examination papers, when a barge drew up before the study building and
boys clutching hand-bags tumbled out and hurried into the building to
greet the rector.

Irving stood for a few moments looking on with interest: other barges
kept coming over the hill, interspersed with carriages, in which a few
arrived more magnificently.

It occurred to Irving that perhaps he had better hasten to his dormitory
in order to be on hand when his charges should begin to appear; he was
just starting away when three boys arm in arm rushed out of the study
building. They came prancing up to him, all smiles and twinkles; they
were boys of seventeen or eighteen. They confronted him, blocking his
path; and the one in the middle, a slim, straight fellow in a blue suit,
said,—

“Hello, new kid! What name?”

A blush of embarrassment mounted in Irving’s cheeks; feeling it, he
conceived it all the more advisable to assert his dignity. So he said
without a smile, in a constrained voice,—

“I am not a new kid. I am a master.”

The three boys who had been beaming on him with good humor in their
eyes stared blankly. Then the one in the middle, with a sudden whoop of
laughter, swung the two others round and led them off at a run; and as
they went, their delighted laughter floated back to Irving’s ears.

His cheeks were tingling, almost as if they had been slapped. He