Mr. Gordon’s face grew blacker and blacker. The deep undisguised pain which the discovery caused him was swallowed up in unbounded indignation. “False-hearted, dishonorable boys,” he exclaimed, “henceforth my treatment of you shall be very different. The whole form, except Russell and Owen, shall have an extra lesson every half-holiday; not one of the rest of you will I trust again. I took you for gentlemen. I was mistaken. Go.” And so saying, he waved them to their seats with imperious disdain. They went, looking sheepish, and ashamed. Eric, deeply vexed, kept twisting and untwisting a bit of paper, without raising his eyes, and even Barker thoroughly repented his short-sighted treachery; the rest were silent and miserable. At twelve o’clock two boys lingered in the room to speak to Mr. Gordon; they were Eric Williams and Edwin Russell, but they were full of very different feelings. Eric stepped to the desk first. Mr. Gordon looked up. “You! Williams, I wonder that you have the audacity to speak to me. Go--I have nothing to say to you!” “But, sir, I want to tell you that--” “Your guilt is only too clear, Williams. You will hear more of this. Go, I tell you.” Eric’s passion overcame him; he stamped furiously on the ground, and burst out, “I _will_ speak, sir; you have been unjust to me for a long time, but I will _not_ be--” Mr. Gordon’s cane fell sharply across the boy’s back; he stopped, glared for a moment; and then saying: “Very well, sir! I shall tell Dr. Rowlands that you strike before you hear me,” he angrily left the room, and slammed the door violently behind him. Before Mr. Gordon had time to recover from his astonishment, Russell stood by him. “Well, my boy,” said the master, softening in a moment, and laying his hand gently on Russell’s head, “what have you to say? You cannot tell how I rejoice, amid the deep sorrow that this has caused me, to find that _you_ at least are uncontaminated. But I _knew_, Edwin, that I could trust you.” “O sir, I come to speak for Eric--for Williams.” Mr. Gordon’s brow darkened again, and the storm gathered, as he interrupted vehemently, “Not a word, Russell; not a word. This is the _second_ time that he has wilfully deceived me; and this time he has involved others too in his base deceit.” “Indeed, sir, you wrong him. I can’t think how he came to write the paper, but I _know_ that he did not and would not use it. Didn’t you see yourself, sir, how he turned his head quite another way when he broke down.” “It is very kind of you, Edwin, to defend him,” said Mr. Gordon coldly, “but at present, at any rate, I must not hear you. Leave me; I feel very sad, and must have time to think over this disgraceful affair.” Russell went away disconsolate, and met his friend striding up and down, the passage, waiting for Dr. Rowlands to come out of the library. “O Eric,” he said, “how came you to write that paper?”