wandered over the boys’ heads till they rested on him, when they gave a short flutter and dropped, like a bird shot dead.  The boys must have had some knowledge that love was busy in their midst, for they spoke of Heriot and Julia as a jolly couple, and of Boddy as one meaning to play the part of old Nick the first opportunity.  She was kinder to them than ever.  It was not a new thing that she should send in cakes of her own making, but it was extraordinary that we should get these thoughtful presents as often as once a fortnight, and it became usual to hear a boy exclaim, either among a knot of fellows or to himself, ‘By jingo, she is a pretty girl!’ on her passing out of the room, and sometimes entirely of his own idea.  I am persuaded that if she had consented to marry Boddy, the boys would have been seriously disposed to conspire to jump up in the church and forbid the banns.  We should have preferred to hand her to the junior usher, Catman, of whom the rumour ran in the school that he once drank a bottle of wine and was sick after it, and he was therefore a weak creature to our minds; the truth of the rumour being confirmed by his pale complexion.  That we would have handed our blooming princess to him was full proof of our abhorrence of Boddy.  I might have thought with the other boys that she was growing prettier, only I never could imagine her so delicious as when she smiled at my father.

The consequence of the enlistment of the whole school in Heriot’s interests was that at cricket-matches, picnics on the hills, and boating on the canal, Mr. Boddy was begirt with spies, and little Temple reported to Heriot a conversation that he, lying hidden in tall grass, had heard between Boddy and Julia.  Boddy asked her to take private lessons in French from him.  Heriot listened to the monstrous tale as he was on the point of entering Julia’s boat, where Boddy sat beside her, and Heriot rowed stroke-oar.  He dipped his blade, and said, loud enough to be heard by me in Catman’s boat,

‘Do you think French useful in a military education, sir?’

And Boddy said, ‘Yes, of course it is.’

Says Heriot, ‘Then I think I shall take lessons.’

Boddy told him he was taking lessons in the school.

‘Oh!’ says Heriot, ‘I mean private lessons’; and here he repeated one of Temple’s pieces of communication:  ’so much more can be imparted in a private lesson!’

Boddy sprang half up from his seat.  ‘Row, sir, and don’t talk,’ he growled.

’Sit, sir, and don’t dance in the boat, if you please, or the lady will be overset,’ said Heriot.

Julia requested to be allowed to land and walk home.  Boddy caught the rudder lines and leapt on the bank to hand her out; then all the boys in her boat and in Catman’s shouted, ’Miss Julia! dear Miss Julia, don’t leave us!’ and we heard wheedling voices:  ‘Don’t go off with him alone!’ Julia bade us behave well or she would not be able to come out with us.  At her entreaty Boddy stepped back to his post, and the two boats went forward like swans that have done ruffling their feathers.