Stephen drew back his maimed and quivering right arm and held out his left hand.  The soutane sleeve swished again as the pandybat was lifted and a loud crashing sound and a fierce maddening tingling burning pain made his hand shrink together with the palms and fingers in a livid quivering mass.  The scalding water burst forth from his eyes and, burning with shame and agony and fear, he drew back his shaking arm in terror and burst out into a whine of pain.  His body shook with a palsy of fright and in shame and rage he felt the scalding cry come from his throat and the scalding tears falling out of his eyes and down his flaming cheeks.

—­Kneel down, cried the prefect of studies.

Stephen knelt down quickly pressing his beaten hands to his sides.  To think of them beaten and swollen with pain all in a moment made him feel so sorry for them as if they were not his own but someone else’s that he felt sorry for.  And as he knelt, calming the last sobs in his throat and feeling the burning tingling pain pressed into his sides, he thought of the hands which he had held out in the air with the palms up and of the firm touch of the prefect of studies when he had steadied the shaking fingers and of the beaten swollen reddened mass of palm and fingers that shook helplessly in the air.

—­Get at your work, all of you, cried the prefect of studies from the door.  Father Dolan will be in every day to see if any boy, any lazy idle little loafer wants flogging.  Every day.  Every day.

The door closed behind him.

The hushed class continued to copy out the themes.  Father Arnall rose from his seat and went among them, helping the boys with gentle words and telling them the mistakes they had made.  His voice was very gentle and soft.  Then he returned to his seat and said to Fleming and Stephen: 

—­You may return to your places, you two.

Fleming and Stephen rose and, walking to their seats, sat down.  Stephen, scarlet with shame, opened a book quickly with one weak hand and bent down upon it, his face close to the page.

It was unfair and cruel because the doctor had told him not to read without glasses and he had written home to his father that morning to send him a new pair.  And Father Arnall had said that he need not study till the new glasses came.  Then to be called a schemer before the class and to be pandied when he always got the card for first or second and was the leader of the Yorkists!  How could the prefect of studies know that it was a trick?  He felt the touch of the prefect’s fingers as they had steadied his hand and at first he had thought he was going to shake hands with him because the fingers were soft and firm:  but then in an instant he had heard the swish of the soutane sleeve and the crash.  It was cruel and unfair to make him kneel in the middle of the class then:  and Father Arnall had told them both that they might return to their places without