Louis' School Days Part 44

Meantime, Dr. Wilkinson and Hamilton had, after a walk across the grounds in front of the house, turned into the lane, making as large a round as possible, on their way to the house. Hamilton was in a very silent humor, and as his tutor was equally grave, very few words pa.s.sed between them during the first half of their walk; and if Hamilton had thought at all about what he had undertaken so mechanically, he might have wondered how the doctor could have wanted a companion, when he was in so taciturn a humor.

Suddenly the doctor remarked,--"Have you heard nothing of your poem, Hamilton?"

This was so unexpected a question, and Hamilton was so unwilling to make a direct answer, that he remained silent for a minute or two, his hesitation and color convincing his master that Louis had acted up to his determination.

"Well, have you forgotten all about it?" said the doctor, good-humoredly.

"I have found it, sir--here it is," he replied, producing the paper.

"How did you get it?" asked the doctor, who betrayed far less surprise and satisfaction than the occasion seemed to demand.

"It was thrown into the cla.s.s-room this morning, sir," said Hamilton, reservedly.

"And you are ignorant of the party?" said the doctor, with raised eyebrows.

"No, sir, I know who has done it," replied Hamilton, after a slight pause; "but I must beg you to excuse my naming him. I think there is no danger of a repet.i.tion of the offence. Of course you will understand, sir, that I do not mean Digby, who is as innocent as I ever believed him."

There was a little silence, while the doctor ran his eye down a page of Hamilton's ma.n.u.script.

"As you wish to keep the matter secret, I shall ask no further questions; only, Digby may not think it quite fair."

"He wishes it to be so, sir," replied Hamilton, eagerly. "It is quite his wish now he knows I have _proof_ that he is not the culprit."

Dr. Wilkinson's face lighted up with an expression of great satisfaction, as he said,

"It does Digby credit."

Hamilton was on the point of hazarding a remark on the impossibility of Frank's contemplating such a thing, when they turned a corner of the lane that brought them in sight of the playground wall and the farm-yard opposite. The doctor's attention was suddenly arrested by the figure of a boy, perched on the top of the high wall surrounding the latter, who was reaching downwards towards the top of a large hawthorn-tree that grew inside.

"Hey-day! Hamilton, who's that?" he exclaimed. "Do you recognize the figure? If my eyes deceive me not, it is Louis Mortimer. I have strongly suspected lately that I have been robbed more than once.

It _is_ Louis Mortimer."

The doctor's tone a.s.sumed its ready sternness, and he quickened his pace. Hamilton could not doubt the evidence of his senses, but he felt miserably disappointed.

"I do not think Louis Mortimer would do so, sir," he said, faintly.

"There he is, however, out of bounds," said the doctor.

"Something else may have taken him there," said Hamilton.

"I hope it may prove so, but he is surely receiving something from below--he sees us--he will be down--he will a.s.suredly break his neck!"

exclaimed the doctor, hurriedly. "There--quick, Hamilton--run."

Hamilton needed no bidding, for, as soon as he saw Louis fall, he ran off in the direction of the stable-yard. The doctor followed so quickly that Hamilton had only just raised Louis from the ground when he came up. To their great satisfaction he was not much hurt, having fallen on a heap of straw that lay just under the wall. He was much frightened, and at first so stunned as to be almost incapable of understanding what was said to him. On the ground near him lay his green baize bag, and rolling about in all directions, some apples, one or two still remaining in the bag.

"Where is your companion, sir?" was the first question Dr. Wilkinson asked, after ascertaining that no injury had been done to Louis.

"There was no one with me, sir," replied Louis, almost inarticulately.

"What were you doing here, sir?"

"I came to fetch my bag, sir."

"It is a mercy you were not killed," said Dr. Wilkinson, gravely.

"Put the apples in that bag, Hamilton."

Dr. Wilkinson waited till Hamilton had performed this task, and then desired Louis to take the bag and follow him.

Louis did as he was desired, but he was evidently not yet in a condition to walk, and trembled so violently that Hamilton caught hold of him to prevent him from falling.

"He can't walk yet, sir," he said, compa.s.sionately. "I will bring him in when he has recovered a little."

"It is too cold to sit out here," said the doctor. "Where are you hurt?"

"I don't exactly know; I am not much _hurt_--but, oh! I feel so strange, Hamilton. Let me walk--I can take your arm."

Dr. Wilkinson looked anxiously at him, and a.s.sisted him, with Hamilton's aid, across the road, through the garden, into the kitchen, where, with a little hartshorn and water, he was soon in a condition to go up stairs.

Dr. Wilkinson desired him to go to bed for the rest of the day, and sent Reginald to help him. The bag he took into his own possession till further occasion.

Louis was too much dismayed by his ill success, and too much exhausted by the shock of his fall, to make any remarks till he reached his room.

Hamilton did not leave him until he had seen him comfortably in bed; and then, after wrapping him up most tenderly, he leaned over him, and asked what was really the matter.

Louis endeavored to answer calmly, but in his present weak condition Hamilton's kind manner overcame him, and he burst into tears.

"Oh, dear!" he exclaimed, amid his violent sobs; "oh, Reginald, Reginald--Hamilton, I am so unfortunate! Every thing I do is always found out; but others can do all sorts of things, and no one knows it."

"Is there any thing then to be found out, Louis?" said Hamilton, gravely; "if so, it is far better for you that it should be."

Louis suddenly threw his arms round Hamilton, as he sat near him.

"Hamilton, I did not go there to steal, I am sure," he said, throwing his head back, and examining his friend's face with the most intense anxiety. "I am sure, Hamilton, bad as I am, you could not believe it of me. I have been very sinful, but oh, I am very sorry; and, Hamilton, I _could_ not do so very wicked a thing. Do remember, please, how things were against me before when I was not guilty. Though it seems all against me now, I a.s.sure you, the only thing I have done wrong is going out of bounds--oh, do let me keep my arms round you, Hamilton--don't believe me guilty. I haven't--oh, I haven't had a friend for so long! I have been very proud and self-willed--if I had been humble perhaps things would not have gone so wrong. I never even said I was sorry I repeated what you said to Mrs. Paget; but I was sorry, Hamilton--very, very sorry, only I did not like to say so. Will you forgive me, and be my friend again? I have been so ungrateful, I am afraid you will never love me any more."

Hamilton was completely overcome by the vehemence of Louis' appeal.

He pressed the poor boy closer to him, and even kissed his forehead, as if he were a little child.

"Love you, Louis! love you, dear boy!" he replied; "you have had reason to doubt it, but I have always loved you. I forgive you from my heart, but you have something to forgive in me. I have not been as kind to you as I might have been."

"I am very sorry I spoke so unkindly of you this morning, Hamilton,"

sobbed Louis, laying his wet cheek on Hamilton's shoulder. "I was cross, and didn't think of what I was saying."

"Don't think any more about it," said Hamilton, affectionately; "lie down, and tell me quietly how you came to be on that wall just now."

"I was standing at the wooden door," said Louis, "when Sally Simmons told me that she had seen my bag on the great hawthorn-tree, by the wall on the other side. And when I asked her how it got there, she said, she supposed I knew, but it was too high for her to reach; and if I didn't get it, the doctor would find me out. At first, I thought I wouldn't go," said Louis, hesitating; "and then I was afraid I should be getting into a sc.r.a.pe--I am sometimes so unfortunate--and so I went across the lane, and got over the gate, and went into the yard to see if it were there. And there it was, Hamilton, with some apples in it, too, hanging partly, and partly lying, near the top of the tree; it was so high that I was obliged to get upon the cow-house roof, and as the cow-house was on the wrong side, I was obliged to get on the wall to read it. And I was pulling it off when you first saw me, and then--I was afraid, and as I was rather over-reaching myself, I tried to get down in a hurry, and fell down. I think the tree broke my fall; but I don't know how it was, for I hardly understood any thing, even when you came up."

"You had better have let it alone," said Reginald.

"What were you doing at the gate?" said Hamilton; "keeping watch?"

"One of them asked me," replied Louis.