"Not if I knows it, young un," was the answer. "I've got me fare, and you've got to yer journey's end. So good-day to yer! Hope yer won't find it too precious warm in there. I passes by most every day and hears horrid yells a-coming from the 'ouse. Get up, won't yer!" and with a tug and a spiteful lash at his horse, this cheerful Jehu drove off with such a jerk that the dilapidated top hat he wore started backward, and, bounding from the box, was crushed beneath the wheels. Phil, who had for the moment been somewhat taken aback by the man's ominous words, roared at the cabman's discomfiture and at the rage into which he promptly worked himself. Then, taking no notice of his growling, and seeing no one at hand to help him, he shouldered his box, pushed open the iron gate which formed the entrance of his new home, and mounted the steps. A double knock, sounding hollow and rumbling, was answered quickly by an individual who performed at once the duties of butler and general fatigue man of the school. "Name, sir?" he asked politely. "Western," answered Phil. "Ah! you're the new boy, sir! Glad to see you. Let me help you with the box;" and in a twinkling Phil was relieved of his baggage. Then he was ushered into a big room, where he waited, not without some feelings of uneasiness, for the appearance of the master. "I wonder what he'll be like!" he thought. "I've heard of masters of his sort before. I wonder whether that cabby was rotting! Perhaps he wasn't, and perhaps I shall really be catching it hot. Never mind. I was happy at Haddington, and will be here too." Phil was in the act of sketching for himself a big, heavy-looking man, with a hard unrelenting face, as his master, when there was a quick step outside, the door burst open, and a clean-shaven little gentleman, with a smiling, pleasant face, entered the room. "By Jove! He's awfully like Uncle Joe, and would be just his image if he were a little fatter," Phil thought in an instant. "Ah, Philip Western, the boy who has been in difficulties, I believe!" said the stranger, extending a hand and shaking Phil's heartily. "Glad to see you, my lad. Let me look at you. Yes--we shall be good friends, I hope." Then, murmuring to himself, he continued, "Larky-- high-spirited--full of go, but no vice--no vice, I will swear. Yes, we shall be good friends." Mr Ebden--for he it was--pushed Phil into the light and rapidly surveyed him, muttering audibly all the while. "So you are a disappointment to your father!" he continued. "Come, tell me all about it, my lad. Let there be no secrets between us. Tell me the whole trouble; why you have come here, and in what manner you have proved such a deep worry to your people."