To
give Gerald his due, his own share in the day's exploits faded into
insignificance, compared with the shock of mortification which shook
him, when he heard the avowal of his mother, respecting Roland. He and
Tod had been the most eager of all the school to cast Arthur's guilt in
Tom Channing's cheek; they had proclaimed it as particularly
objectionable to their feelings that the robbery should have taken
place in an office where their brother was a pupil; and now they found
that Tom's brother had been innocent, and their own brother guilty! It
was well that Gerald's brow should burn. "But she'd no cause to come
here and blurt it out to the lot, right in one's face!" soliloquized
Gerald, alluding to Lady Augusta. "They'd have heard it soon enough,
without that."
Mr. William Simms, I have said, also attended Charles. Mr. William was
hoping that the return of Charley would put him upon a better footing
with the school. He need not have hoped it: his offence had been one
that the college boys never forgave. Whether Charley returned dead or
alive, or had never returned at all, Simms would always remain a sneak
in their estimation. "Sneak Simms," he had been called since the
occurrence: and he had come to the resolution, in his own mind, of
writing word home to his friends that the studies in Helstonleigh
college school were too much for him, and asking to be removed to a
private one. I think he would have to do so still.
Pages:
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743