"Nothing, sir--I did--I gave it to Louis Mortimer," stammered Churchill, looking from Louis to the doctor, and back again.

"And how came you to give it to him?"

Churchill did not reply until the question was repeated, when he reluctantly said, he had given it to Louis to a.s.sist him in his exercise.

"Did Mortimer ask you for it?"

"No, sir."

"Did he wish for it?"

"No, sir, not that I know of."

"You know, Harry, that I asked you to put it away--did I not?"

cried Louis.

"I don't know--yes--I think you did," said Churchill, growing very hot.

"Why did you not put it away?" asked Dr. Wilkinson.

"Because I thought he wanted it, please sir."

"But I did not, Harry! I told you I did not," said Louis, eagerly.

Dr. Wilkinson desired Louis to be silent, and continued his questions--

"Did you try to persuade him to use it?"

Again Churchill paused, and again confessed, most unwillingly, that he had done so--and received a severe reprimand for his conduct on the occasion, and a long task to write out which would keep him employed during the play-hours of that day.

He was then dismissed, and Dr. Wilkinson again addressed himself to Louis: "I am glad to find that part of your story is correct; but I now wish you to explain how my key found its way into the school-room yesterday, when discovered by Mr. Witworth. The book must have been deliberately taken out of this room into the school-room. You appear to have been alone, or nearly so, in the school-room the greater part of yesterday afternoon, and Mr. Witworth found the book half concealed by your lesson books while you were writing your exercises."

"I a.s.sure you, sir, I did not take it," said Louis.

"Unhappily," replied Dr. Wilkinson, "I cannot take a mere a.s.surance in the present instance. Had not the case been so palpable, I should have been bound to believe you until I had had reason to mistrust your word--but with these facts I _cannot_, Louis;" and he added, in a very low tone, so as to be heard only by Louis, who was much nearer to him than the others, "Your honor has not always been sacred--beware."

His school-fellows wondered what made the red flush mount so furiously in Louis' forehead, and the tears spring to his eyes. The painful feelings called forth by his master's speech prevented him from speaking for a few minutes. He was roused by Dr. Wilkinson saying--

"The discovery of this Key in your possession would involve your immediate dismissal from the second cla.s.s, a sufficient disgrace, but the matter a.s.sumes a far more serious aspect from these a.s.sertions of innocence. If you had not used the book when discovered, it must have been taken either by you, or another, for use. The question is now, who took it?"

"I did not, sir," said Louis, in great alarm.

"Who did, then? Were any of your cla.s.s with you?"

"No, sir."

"Was any one with you?"

Louis paused. A sudden thought flashed across him--a sudden recollection of seeing that book pa.s.sed over and slipped among his books; an action he had taken no notice of at the time, and which had never struck him till this moment. He now glanced eagerly at Ferrers, and then, in a tremulous voice, said, "I remember now, Ferrers put it there--I am almost sure."

"Ferrers!" exclaimed the young men, with one voice.

"What humbugging nonsense!" said Salisbury, in a low tone.

"Do you hear, Mr. Ferrers?" said the doctor: "how came you to put that Key among Louis Mortimer's books?"

"I, sir--I never," stammered Ferrers. "What should I want with it?

What good could I get by it? Is it likely?"

"I am not arguing on the possibility of such an event, I simply wish to know if you did it?" said the doctor.

"I, sir--no," exclaimed Ferrers, with an air of injured innocence.

"If I had done it, why did he not accuse me at once, instead of remembering it all of a sudden?"

"Because I only just remembered that I saw you moving something towards me, and I am _almost_ sure it was that book now--I think so," replied Louis.

"You'd better be quite sure," said Ferrers.

Dr. Wilkinson looked from one to the other, and his look might have made a less unprincipled youth fear to persist in so horrible a falsehood.

"Were you learning your lessons in the school-room yesterday afternoon, Mr. Ferrers, at the same time with Louis Mortimer?" Ferrers acknowledging this, Dr. Wilkinson sent for Mr. Witworth, and asked him if he had observed either Ferrers or Louis go into the study during the afternoon, and if he knew what each brought out with him. Mr. Witworth replied that both went in, but he did not know what for.

"I went in to get an atlas for Ferrers," cried Louis, in great agitation.

"I got the atlas myself, Mortimer, you know," said Ferrers.

Louis was quite overcome. He covered his face with his hands, and burst into tears.

"This is a sad business," said Dr. Wilkinson, very gravely; "much worse than I expected--one of you must be giving utterance to the most frightful untruths. Which of you is it?"

"What would Ferrers want with the Key to The Greek Exercises sir?"

suggested Trevannion, "unless he wished to do an ill turn to Mortimer, which you cannot suppose."

"I have hitherto trusted Mr. Ferrers," replied Dr. Wilkinson; "and am not disposed to withdraw that confidence without sufficient cause.

Mr. Ferrers, on your word of honor, am I to believe your statement?"

Ferrers turned pale, but the doctor's steady gaze was upon him, and all his cla.s.s-fellows awaited his reply--visions of disgrace, contempt, and scorn were before him, and there was no restraining power from within to check him, as he hastily replied, "On my word of honor, sir."

"I must believe you, then, as I can imagine no motive which could induce you to act dishonorably by this boy, were I to discover that any one in my school had acted so, his immediate expulsion should be the consequence."

The dead silence that followed the doctor's words struck coldly on the heart of the guilty coward.

"Now, Louis Mortimer," said the doctor, sternly, "I wish to give you another chance of confessing your fault."

Louis' thick convulsive sobs only replied to this. After waiting a few minutes, Dr. Wilkinson said, "Go now to the little study joining my dining-room, and wait there till I come: I shall give you half an hour to consider."

Louis left the room, and repaired to the study, where he threw himself on a chair in a paroxysm of grief, which, for the first quarter of an hour, admitted of no alleviation: "He had no character. The doctor had heard all before. All believed him guilty--and how _could_ Ferrers act so? How could it ever be found out? And, oh! his dear father and mother, and his grandfather, would believe it."

By degrees the violence of his distress subsided, and he sent up his tearful pet.i.tions to his heavenly Father, till his overloaded heart felt lightened of some of its sorrow. As he grew calmer, remembrances of old faults came before him, and he thought of a similar sin of his own, and how nearly an innocent person had suffered for it--and this he felt was much easier to bear than the consciousness of having committed the fault himself; and he remembered the sweet verses in the first Epistle of St. Peter: "What glory is it if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye take it patiently; but if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with G.o.d.