"Were the thing to
take place, I should simply demand, through the Dean and Chapter, that
the charter of the school might be consulted, as to whether its tenets
had teen strictly followed."
The head-master made no reply. Neither did he appear angry; only
impassible. Mr. Huntley had certainly hit the right nail on the head;
for the master of Helstonleigh College school was entirely under the
control, of the Dean and Chapter.
"I can speak to you upon this all the more freely and with better
understanding, since it is not my boy who stands any chance," said Mr.
Huntley, with a cordial smile. "Tom Channing heads him on the rolls."
"Tom Channing will not be senior; I have no objection to affirm so much
to you," observed the master, falling in with Mr. Huntley's manner,
"This sad affair of his brother Arthur's debars him."
"It ought not to debar him, even were Arthur guilty," warmly returned
Mr. Huntley.
"In justice to Tom Channing himself, no. But," and the master dropped
his voice to a confidential tone, "it is necessary sometimes to study
the prejudices taken up by a school; to see them, and not to appear to
see them--if you understand me. Were Tom Channing made head of the
school, part of the school would rise up in rebellion; some of the boys
would, no doubt, be removed from it. For the peace of the school alone,
it could not be done. The boys would not now obey him as senior, and
there would be perpetual warfare, resulting we know not in what.
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