He hugged me up to him.

‘I’d take anything for you, Heriot,’ said I.

‘All right,’ he answered, never meaning me to suffer on his account.  He had an inimitable manner of sweet speaking that endeared him to younger boys capable of appreciating it, with the supernatural power of music.  It endeared him, I suppose, to young women also.  Julia repeated his phrases, as for instance, ‘Silly boy, silly boy,’ spoken with a wave of his hand, when a little fellow thanked him for a kindness.  She was angry at his approval of what she called my defiance of her father, and insisted that I was the catspaw of one of Heriot’s plots to vex him.  ’Tell Heriot you have my command to say you belong to me and must not be misled,’ she said.  His answer was that he wanted it in writing.  She requested him to deliver up her previous letters.  Thereupon he charged me with a lengthy epistle, which plunged us into boiling water.  Mr. Boddy sat in the schoolroom while Heriot’s pen was at work, on the wet Sunday afternoon.  His keen little eyes were busy in his flat bird’s head all the time Heriot continued writing.  He saw no more than that Heriot gave me a book; but as I was marching away to Julia he called to know where I was going.

‘To Miss Rippenger,’ I replied.

‘What have you there?’

‘A book, sir.’

‘Show me the book.’

I stood fast.

’It ‘s a book I have lent him, sir,’ said Heriot, rising.  ’I shall see if it’s a fit book for a young boy,’ said Boddy; and before Heriot could interpose, he had knocked the book on the floor, and out fell the letter.  Both sprang down to seize it:  their heads encountered, but Heriot had the quicker hand; he caught the letter, and cried ‘Off !’ to me, as on another occasion.  This time, however, he was not between me and the usher.  I was seized by the collar, and shakes roughly.

’You will now understand that you are on a footing with the rest of the boys, you Roy,’ said Boddy.  ’Little scoundrelly spoilt urchins, upsetting the discipline of the school, won’t do here.  Heriot, here is your book.  I regret,’ he added, sneering, ‘that a leaf is torn.’

‘I regret, sir, that the poor boy was so savagely handled,’ said Heriot.

He was warned to avoid insolence.

‘Oh, as much Virgil as you like,’ Heriot retorted; ‘I know him by heart.’

It was past the hour of my customary visit to Julia, and she came to discover the reason of my delay.  Boddy stood up to explain.  Heriot went forward, saying, ’I think I’m the one who ought to speak, Miss Rippenger.  The fact is, I hear from little Roy that you are fond of tales of Indian adventure, and I gave him a book for you to read, if you like it.  Mr. Boddy objected, and treated the youngster rather rigorously.  It must have been quite a misunderstanding on his part.  Here is the book it’s extremely amusing.’

Julia blushed very red.  She accepted the book with a soft murmur, and the sallow usher had not a word.