CHAPTER X

THE WAY OUT




The ruling spirit of the Academy was Mrs. Tootle. Her husband's
constitutional headache, and yet more constitutional laziness, left
to her almost exclusively the congenial task of guiding the
household, and even of disciplining the school. In lesson-time she
would even flit about the classrooms, and not scruple to administer
sharp rebukes to a teacher whose pupils were disorderly, the effect
of this naturally being to make confusion worse confounded. The boys
of course hated her with the hatred of which schoolboys alone are
capable, and many a practical joke was played at her expense, not,
however, with impunity. Still more pronounced, if possible, was the
animus entertained against Mrs. Tootle's offspring, and it was upon
the head of Master Felix that the full energy of detestation
concentrated itself. He was, in truth, as offensive a young imp as
the soil of a middle-class boarding-school could well produce. If
Mrs. Tootle ruled the Academy, he in turn ruled Mrs. Tootle, and on
all occasions showed himself a most exemplary autocrat. his
position, however, as in the case of certain other autocratic
rulers, had its disadvantages; he could never venture to wander out