"Told Georgina Beauclerc: what if they did? She is the very one to glory in such exploits. Had she been the dean's son, instead of his daughter, she would have been in Rutterley's sanctum three times a week. I don't think she would stand at going, as it is, if she were hard up." "But why did they tell her! I could not have acted so cruelly by them. If I could but go to some far-off desert, and never face her, or the school, again!" "If you could but work yourself into a brain fever, you had better say! that's what you seem likely to do. As to falling in Georgina Beauclerc's opinion, which you seem to estimate so highly (it's more than I do), if you pledged all you possess in a lump, and yourself into the bargain, she would only think the better of you. Now I tell you so, for I know it." "I could not help it; I could not, indeed. Money is so badly wanted----" He stopped in confusion, having said more than he meant: and St. John took up the discourse in a careless tone. "Money is wanted badly everywhere. I have done worse than you, Harry, for I am pawning my estate, piecemeal. Mind! that's a true confession, and has never been given to another soul: it must lie between us." "It was yesterday afternoon when college was over," groaned Henry. "I only thought of giving Rutterley my watch: I thought he would be sure to let me have ten pounds upon it. But he would not; only six: and I had the medal in my pocket; I had been showing it to you. I never did such a thing in all my life before." "That is more than your companions could say. How did it get to their knowledge?" "I cannot think." "Where's the----the exchange?" "The what?" asked Henry. "How dull you are!" cried Mr. St. John. "I am trying to be genteel, and you won't let me. The ticket. Let me see it." "They are in my jacket-pocket. Two." He languidly reached forth the pieces, and Mr. St. John slipped them into his own. "Why do you do that, Mr. St. John?" "To study them at leisure. What's the matter?" "My head is beginning to ache." "No wonder, with, all this talking. I'm off. Good-bye. Get to sleep as fast as you can." The boys were in the garden and round the gate still, when he went down. "Oh, if you please, sir, is he half killed? Edwin Wilberforce says so." "No, he is not half killed," responded Mr. St. John. "But he wants quiet, and you must disperse, that he may have it." "My brother, the senior boy, says he must have fallen down from vexation, because his tricks came out," cried Prattleton junior. Mr. St. John ran his eyes over the assemblage. "What tricks?" "He has been pawning the gold medal, Mr. St. John," cried Cookesley, the second senior of the school. "Aultane junior has told the dean: Bright Vaughan heard him." "Oh, he has told the dean, has he?"