Louis' School Days Part 32

As she spoke, Mrs. Norman re-entered, and took Louis down to lunch.

When he returned to the drawing-room, Mrs. Paget had her sofa moved so as to face the window, and a little table was placed in front of her. A low armchair was near her for Louis, and another quite in the window Mrs. Norman took possession of, when she had provided herself with some work.

"Oh, what a beautiful view!" exclaimed Louis, as he looked for the first time out of the window. "How very, very beautiful! I think this is the pleasantest situation in Clifton."

"It is very beautiful," said Mrs. Norman. "But you have a magnificent prospect at Dr. Wilkinson's."

"Dr. Wilkinson's is a very nice place, I believe, is it not?" said Mrs. Paget. "It is a pity such a pretty place should be a school."

"Nay," said Mrs. Norman, smiling; "why should you grudge the poor boys their pleasure?"

"I don't think they appreciate it," said Mrs. Paget; "and, poor fellows, they are always so miserable that they might as well be miserable somewhere else."

"We are not at all miserable after the first week," said Louis.

"I thought you were not to go to school again, my dear," said Mrs. Paget.

"So I thought, myself, but papa wished me to go, and he is the best judge."

"Well, dear it's a very nice thing that you are wise enough to see it,--and you are happy?"

"I should be very ungrateful not to be so ma'am; Dr. Wilkinson and all the boys are so kind to me this half. It is so different from the first quarter spent at school."

"They are kind, are they? Well, I dare say; they couldn't help it, I'm sure," replied Mrs. Paget. "I suppose you will have the medal again this half year. I am sure you ought to have it to make up."

"Oh, but I shouldn't have it to make up for last half, ma'am,"

said Louis, smiling.

"But you will get it, I dare say," said the lady.

"I don't know," said Louis; "perhaps--I think I have a very good chance yet, but we never can tell exactly what Dr. Wilkinson thinks about us. There are only one or two I am afraid of."

"I should think you needn't be afraid of any," said Mrs. Paget. "I told you, Charlotte, about that story we heard at Heronhurst last summer--dear boy--you know he bore--"

"Yes," interrupted Mrs. Norman. "You have a large number of school-fellows, Master Louis," she added.

"Yes, ma'am, there are seventy-six of us this half, so many that we hardly know the names of the lower school."

"Is that M. _Ferrar_ or _Ferrers_ there still?" asked Mrs. Paget.

"Yes, ma'am, and he is so much improved, you cannot think."

Louis looked very earnestly at her as she spoke, and she put her hand on his forehead, stroking his hair off, while she replied,

"He is very happy in having so kind a friend, I am sure; he ought to have been expelled."

"Oh no, ma'am--I think kindness was much the best way," said Louis; and remembering how incautiously he had spoken of him before, he said all that he could in his praise.

The conversation then turned upon the school in general, and it was astonis.h.i.+ng to watch how much Louis said indirectly in his own praise, and how nearly every thing seemed to turn in the direction of _dear self_, in the history of his lessons, progress, and rivals--and even when it branched off to his friends, among whom in the first rank stood Hamilton.

"You would so like Hamilton, he is so kind to me. I told you about him before," said Louis, eagerly.

"Is that the young gentleman who had charge of you the other day?"

asked Mrs. Paget.

Louis answered in the affirmative.

"I did not much like him, only one doesn't judge people fairly at first, often."

"Oh, Hamilton's such a good creature!" exclaimed Louis, in his energy letting fall one end of a skein of silk he was holding. He gathered it up, apologized, and resumed his defence of his friend.

"He is, perhaps, a little blunt, but he is so sincere, and so steady and kind, Dr. Wilkinson is very, _very_ fond of him, I know; he makes me sit by him every night, and I learn my lessons with him.

I am sure if it were not for him I should be terribly behind Clifton."

"I saw them coming out of Redland Chapel yesterday morning," said Mrs. Paget. "At least I saw Mr. Hamilton, but I did not see you."

Louis informed her of the division of the school on Sunday, and she continued,

"I noticed a very aristocratic young gentleman with Mr. Hamilton--quite a contrast, so very handsome and elegant; who was he?"

"Was he tall?" asked Louis; "and dressed in black, with a light waistcoat?"

"I don't know what waistcoat he had," said Mrs. Paget, laughing.

"His dress was in perfect gentlemanly taste. He was, I should think, tall for his age, and had dark hair and eyes."

"I have no doubt it was Trevannion; he is the handsomest fellow in the school, except Salisbury."

"That he is not," said Mrs. Paget, significantly.

Louis blushed, and felt rather foolish, certainly not wholly insensible to the injudicious hint.

"Only Fred Salisbury is so different: he is not elegant, and yet he is not awkward; he is rough and ready, and says all kinds of vulgar things. He is very much liked among us, but I don't think Trevannion is, though he gets his own way a great deal: he thinks n.o.body is equal to himself, I know, but I am sure he is not a favorite."

"Why not?" said Mrs. Paget.

"He is so very selfish, and so contemptuous, and so dreadfully offended if Hamilton does not treat him with the deference he wants. I think we know more of each other than any one else does, and no one would think, in company, when Trevannion is smiling and talking so cleverly, that he is so unamiable."

"He does not look like an ill-tempered person," said the lady.

"I don't think he is what is generally called an ill-tempered person; for he never puts himself into pa.s.sions, nor does he seem to mind many things that make others very angry. But he is sometimes dreadfully disdainful and haughty when any one offends him, and especially when Hamilton seems to like anybody as well as himself. Only last Sat.u.r.day he was so much affronted because Hamilton had asked leave for me to go into Bristol with him. When he found I was coming, he wouldn't go with us. I think he is very jealous of me, though I begged Hamilton to let me stay at home, and I was just going after him to call him back, only Hamilton wouldn't let me. I did not like to see such old friends quarrel.

I am sure I would very gladly have stayed at home to keep peace."

"I am quite sure of that," said Mrs. Paget. "But how came your perfect Mr. Hamilton to choose such a friend?"

"I have often wondered," said Louis; "and last Sat.u.r.day, when that happened that I told you of just now, and Hamilton (he is so kind) said he wouldn't give me up for anybody, he said he thought he made Trevannion his friend because he was too lazy to find another for himself."

"_Too lazy to find another?_" repeated Mrs. Paget.

"Hamilton does not like taking trouble, generally," said Louis; "it is his greatest fault, I think. He takes things as they come.