Eric Part 28

"Hope elevates and joy brightens his crest."

"He-e-ar! He-e-ar!" said Pietrie; "_vide_ the last fifth form Rep."

"I expect Eric won't see everything so much _couleur de Rose_ now, as the French frog hath it," remarked Graham.

"It was too bad to stand by and triumph, certainly," observed Wildney.

"I say, you fellows," remonstrated Wright, who, with Vernon, was sitting reading a book at one of the desks, "all that isn't fair. I'm sure you all saw how really sorry Rose looked about it; and he said, you know, that it was merely for the sake of school discipline that he put the matter in Rowlands' hands."

"Discipline be hanged," shouted Brigson; "we'll have our revenge on him yet, discipline or no."

"I hope you won't, though," said Vernon; "I know Eric will be sorry if you do."

"The more m.u.f.f he. We shall do as we like."

"Well, I shall tell him; and I'm sure he'll ask you not. You know how he tries to stick up for Rose."

"If you say a word more," said Brigson, unaccustomed to being opposed among his knot of courtiers, "I'll kick you out of the room; you and that wretched little fool there with you."

"You may do as you like," answered Wright, quietly, "but you won't go on like this long, I can tell you."

Brigson tried to seize him, but failing, contented himself with flinging a big coal at him as he ran out of the room, which narrowly missed his head.

"I have it!" said Brigson; "that little donkey's given me an idea. We'll _crust_ Rose to-night."

"To crust," gentle reader, means to pelt an obnoxious person with crusts.

"Capital!" said some of the worst boys present; "we will."

"Well, who'll take part?"

No one offered. "What! are we all turning sneaks and cowards? Here, Wildney, won't you? you were abusing Rose just now."

"Yes, I will," said Wildney, but with no great alacrity. "You'll not have done till you've got us all expelled, I believe."

"Fiddle-stick end! and what if we are? besides, he can't expel half the school."

First two or three more offered, and then a whole lot, gaining courage by numbers. So the plot was regularly laid. Pietrie and Graham were to put out the lights at each end of one table immediately after tea, and Wildney and Brooking at the other, when the study fellows had gone out.

There would then be only Mr. Rose's candle burning, and the two middle candles, which, in so large a room, would just give enough light for their purpose. Then all the conspirators were to throng around the door, and from it aim their crusts at Mr. Rose's head, Not nearly so many would have volunteered to join, but that they fancied Mr. Rose was too gentle to take up the matter with vigor, and they were encouraged by his quiet leniency towards Eric the night before. It was agreed that no study-boy should be told of the intention, lest any of them should interfere.

Many hearts beat fast at tea that night as they observed that numbers of boys, instead of eating all their bread, were cutting off the crusts, and breaking them into good-sized bits.

Tea finished, Mr. Rose said grace, and then sat down quietly reading in his desk. The signal agreed on was the (accidental) dropping of a plate by Brigson. The study-boys left the room.

Cras.h.!.+--down fell a plate on the floor, breaking to pieces in the fall.

Instantly the four candles went out, and there was a hurried movement towards the door, and a murmur of voices.

"Now then," said Brigson, in a loud whisper, "what a funky set you are!

Here goes?"

The master, surprised at the sudden gloom and confusion, had just looked up, unable to conjecture what was the matter. Brigson's crust caught him a sharp rap on the forehead as he moved.

In an instant he started up, and ten or twelve more crusts flew by or hit him on the head, as he strode out of the desk towards the door.

Directly he stirred, there was a rush of boys into the pa.s.sage, and if he had once lost his judgment or temper, worse harm might have followed.

But he did not. Going to the door, he said, "Preparation will be in five minutes; every boy not then in his place will be punished."

During that five minutes the servants had cleared away the tea, full of wonder; but Mr. Rose paced up and down the room, taking no notice of any one. Immediately after, all the boys were in their places, with their books open before them, and in the thrilling silence you might have heard a pin drop. Every one felt that Mr. Rose was master of the occasion, and awaited his next step in terrified suspense.

They all perceived how thoroughly they had mistaken their subject. The ringleaders would have given all they had to be well out of the sc.r.a.pe.

Mr. Rose ruled by kindness, but he never suffered his will to be disputed for an instant. He governed with such consummate tact, that they hardly felt it to be government at all, and hence arose their stupid miscalculation. But he felt that the time was now come to a.s.sert his paramount authority, and determined to do so at once and for ever.

"Some of you have mistaken me," he said, in a voice so strong and stern that it almost startled them. "The silly display of pa.s.sion in one boy yesterday has led you to presume that you may trifle with me. You are wrong. For Williams' sake, as a boy who has, or at least once _had_, something n.o.ble in him, I left that matter in the Doctor's hands. I shall _not_ do so to-night. Which of you put out the candles?"

Dead silence. A pause.

"Which of you had the audacity to throw pieces of bread at me?"

Still silence.

"I warn you that I _will_ know, and it will be far worse for the guilty if I do not know at once." There was unmistakeable decision in the tone.

"Very well. I know many boys who were _not_ guilty because I saw them in parts of the room where to throw was impossible. I shall now _ask_ all the rest, one by one, if they took any part in this. And beware of telling me a lie."

There was an uneasy sensation in the room, and several boys began to whisper aloud, "Brigson! Brigson!" The whisper grew louder, and Mr. Rose heard it. He turned on Brigson like a lion, and said--

"They call your name; stand out!"

The awkward, big, ungainly boy, with his repulsive countenance, shambled out of his place into the middle of the room. Mr. Rose swept him with one flas.h.i.+ng glance. "_That_ is the boy," thought he to himself, "who has been like an ulcer to this school. These boys shall have a good look at their hero." It was but recently that Mr. Rose knew all the harm which Brigson had been doing, though he had discovered, almost from the first, what _sort_ of character he had.

So Brigson stood out in the room, and as they looked at him, many a boy cursed him in their hearts for evil taught them, such as a lifetime's struggle could not unteach. And it was _that_ fellow, that stupid, clumsy, base compound of meanness and malice, that had ruled like a king among them. Faugh!

"They call your name! Do you know anything of this?"

"No!" said Brigson; "I'll swear I'd nothing to do with it."

"Oh-h-h-h!" the long, intense, deep-drawn expression of disgust and contempt ran round the room.

"You have told me a lie!" said Mr. Rose, slowly, and with ineffable contempt. "No words can express my loathing for your false and dishonorable conduct. Nor shall your lie save you, as you shall find immediately. Still, you shall escape if you can or dare to deny it again. I repeat my question--Were you engaged in this?"

He fixed his full, piercing eye on the culprit, whom it seemed to scorch and wither. Brigson winced back, and said nothing. "As I thought,"

said Mr. Rose.

"Not _one_ boy only, but many, were engaged. I shall call you up one by one to answer me. Wildney, come here."

The boy walked in front of the desk.

"Were you one of those who threw?"