13. _A Respite_
"Discipulorum inter jubeo plorare cathedras."
Blithe and gay was Mr. Bultitude when he opened his eyes on Mondaymorning and realised his incredible good fortune; in a few hours hewould be travelling safely and comfortably home, with every facility forregaining his rights. He chuckled--though his sense of humour was notlarge--he chuckled, as he lay snugly in bed, to think of Dick'sdiscomfiture on seeing him return so unexpectedly; he began to put itdown, quite unwarrantably, to his own cleverness, as having conceivedand executed such a stroke of genius as procuring his own expulsion.
He remained in bed until long after the getting-up bell had rung,feeling that his position ensured him perfect impunity in this, and whenhe rose at length it was in high spirits, and he dressed himself with agrowing toleration for things in general, very unlike his ordinary frameof mind. When he had finished his toilet, the Doctor entered the room.
"Bultitude," he said gravely, "before sending you from us, I should liketo hear from your own lips that you are not altogether withoutcontrition for your conduct."
Mr. Bultitude considered that such an acknowledgment could not possiblydo any harm, so he said--as, indeed, he might with perfect truth--that"he very much regretted what had passed."
"I am glad to hear that," said the Doctor, more briskly, "very glad; itrelieves me from a very painful responsibility. It may not impossiblyinduce me to take a more lenient view of your case."
"Oh!" gasped Mr. Bultitude, feeling very uncomfortable all at once.
"Yes; it is a serious step to ruin a boy's career at its outset byunnecessary harshness. Nothing, of course, can palliate the extremebaseness of your behaviour. Still from certain faint indications in yourcharacter of better things, I do not despair even yet (after you havereceived a public lesson at my hands, which you will never forget) ofrearing you to become in time an ornament to the society in which itwill be your lot to move. I will not give up in despair--I willpersevere a little longer."
"Thank you!" Paul faltered, with a sudden sinking sensation.
"Mrs. Grimstone, too," said the Doctor, "has been interceding for you;she has represented to me that a public expression of my view of yourconduct, together with a sharp, severe dose of physical pain, would bemore likely to effect a radical improvement in your character, and tosoften your perverted heart, than if I sent you away in hopelessdisgrace, without giving you an opportunity of showing a desire toamend."
"It's--very kind of Mrs. Grimstone," said Paul faintly.
"Then I hope you will show your appreciation of her kindness. Yes, Iwill not expel you. I will give you one more chance to retrieve yourlost reputation. But, for your own sake, and as a public warning, Ishall take notice of your offence in public. I shall visit it upon youby a sound flogging before the whole school at eleven o'clock. You neednot come down till then--your breakfast will be sent up to you."
Paul made a frantic attempt to dissuade him from his terribledetermination. "Dr. Grimstone," he said, "I--I should much prefer beingexpelled, if it is all the same to you."
"It is not all the same to me," said the Doctor. "This is mere pride andobstinacy, Bultitude; I should do wrong to take any notice of it."
"I--I tell you I have great objection to--to being flogged," said Pauleagerly; "it wouldn't improve me at all; it would harden me,sir,--harden me. I--I cannot allow you to flog me, Dr. Grimstone. I havestrong prejudices against the system of corporal punishment. I object toit on principle. Expulsion would make me quite a different being, Iassure you; it would reform me--save me--it would indeed."
"So, to escape a little personal inconvenience, you would be content tobring sorrow upon your worthy father's grey head, would you, sir?" saidthe Doctor. "I shall not oblige you in this. Nor, I may add, will yourcowardice induce me to spare you in your coming chastisement. I leaveyou, sir--we shall meet again at eleven!"
And he stalked out of the room. Perhaps, though he did not admit thiseven to himself, there were more considerations for commuting thesentence of expulsion than those he had mentioned. Boys are not oftenexpelled from private schools, except for especially heinous offences,and in this case there was no real reason why the Doctor should beQuixotic enough to throw up a portion of his income--particularly if hecould produce as great a moral effect by other means.
But his clemency was too much for Mr. Bultitude; he threw himself on thebed and raved at the hideous fate in store for him; ten short minutesago, and he had been so happy--so certain of release--and now, not onlywas he as far from all hope of escape as ever, but he had the certaintybefore him of a sound flogging in less than two hours!
Just after something has befallen us which, for good or ill, will make agreat change in our lives, what a totally new aspect the common everydaythings about us are apt to wear--the book we were reading, the letter wehad begun, the picture we knew--what a new and tender attraction theymay have for us, or what a grim and terrible irony!
Something of this Paul felt dimly, as he finished dressing, in a dazed,unconscious manner. The comfortable bedroom, with its delicately-tonedwall-paper and flowery cretonnes, had become altogether hateful in hiseyes now. Instead of feeling grateful (as he surely ought to have been)for the one night of perfect security and comfort he had passed there,he only loathed it for the delusive peace it had brought him.
There was a gentle tap at the door, and Dulcie came in, bearing a traywith his breakfast, and looking like a little Royalist bearing food to afugitive Cavalier; though Paul did not quite carry out his share of thesimile.
"There!" she said, almost cheerfully; "I got Mummy to let me take upyour breakfast; and there's an egg for you, and muffins."
Mr. Bultitude sat on a chair and groaned.
"You might say 'thank you,'" said Dulcie, pouting. "That other girlwouldn't have brought you up much breakfast if she'd been in my place. Iwas going to tell you that I'd forgiven you, because very likely younever meant her to write to you" (Dulcie had not been told the sequel tothe Davenant episode, which was quite as well for Paul). "But you don'tseem to care whether I do or not."
"I feel so miserable!" sighed Paul.
"Then you must drink some coffee," prescribed Dulcie decidedly; "and youmust eat some breakfast. I brought an egg on purpose; it's sostrengthening, you know."
"Don't!" cried Paul, with a short howl of distress at this suggestion."Don't talk about the--the flogging, I can't bear it."
"But it's not papa's _new_ cane, you know, Dick," said Dulcieconsolingly. "I've hidden that; it's only the old one, and you alwayssaid that didn't hurt so very much, after a little while. It isn't as ifit was the horsewhip, either. Daddy lost that out riding in theholidays."
"Oh, the horsewhip's worse, is it?" said Paul, with a sickly smile.
"Tom says so," said Dulcie. "After all, Dick, it will be all over infive minutes, or, perhaps, a little longer, and I do think you oughtn'tto mind that so much, now, after mamma and I have begged you off frombeing expelled. We might never have seen one another again, Dick!"
"You begged me off!" cried Paul.
"Yes," said Dulcie; "Daddy wouldn't change his mind for ever solong--till I coaxed him. I couldn't bear to let you go."
"You've done a very cruel thing," said Paul. "For such a little girl asyou are, you've done an immense amount of mischief. But for you, thatletter would not have been found out. You need not have spoilt my onlychance of getting out of this horrible place!"
Dulcie set down the tray, and, putting her hands behind her, leanedagainst a corner of a wardrobe.
"And is that all you say to me!" she said, with a little tremble in hervoice.
"That is all," said Paul. "I've no doubt you meant well, but youshouldn't have interfered. All this has come upon me through that. Takeaway the breakfast. It makes me ill even to look at it."
Dulcie shook out her long brown hair, and clenched her small fist in anundeniable passion, for she had something of her father's hot temperwhen roused. "Very well, then," she said, mo
ving with great dignitytowards the door. "I'm very sorry I ever did interfere. I wish I'd letyou be sent home to your papa, and see what he'd do to you. But I'llnever, never interfere one bit with you again. I won't say one singleword to you any more.... I'll never even look at you if you want me toever so much.... I shall tell Tipping he can hit you as much as ever helikes, and I shall show Tom where I put the new cane--and I only hope itwill hurt!" And with this parting shot she was gone.
Mr. Bultitude wandered disconsolately about the upper part of the houseafter this, not daring to go down, and not able to remain in any oneplace. The maids who came up to make the beds looked at him with pitifulinterest, but he was too proud to implore help from them. To hide wouldonly make matters worse, for, as he had not a penny in his pocket, andno probability of being able to borrow one, he must remain in the housetill hunger forced him from his hiding-place--supposing they did nothunt him out long before that time.
The shouts of the boys in the playground during their half-hour's playhad long since died away; he heard the clock in the hall strikeeleven--time for him to seek his awful rendezvous. The Doctor had notforgotten him, he found, for presently the butler came up andceremoniously announced that the Doctor "would see him now, if hepleased."
He stumbled downstairs in a half-unconscious condition, the butler threwopen the two doors which led to the schoolroom, and Paul tottered in,more dead than alive with shame and fear.
The whole school were at their places, with no books before them, andarranged as if to hear a lecture. Mr. Blinkhorn alone was absent, for,not liking these exhibitions, he had taken an opportunity of slippingout into the playground, round which he was now solemnly trotting at the"double" with elbows squared and head up; an exercise which he said wasan excellent thing for the back and lungs. He had a habit of suddenlyleaving the class he was taking to indulge in it for a few minutes,returning breathless but refreshed.
Mr. Tinkler was at his seat, wearing that faint grin on his face withwhich he might have prepared to see a pig killed or a bull-fight, andall the boys fixed their eyes expectantly on Mr. Bultitude as heappeared at the doorway.
"Stand there, sir," said the Doctor, who was standing at hiswriting-table in an attitude; "out there in the middle, where yourschoolfellows can see you." Paul obeyed and stood where he was told,looking, as he felt, absolutely boneless.
"Some of those here," began the Doctor in an impressive bass, "maywonder why I have called you all together on this, the first day of theweek; most of those who reside under my roof are acquainted with, and Itrust execrate, the miserable cause of my doing so.
"If there is one virtue which I have striven to implant more than anyother in your breasts," he continued, "it is the cultivation of a modestand becoming reserve in your intercourse with those of the opposite sex.
"With the majority I have, I hope, been successful, and it is as painfulfor me to tell as for you to hear, that there exists in your midst ayouthful reprobate, trained in all the arts of ensnaring the vagrantfancies of innocent but giddy girlhood.
"See him as he cowers there before your gaze, in all the baredhideousness of his moral depravity" (the Doctor on occasions like thesenever spared his best epithets, and Paul soon began to feel himself avery villain); "a libertine, young in years, but old in--in everythingelse, who has not scrupled to indite an amatory note, so appalling inits familiarity, and so outrageous in the warmth of its sentiments, thatI cannot bring myself to shock your ears with its contents.
"You do well to shun him as a moral leper; but how shall I tell youthat, not satisfied with pressing his effusions upon the shrinkingobject of his precocious affections, the impious wretch has availedhimself of the shelter of a church to cloak his insidious advances, andeven force a response to them from a heedless and imprudent girl!
"If," continued the Doctor, now allowing his powerful voice to boom toits full compass--"if I can succeed in bringing this coward, thisunmanly dallier in a sentiment which the healthy mind of boyhood rejectsas premature, to a sense of his detestable conduct; if I can score thelesson upon his flesh so that some faint notion of its force and purportmay be conveyed to what has been supplied to him as a heart, then Ishall not have lifted this hand in vain!
"He shall see whether he will be allowed to trail the fair name of theschool for propriety and correctness of deportment in the dust of apew-floor, and spurn my reputation as a preceptor like a church hassockbeneath his feet!
"I shall say no more; I will not prolong these strictures, deservedthough they be, beyond their proper limits.... I shall now proceed toact. Richard Bultitude, remain there till I return to mete out to youwith no sparing hand the punishment you have so richly merited."
With these awful words the Doctor left the room, leaving Paul in astate of abject horror and dread which need not be described. Never,never again would he joke, as he had been wont to do with Dick inlighter moods, on the subject of corporal punishment under anycircumstances--it was no fit theme for levity; if this--this outragewere really done to him, he could never be able to hold up his headagain. What if it were to get about in the city!
The boys, who had sunk, as they always did, into a state of torpid aweunder the Doctor's eloquence, now recovered spirits enough to rally Paulwith much sprightly humour.
"He's gone to fetch his cane," said some, and imitated for Paul'sinstruction the action of caning by slapping a ruler upon a copy-bookwith a dreadful fidelity and resonance; others sought to cross-examinehim upon the love-letter, it appearing from their casual remarks thatnot a few had been also honoured by communications from the artless MissDavenant.
It is astonishing how unfeeling even ordinary good-natured boys can beat times.
Chawner sat at his desk with raised shoulders, rubbing his hands, andgrinning like some malevolent ape: "I told you, Dickie, you know," hemurmured, "that it was better not to cross me."
And still the Doctor lingered. Some kindly suggested that he was "waxingthe cane." But the more general opinion was that he had been detained bysome visitor; for it appeared that (though Paul had not noticed it)several had heard a ring at the bell. The suspense was growing more andmore unbearable.
At last the door opened in a slow ominous manner, and the Doctorappeared. There was a visible change in his manner, however. The whiteheat of his indignation had died out: his expression was grave butdistinctly softened--and he had nothing in his hand.
"I want you outside, Bultitude," he said; and Paul, still uncertainwhether the scene of his disgrace was only about to be shifted, or whatelse this might mean, followed him into the hall.
"If anything can strike shame and confusion into your soul, Richard,"said the Doctor, when they were outside, "it will be what I have to tellyou now. Your unhappy father is here, in the dining-room."
Paul staggered. Had Dick the brazen effrontery to come here to taunt himin his slavery? What was the meaning of it? What should he say to him?He could not answer the Doctor but by a vacant stare.
"I have not seen him yet," said the Doctor. "He has come at a mostinopportune moment" (here Mr. Bultitude could _not_ agree with him). "Ishall allow you to meet him first, and give you the opportunity ofbreaking your conduct to him. I know how it will wring his paternalheart!" and the Doctor shook his head sadly, and turned away.
With a curious mixture of shame, anger, and impatience, Paul turned thehandle of the dining-room door. He was to meet Dick face to face oncemore. The final duel must be fought out between them here. Who would bethe victor?
It was a strange sensation on entering to see the image of what he hadso lately been standing by the mantelpiece. It gave a shock to his senseof his own identity. It seemed so impossible that that stout substantialframe could really contain Dick. For an instant he was totally at a lossfor words, and stood pale and speechless in the presence of hisunprincipled son.
Dick on his side seemed at least as much embarrassed. He giggleduneasily, and made a sheepish offer to shake hands, which wasindignantly declined.
As Paul looked he saw distinctly that his son's fraudulent imitation ofhis father's personal appearance had become deteriorated in manyrespects since that unhappy night when he had last seen it. It was thena copy, faultlessly accurate in every detail. It was now almost acaricature, a libel!
The complexion was nearly sallow, with the exception of the nose, whichhad rather deepened in colour. The skin was loose and flabby, and theeyes dull and a little bloodshot. But perhaps the greatest alterationwas in the dress. Dick wore an old light tweed shooting-coat of his, anda pair of loose trousers of blue serge; while, instead of the formallytied black neckcloth his father had worn for a quarter of a century, hehad a large scarf round his neck of some crude and gaudy colour; and theconventional chimney-pot hat had been discarded for a shabby oldwide-brimmed felt wideawake.
Altogether, it was by no means the costume which a British merchant,with any self-respect whatever, would select, even for a country visit.
And thus they met, as perhaps never, since this world was first setspinning down the ringing grooves of change, met father and son before!