Once, early in his career, Robinson was badly caught. On entering his
form-room one winter evening, when darkness had fallen and the gas was
ablaze, his eye fell upon the great plate-glass window which filled the
south wall of the room. Form-room windows are not usually supplied with
blinds, and this window stood black and opaque against the darkness of
night. Right in the centre of the glass was a great white star, which
radiated out in all directions in a series of splintered cracks.
Mr. Robinson knew well what had happened. Some one had hurled a stone
inkpot against the window. Only last week he had had occasion to
discourage target-practice of this kind by exemplary measures. He
addressed the crowded form angrily.
"Who broke that window?"
"It is not broken, sir," volunteered a polite voice.
Arthur Robinson was a young man who did not suffer impudence readily.
"This is not precisely the moment," he rapped out, "for nice
distinctions. The window is cracked, starred, splintered--anything you
like. I want the name of the boy who damaged it. At once, please!"
Silence. Yet it was not the sullen, obstinate silence which prevails
when boys are endeavouring to screen one another. One would almost have
called it silent satisfaction. But Arthur Robinson was too angry and not
sufficiently experienced to note the distinction. Naming each boy by
name, he demanded of him whether or no he had broken the window. Each
boy politely denied the impeachment. One or two were courteous to the
point of patronage.
Suddenly, from the back bench, came a faint chuckle. Arthur Robinson,
conscious of a sickly feeling down his spine, rose to his feet and
approached the splintered window. The form watched him with breathless
joy. Hot faced, he rubbed one of the rays of the star with his fingers.
It promptly disappeared.
The window was undamaged. The star was artistically executed in white
chalk.
Malefactors have their weak spots, too.
One afternoon Mr. Robinson held an "extra." That is to say, he brought
in a body of sinful youths, composed of the riff-raff of his form, for a
period of detention, and set them a stiff imposition to write out. About
half-way through the weary hour he produced from his locked desk an old
cigarette-box containing sundry coins. Laying these out before him, he
proceeded to count them. The perfunctory scratching of pens ceased, and
the assembled company, most of whom had been unwilling contributors to
the fund under review, gazed with lack-lustre eyes at their late
property.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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