"There can't be any doubt that it was he
who gave the information to Ketch. If Huntley finds that Lady Augusta
did assert it, the school will take the affair up."
The boast amused Hamish. "In what manner will the school be pleased to
'take it up?'" questioned he. "Recommend the dean to hold Mr. Pye under
surveillance? Or send Lady Augusta a challenge?"
Tom Channing nodded his head mysteriously. "There is many a true word
spoken in jest, Hamish. I don't know yet what we should do: we should
do something. The school won't stand it tamely. The day for that
one-sided sort of oppression has gone out with our grandmothers'
fashions."
"It would be very wrong of the school to stand it," said Charley,
throwing in his word. "If the honours are to go by sneaking favour, and
not by merit, where is the use of any of us putting out our mettle?"
"You be quiet, Miss Charley! you juniors have nothing to do with it,"
were all the thanks the boy received from Tom.
Now the facts really were very much as Tom Channing asserted; though
whether, or how far, Mr. Pye had promised, and whether Lady Augusta's
boast had been a vain one, was a matter for speculation. Neither could
it be surmised the part, if any, played in it by Prebendary Burrows. It
was certain that Lady Augusta had, on the previous day, boasted to Mr.
Galloway, in his office, that her son was to have the seniorship; that
Mr. Pye had promised it to her and Dr.
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