"Yes, mother," he replied, "just look how nice it is. And hasn't it a nice scent?" He got up as he spoke and stood beside her. She smoothed his collar with satisfaction. "It is certainly very well starched and ironed," she said. "Madge is improving; I must tell her so. That new soap too has quite a pleasant smell about it--like new-mown hay. It's partly the lavender in the drawers, I daresay." But Gratian smiled to himself--thinking he knew better! "Gratian," said his mother, two mornings later, as he was starting for school, "I had a message from the master yesterday. He wants to see me about you, but he is very busy, and he says if father or I should be in the village to-day or to-morrow, he would take it kindly if we would look in. I must call at the mill for father to-day--he's too busy to go himself--so I think I'll go on to school, and then we can walk back together. So don't start home this afternoon till I come." "No, mother, I won't," said Gratian. But he still hung about as if he had more to say. "What is it?" asked his mother. "You're not afraid the master's going to give a bad account of you?" "No, mother--not since I've cured myself of dreaming," he answered. "I was only wondering if I knew what it was he was going to ask you." "Better wait and know for sure," said his mother. So Gratian set off. But he found it impossible not to keep thinking and wondering about it to himself. Could it be anything about the Big House? Had Tony kept his promise, and told the master of the trick he had played, so that Gratian, and not he, should be chosen? "He didn't seem to care about it much," thought Gratian, "not near so much as I should--oh, dear no! Still it wouldn't be very nice for him to have to tell against himself, whether he cared about it or not." But as his mother had said, it was best to wait a while and know, instead of wasting time in fruitless guessing. Tony seemed quite cheerful and merry, and little Dolly was as friendly as possible. After the morning lessons were over and the other children dispersed, the schoolmaster called Gratian in again. "It is too cold now for you to eat your dinner in the playground, my boy," he said. "After you have run about a little, come in and find a warmer dining-room inside. But I have something else to say to you. I had a talk with Anthony Ferris yesterday." Gratian felt himself growing red, but he did not speak. "He told me of the trick he'd played you. A very unkind and silly trick it was, and so I said to him; but as he told it himself I won't punish him. He told me more, Gratian--of your finding his book and giving it back to him, when you might have done him an ill turn by keeping it." "I did keep it all one day, sir," said Gratian humbly.