Of the bitterness underlying the words that were said, that she should not spend too much on his clothes, she knew nothing. Indeed, after the first week or two Horace was very reticent about what passed at school, rarely mentioned a schoolfellow by name, and seemed absorbed in his lessons all the evening. He talked sometimes to Fred about his mysterious idea, which she knew was connected with chemistry; but beyond this she knew very little of her boy's life at this time. Sometimes he looked worried as he sat poring over his books, as though they were a little beyond his power, she thought; and then she would say, 'Now, Horace, if you are getting tired, give it up. You know going to this school is quite an experiment for you, and if you fail to keep up with the rest it will be no disgrace to own it. You have been looking pale the last day or two.' 'I feel quite well, mother; and as to keeping up with the rest, well, you should see the young giant who is always at the bottom of the class.' And Horace laughed as he mentally recalled the perpetually yawning figure of Curtis, with his back propped against the wall. 'I believe he would go to sleep outright if it wasn't for the master saying, "Now, Curtis, keep your ears and eyes open!"' 'Poor fellow! perhaps he does not feel able to do the work,' said Mrs. Howard pityingly. 'Well, he doesn't let lessons trouble him much. He and "the cock of the walk," that's another big chap who doesn't care much about books, they take it pretty easy, except when they get an "impot," and that takes all their dinner time.' 'And what do you do at dinner time?' asked his brother at this point. 'Eat my dinner, to be sure,' answered Horace. 'Well, you don't look much the better for it. Mother, I'm going to be paid an extra shilling a week, and I vote it goes in dinners for the boy with an idea,' said Fred. 'No! No! I can do very well, and I enjoy my dinner hours now, for I often go up to the "lab.," and have a nice time to myself. Mr. Skeats told me I might go, if I did not take any of the other boys with me. You see, some of them might get up to larks, and----' 'Why don't you get up to larks?' interrupted his brother. Horace laughed, 'Oh, you know that isn't much in my way, and there's room for everybody in a big school like Torrington's.' 'I wish the youngster did not look so serious,' said Fred, after his brother had gone to bed that night. 'He always was quiet,' remarked his mother. 'Quiet, yes; but now he looks up from his book sometimes, as though he had a world of care upon his mind.' 'Perhaps he is thinking over his "idea." You know he could talk of nothing else for a day or two,' said Mrs. Howard. 'Well, he doesn't talk much now, at any rate, and I am wondering whether he is quite happy at that school.' 'But surely he would tell us if he was not. I have asked him again and again. I think he would tell us if there was anything wrong.'