"Your nose bleeding? That"s the third time your nose has bled this week, and other boys have also come with their noses bleeding."
"Do you doubt my word, sir?" asked Wilton, his handkerchief still held up, and a.s.suming an injured air.
"I should be sorry to do so until you give me reason," answered the master, courteously. "It seems a strange circ.u.mstance, but you may go."
It would have been very easy to see whether his nose was bleeding or not, but the master was trying, very unsuccessfully at present, whether implicit confidence would produce a sense of honour among the boys.
Wilton went out hardly concealing his laughter, and in ten minutes returned with the verses, finished and written out. "There," he said, "Ken did those for me; he knocked them off in five minutes. Ken"s an awfully clever fellow, though he never opens a book. Don"t bore yourself with verses any more; I"ll get them done for you."
Charlie glanced at the paper, and saw at once that the verses were perfectly done. "Do you mean to show up that copy as your own, Wilton?"
"Of course I do."
"But we are marked for them."
"Hear! hear! thanks for the information. So much the better. I shall get a jolly good mark."
"Shut up, young innocence, and don"t be a m.u.f.f," said another Noelite.
"We all do the same thing. Take what heaven sends you and be glad to get it."
"Thank you," said Charlie, looking round; "you may, but I"d rather not.
It isn"t fair."
"Oh, how good we are! how sweet we are! what an angel we are!" said Wilton, turning up the whites of his eyes, while the rest applauded him.
But if they meant their jeers to tell on Charlie"s resolution, they were mistaken. He looked quietly round at them all with his clear eyes, gravely handed the paper back to Wilton, and quietly resumed his work.
They were angry to be so foiled, and determined that, if he would not copy the verses, he should at least do them in no other way. One of them took his paper and tore it, another split his quill pens by dashing them on the desk, while a third seized his dictionary. The master, observing that something was going on at that desk, came and stood by; and as long as he was there, Charlie managed to write out what he had done, while the others, cunningly inserting an occasional mistake, or altering a few epithets, copied out the verses which Kenrick had done for Wilton. But directly the master turned away again, a boy on the opposite side of the table, with the utmost deliberation, took hold of Charlie"s fair copy, and emptied the inkstand over it in three or four separate streams.
Vexed as he was--for until this time he had never known unkindness--he took it quietly and good-humouredly. Next morning, before the rest of the boys in his dormitory, who were mainly in his own form, were aware of what he meant to do, he got up early and went to Walter"s study, hoping to write out the verses there from memory. But he found the study in the possession of the housemaid; chapel-bell rang, and after chapel he went into morning school with the exercise unfinished. For this, he, the only boy in the form who had attempted to do his duty, received a punishment, while the rest looked on unabashed, and got marks for their stolen work. Wilton received nearly full marks for his. The master, Mr Paton"s successor, thought it odd that Wilton could do his verses so much better than any of his other work, but he could not detect the cheating, and Wilton always a.s.sured him that the verses were entirely his own composition.
It was about time now, Wilton thought, to hoist his true colours; but, as he had abundance of bra.s.s, he followed Charlie out of the schoolroom, talked to him familiarly, as if nothing had happened, and finally took his arm. But this was too much; for the boy, who was as open as the day in all his dealings, at once withdrew his arm, and standing still, looked him full in the face.
"So!" said Wilton, "now take your choice--friends or enemies--which shall it be?"
"If you want me to cheat, and tell lies, and be mean--not _friends_."
"So! enemies then, mind. Look out for squalls, young Evson. One question, though," said Wilton, as Charlie turned away.
"Well?"
"Are you going to sneak about this to your brother?"
Charlie was silent. Without any intention of procuring Walter"s interference, he _had_ meant to talk to him about his difficulties, and to ask his advice. But if this was to be stigmatised as sneaking he felt that he had rather not do it, for there is no action a boy fears more, and considers more mean than this.
"Oh, I see," said Wilton; "you _do_ mean to peach, blab, tell tales, do you? Well, it don"t matter much; you"ll find he can do precious little; and it will be all the worse for you in the long-run."
"I shan"t tell him," said Charlie, shortly; and those words sealed his lips, as with a heavy heart he entered the breakfast-room, and meditated on troubles to come.
Which troubles came quite fast enough--very fast indeed. For the house, or rather the leading spirits in it, thought that they had wasted quite enough time, and with quite sufficient success in angling for the new boys, and determined to resume without any further delay their ordinary courses. If Charlie was fool enough to resist them, they said, so much the worse for him. During the day, indeed, he was saved from many of the annoyances which Walter had been obliged to endure, by escaping from the Great Schoolroom to the happy and quiet refuge of Walter"s, or Power"s or Eden"s study. There he could always be unmolested, and enjoy the kindness with which he was treated, and the cheerful, healthy atmosphere which contrasted so strangely in its moral sweetness with the turbid and polluted air of Noelite society. But in the evening at Preparation, and afterwards in the dormitories, he was wholly at the mercy of that bad confederacy which had tried to mould him to its own will. He was in a large dormitory of ten boys, and as this was the princ.i.p.al room in Mr Noel"s house, it formed the regular refuge every night for the idle and the mischievously inclined. When the candles were put out at bed-time it was seldom long before they were relit in this room--which was somewhat remote from the others, at the end of a long corridor, and of which the window opened on a secluded part of Dr Lane"s garden. If a scout were placed at the end of the corridor he could give timely warning of any danger, so that the chance of detection was very small. Had the candles been relit only for a game of play, Charlie would have been the first to join in the fun. But the Noelites were far too vitiated in taste to be long content with mere bolstering or harmless games. It seemed to Charlie that the candles were relit chiefly for the purpose of eating and drinking forbidden things, of playing cards, or of bullying and tormenting those boys who were least advanced in general wickedness.
"I say, young Evson," said Wilton to him one night soon after the fracas above narrated, "we"re going to have some fun to-night. Stone, like a brick as he is, has stood a couple of bottles of wine, and Hanley some cards. We shall have a smoke too."
All this was said in a tone of braggadocio, meant to be exceedingly telling, but it only made Charlie feel that he loathed this swaggering little boy with his premature _savoir vivre_, more and more. He understood, too, the hint that two of the new fellows had contributed to the house carousal, and fully expected that he would be asked next. He secretly, however, determined to refuse, because he knew well that a mere harmless feast was not intended, but rather a smoking and drinking bout. He had subscribed liberally to all the legitimate funds--the football, the racquet court, the gymnasium; but he saw no reason why he should be taxed for things which he disliked and disapproved. The result of that evening confirmed him in his resolution. It was a scene of drinking, gluttony, secret fear, endless squabbling, and joyless excitement.
"Of course you"ll play, and put into the pool?" said Wilton.
"No, thank you."
"No, _thank you_," said Wilton, scornfully mimicking his tone. "Of course not; you"ll do nothing except set yourself up for a saint, and make yourself disagreeable."
During the evening Stone brought him some wine, which Charlie again declined, with "No, thank you, Stone." Wilton again echoed the refusal, which was chorused by a dozen others; and from that time Charlie was duly dubbed with the nickname of "No-thank-you." He was forcibly christened by this new name, by being held in bed while half a wine-gla.s.s of port was thrown in his face. The wine poured down and stained his night-shirt, and then they all began to dread that it would lead to their being discovered, and threatened Charlie with endless penalties if he dared to tell. There was, however, little danger, as the Noelites had bribed the servants who waited on them and cleaned their rooms.
The same scene, with slight variations, was constantly repeated, and every fresh refusal was accompanied by a kick or a cuff from the bigger boys, a sneer or an insult from the younger; for Charlie himself was one of the youngest of them all. One night it was, "I say, you fellow--you, No-thank-you--will you fork out for some wine to-night? No? Well then, take that and that, and be hung to you for a little m.u.f.f." Another time it would be, "Hi there, No-thank-you--we want sixpence for a pack of cards. Oh, you won"t be so sinful as to part with sixpence for cards?
Confounded little miser;" "n.i.g.g.ard," said another; "Skinflint," shouted a third. And a general cry of "Saint," which expressed the climax of villainy, ended the verbal portion of the contest. And then, some one would slap him on the cheek, with "take that", "and that," from another, "and that," from a third--the last being a boot or a piece of soap shied at his head.
It cannot be more wearisome to the reader than it is to me to linger in these coa.r.s.e scenes; but, for Charlie, it was a long martyrdom most heroically borne. He was almost literally alone and single-handed against the rest of the house; yet he would not give way. Walter, and Power, and Henderson, all knew that he was bullied, sorely bullied; this they learnt far more from Eden, and from other sources, than from Charlie himself, for he, poor child, held himself bound by his promise to Wilton, and kept his lips resolutely sealed. But these friends knew that he was suffering for conscience sake; and Walter helped him with tender, brotherly affection, and Power with brave words and kindly sympathy, as well as by n.o.ble example, and Henderson by his cheering and playful manner; and this caused him much happiness all day long, until he felt that, with that short but heart-uttered prayer which he breathed so earnestly from "the altar of his own bedside," he had strength sufficient to meet and to conquer the trials which night brought.
In the house one boy and one only helped him. That boy _ought_ to have been Kenrick; his monitorial authority and many responsible privileges were entrusted to him, as he well knew, for the main express purpose of putting down all immorality, and all cruelty, with a strong and remorseless hand. It required very little courage to do this; the sympathies of the majority of boys, unless they be suffered to grow corrupted with an evil leaven, are naturally and strongly on the side of right. In Mr Robertson"s house, for instance, where Walter and Henderson were monitors, such wrong-doings could not have gone on with impunity, or rather could not have gone on at all. There, a little boy, treated with gross severity or injustice, would not have hesitated for an instant to invoke the a.s.sistance of the monitors, whom he looked upon as his natural guardians, and who would be eager to extend to him a generous and efficient protection.
The same was the case in Mr Edwardes"s house, of which Power was the head. Power, indeed, had no coadjutor on whom he could at all rely.
One of the monitors a.s.sociated with him was Legrange, who rather followed Kenrick"s lead, and the other was Brown, who, though well-intentioned, was a boy of no authority. Yet these two houses were in a better condition than any others in the school, because the heads of them did their duty; and it was no slight credit to Walter and Henderson that their house stood higher in character than any other, although it contained both Harpour and Jones. This could not have been the case had not those two worthies found a powerful counterpoise in two other fifth-form fellows, Franklin and Cradock, whose excellence was almost solely due to Walter"s influence. Kenrick, on the other hand, never interfered in the house, and let things go on exactly as they liked, although they were going to rack and ruin.
Charlie"s sole friend and helper in the house then was, not Kenrick, but Bliss. Poor Bliss quite belied his name, for his school work, in which he never could by any effort succeed, kept him in a state of lugubrious disappointment. Bliss lived a dim kind of life, seeing all sorts of young boys get above him and beat him in the race, and vaguely groping in thick mental darkness. Do what he could the stream of knowledge fled from his tantalised lip whenever he stooped to drink; and the fruits, which others plucked easily, sprang up out of his reach when he tried to touch the bough. He was constantly crushed by a desolating sense of his own stupidity; and yet his good temper was charming under all his trials, and he loved with a grateful humility all who tolerated his shortcomings. For this reason he had a sincere affection for Henderson, who plagued him, indeed, incessantly, but never in an unkind or insulting way; and who more than made up for the teasing by patient and constant help, without which Bliss would not have succeeded even as well as he did. Bliss was a strong active fellow, and good at the games, so that with most of the school he got on very well; but, nevertheless, he was generally set down as nearly half-witted--a mere dolt. Dolt or not, he did Charlie inestimable service; and if any boy is in like case with Bliss, let him take courage, for even the merest dolt has immense power for good as well as for harm, and Bliss extended to Charlie a gentle and manly sympathy which many a clever boy might have envied. He knew that Charlie was ill-used. Not being in the same dormitory, and joining very little in the house concerns, he was not able to interfere very directly in his aid; but he never failed to encourage him to resist iniquity of every kind. "Hold out, young Evson," he would often say to him; "you"re a good, brave little chap, and don"t give in; you"re in the right and they in the wrong; and right is might, be sure of that."
It was something in those days to meet with approbation for well-doing among the Noelites; and Charlie, with genuine grat.i.tude, never forgot Bliss"s kind support; till Bliss left Saint Winifred"s they continued firm friends and fast.
"Have you made any friends in the house?" asked Mr Noel of Charlie on one occasion; for he often seized an opportunity of talking to his younger boys, for whom he felt a sincere interest, and whom he would gladly have shielded from temptation to the very utmost of his power, had he but known that of which he was unhappily so ignorant--the bad state of things among the boys under his care.
"Not many, sir," said Charlie.
"Haven"t you? I"m sorry to hear that. I like to see boys forming friendships for future life; and there are some very nice fellows in the house. Wilton, for instance, don"t you like him? He"s very idle and volatile, I know, but still he seems to me a pleasant boy."
Charlie could hardly suppress a smile, but said nothing; and Mr Noel continued, "Who is your chief friend, Evson, among my boys?"
"Bliss, sir," said Charlie, with alacrity.
"Bliss!" answered Mr Noel in surprise. "What makes you like him so much? Is he not very backward and stupid?"
But Charlie would not hear a word against Bliss, and speaking with all the open trustfulness of a new boy, he exclaimed, "O sir, Bliss is an excellent fellow; I wish there were many more like him; he"s a capital fellow, sir, I like him very much; he"s the best fellow in the house, and the only one who stands by me when I am in trouble."
"Well, I"m glad you"ve found _one_ friend, Evson," said Mr Noel; "no matter who he is."
One way in which Bliss showed his friendship was by going privately to Kenrick, and complaining of the way in which Charlie was bullied. "Why don"t you interfere, Kenrick?" he asked.
"Interfere, pooh! It will do the young cub good; he"s too conceited, by half."
"I never saw a little fellow _less_ conceited, anyhow."
Kenrick stared at him. "What business is it of yours, I should like to know?"