"It was I, would be better grammar," said Mr Rastle, quietly. Mr Rastle was a ruddy young man, with a very good-humoured face, and a sly smile constantly playing at the corners of his mouth. He no doubt guessed the cause of the disturbance, for he asked, "Was any one pinching you?" "Go it," growled Bramble, in a savage whisper. "Say it was me, you sneak." Stephen said, No, no one had pinched him; but finished up his sentence with another "Oh!" as the gentle Bramble gave him a sharp side-kick on the ankle as he stood. Mr Rastle's face darkened as he perceived this last piece of by-play. "Bramble," said he, "oblige me by standing on the form for half an hour. I should be sorry to think you were as objectionable as your name implies. Sit down, Greenfield." And then the class resumed, with Master Bramble perched like a statue of the sulky deity on his form, muttering threats against Greenfield all the while, and the most scathing denunciations against all who might be even remotely connected with big brothers, and mammies, and blub-babies. Stephen, who was beginning to feel himself much more at home at Saint Dominic's, betrayed no visible terror at these menaces, and only once took any notice of his exalted enemy, when the latter attempted not only to stand on the form, but upon a tail of Stephen's jacket, and a bit of the flesh of his leg at the same time. Then he gave the offending foot a knock with his fist and an admonitory push. "Please, sir," squeaked the lordly Bramble, "Greenfield junior is trying to knock me over." "I was not," shouted Stephen; "he was squashing me with his foot, and I moved it away." "Really, Bramble," said Mr Rastle, "you are either very unfortunate or very badly behaved. Come and stand on this empty form beside my desk. There will be no danger here of `squashing' any one's leg or of being knocked over. Come at once." So Mr Bramble took no advantage by his last motion, and served the rest of his term of penal servitude, in the face of the entire class, under the immediate eye of Mr Rastle. Directly class was over, Stephen had to go and wait upon Loman for a particular purpose, which the reader must hear of in due time. CHAPTER SIX. MR CRIPPS THE YOUNGER.