in the country some pulled off their hats and set up a cheer. The
landlords of the inns where we baited remained bare-headed until we
started afresh, and I, according to my father's example, bowed and lifted
my cap gravely to persons saluting us along the roads. Nor did I seek to
know the reason for this excess of respectfulness; I was beginning to
take to it naturally. At the end of a dusty high-road, where it descends
the hill into a town, we drew up close by a high red wall, behind which I
heard boys shouting at play. We went among them, accompanied by their
master. My father tipped the head boy for the benefit of the school, and
following lunch with the master and his daughter, to whom I gave a kiss
at her request, a half-holiday was granted to the boys in my name. How
they cheered! The young lady saw my delight, and held me at the window
while my father talked with hers; and for a long time after I beheld them
in imagination talking: that is to say, my father issuing his
instructions and Mr. Rippenger receiving them like a pliant hodman;
for the result of it was that two days later, without seeing my kings
of England, my home again, or London, I was Julia Rippenger's intimate
friend and the youngest pupil of the school. My father told me
subsequently that we slept at an hotel those two nights intervening.
Memory transplants me from the coach and scarlet livery straight to my
place of imprisonment.




CHAPTER V

I MAKE A DEAR FRIEND

Heriot was the name of the head boy of the school. Boddy was the name of