Eric smiled, and Mr. Gordon frowned.  “Williams, leave the room instantly.”

The boy obeyed slowly and doggedly.  “Mr. Rose never interferes with me, when he sees me here,” he said as he retreated.

“Then I shall request Mr. Rose to do so in future; your conceit and impertinence are getting intolerable.”

Eric only answered with a fiery glance; the next minute Upton joined him on the stairs, and Mr. Gordon heard them laughing a little ostentatiously, as they ran out into the playground together.  He went away full of strong contempt, and from that moment began to look on the friends as two of the worst boys in the school.

This incident had happened on Thursday, which was a half-holiday, and instead of being able to join in any of the games, Eric had to spend that weary afternoon in writing away at the fourth Georgic; Upton staying in a part of the time to help him a little, by dictating the lines to him—­an occupation not unfrequently interrupted by storms of furious denunciation against Mr. Gordon’s injustice and tyranny; Eric vowing “that he would pay him out somehow yet.”

The imposition was not finished that evening, and it again consumed some of the next day’s leisure, part of it being written between schools in the forbidden class-room.  Still it was not quite finished on Friday afternoon at six, when school ended, and Eric stayed a few minutes behind the rest to scribble off the last ten lines; which done, he banged down the lid of his desk, not locking it, and ran out.

The next morning an incident happened which involved considerable consequences to some of the actors in my story.

Mr. Rose and several other masters had not a room to themselves, like Mr. Gordon, but heard their forms in the great hall.  At one end of this hall was a board used for the various school notices, to which there were always affixed two or three pieces of paper containing announcements about examinations and other matters of general interest.

On Saturday morning (when Eric was to give up his Georgic), the boys, as they dropped into the hall for morning school, observed a new notice on the board, and, thronging round to see what it was, read these words, written on a half-sheet of paper, attached by wafers to the board—­

“GORDON IS A SURLY DEVIL.”

As may be supposed, so completely novel an announcement took them all very much by surprise, and they wondered who had been so audacious as to play this trick.  But their wonder was cut short by the entrance of the masters, and they all took their seats, without any one tearing down the dangerous paper.

After a few minutes the eye of the second master, Mr. Ready, fell on the paper, and, going up, he read it, stood for a moment transfixed with astonishment, and then called Mr. Rose.

Pointing to the inscription, he said:  “I think we had better leave that there, Rose, exactly as it is, till Dr. Rowlands has seen it.  Would you mind asking him to step in here?”