Mildred Arkell: A Novel. Vol. 2 (of 3)Wood, Henry, Mrs.
General
Mildred Arkell: A Novel. Vol. 2 (of 3)
Wood, Henry, Mrs.
Fiction
"Be quiet, Lewis," interposed Jocelyn. "Arkell's doing nothing that you
need trouble him for. Just turn your attention to that second desk, and
see what's going on there. They'll get Mr. Wilberforce's eyes upon them
directly."
Lewis could have found in his heart to hang the senior boy. He was
always interfering with him in this manner whenever he was monitor, to
the detriment of his dignity as such. Lewis immediately struck up a
wordy war, until the master's attention was excited and he commanded
silence.
Oh, if this dislike of Henry Arkell had but died out at first! half this
history would not then have been written. It might have done so under
different circumstances; it might, perhaps, have done so but for the
dean's daughter. From the very first hour that she knew him, Georgina
Beauclerc made no secret of her liking. When she met the college boys,
child though she was then, she would single him out from the rest, and
stop talking to him. Her governess used to look defiance, but that made
not the least impression on Miss Beauclerc. She invited him to the
deanery; _they_ never were allowed to put their noses inside it, except
at those odd moments when they went to solicit the dean to allow them
holiday from the cathedral; she would pass them sometimes without the
slightest notice in the world, but she never so passed _him_.
If he had but been a dull, stupid, clumsy boy! Strange though it may
seem, the rest hated him because he did his lessons. _Their_ tasks were
hurried over, imperfectly learnt at the best, if at all, and were
generally concluded with a caning. His were always perfectly and
efficiently done. They called him hard names for this; prig, snob,
sneak; but, in point of fact, the boy was never allowed the opportunity
of _not_ doing them, for his father on that score was a martinet, and
drilled him at home just as much as Mr. Wilberforce did at school. And,
greatest of all advantages, his early education had been so
comprehensive and sound. The horribly hard lessons, that were as death
to the rest, seemed but play to him; and the natural consequence was,
that the envy boiled over. Circumstances, in this point of view, were
not favourable to him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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