of Jenkins, as he subsided to his writing again.
Just at this juncture, who should come in view of the window but the
head-master himself. He was passing it with a quick step, when out flew
Mr. Galloway, and caught him by the button. Roland Yorke, who was ever
glad of a pretext for idleness, rose from his stool, and pushed his
nose close up to the nearest pane, to listen to any colloquy that might
ensue; but, the window being open, he might have heard without leaving
his seat.
"I hear the boys have not a holiday to-day, Pye," began Mr. Galloway.
"No, that they have not," emphatically pronounced the master; "and, if
they go on as they seem to be going on now, I'll keep them without it
for a twelvemonth. I believe the inking of that surplice was a
concocted plan, look you, Galloway, to--"
"To what?" asked Mr. Galloway, for the master stopped short.
"Never mind, just yet. I have my strong suspicions as to the guilty
boy, and I am doing what I can to convert them into proofs. If it be as
I suspect now, I shall expel him."
"But what could it have been done for?" debated Mr. Galloway. "There's
no point in the thing, that I can see, to ink and damage a surplice. If
the boy to whom it belonged had been inked, one might not have wondered
so much.
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