Not a single word greeted Harry on his entering the playground the following morning; neither was there any symptom of the persecution of the previous evening. No murmured words flung at him; no hissing; but only a few stares of wonder, almost, at his recent achievement. He was treated as a mere cypher,--sent to Coventry in fact. But this he did not mind; it certainly was preferable to positive persecution; and as he wished to keep calm for his coming ordeal, he was glad that nothing ensued to cause another fight--a contingency he had been fully prepared to expect. Warburton scowled at him. Egerton turned his face away as they passed. This, however, did not make the slightest impression on Harry; he felt proud of his victory over the former, and despised the meanness of the latter. He was allowed to proceed with the examination; but his place had been changed, and he now sat close to Mr Prichard. The reason was evident, and he asked himself wearily, as he bent over his paper, when would he ever be set clear in the eyes of the masters and his schoolfellows? Strangely enough, one of the questions (it was a geography paper) was, "What do you know of Malta?" Harry here felt at an advantage. He remembered, of course, nothing from his own experience; but he had heard his mother's description, and as his pen ran quickly, echoing in boyish language her words whom he loved so well, it is not much to be wondered that his interest almost banished from his mind the memory of his sorry plight. But "like a dream, when one awaketh," he came back suddenly to a recollection of how he was situated. He was going to be put, as it were, on trial, and the charge against him was a difficult one to disprove. Being a half-holiday, prayers were read at the end of morning-school. And now the time was come. Harry walked to Mr Prichard's desk, who conducted him at once across the room to Dr Palmer. The latter looked over his spectacles, surprised. Indeed, Harry had always been one of the "model boys." "What is the matter, Mr Prichard?" he inquired. "Has Campbell been misbehaving himself?" "Yesterday morning, sir," answered Mr Prichard, "during the examination, I detected Campbell deliberately looking over Egerton's paper, who you know at present stands next to him in class." "No, sir, indeed I wasn't," burst in Harry. "Silence, sir!" sharply said Dr Palmer. "Had this been all," resumed Mr Prichard, "I should have punished him myself, severely, without troubling you; but, in the afternoon, as I was collecting the papers, and passing close by Campbell's desk, which was open at the time, I found this book in it," and he handed the delectus-crib. "And Campbell says--" "It isn't mine, sir!" pleaded Harry. "Some one must have put it there!" "Silence, sir!" said Dr Palmer, sharply again. "You will have to answer presently. Well, Mr Prichard?"