Part 48 (1/2)

”Papa!” he exclaimed, plunging into it the moment Mr. Pye's back was turned, ”you might have taken the opportunity to tell him that I shall leave the school. It is not often he comes here.”

”But you are not going to leave the school,” said Mr. Channing.

”Yes, I am,” replied Tom, speaking with unmistakable firmness. ”Hamish made me stay on, until you came home; and I don't know how I have done it. It is of no use, papa! I cannot put up with the treatment--the insults I receive. It was bad enough to lose the seniors.h.i.+p, but that is as nothing to the other. And to what end should I stop, when my chance of the exhibition is gone?”

”It is not gone, Tom. Mr. Huntley--as word was written to me at Borcette--has declined it for his son.”

”It is not the less gone for me, papa. Let me merit it as I will, I shall not be allowed to receive it, any more than I did the seniors.h.i.+p. I am out of favour, both with master and boys; and you know what that means, in a public school. If you witnessed the way I am served by the boys, you would be the first to say I must leave.” ”What do they do?” asked Mr. Channing.

”They do enough to provoke my life out of me,” said Tom, falling into a little of his favourite heat. ”Were it myself only that they attacked, I might perhaps stop and brave it out; but it is not so. They go on against Arthur in a way that would make a saint mad.”

”Pooh, pooh!” interposed Mr. Galloway, who was standing by. ”If I am content to accept Arthur's innocence, surely the college school may be.”

Mr. Channing turned to the proctor. ”Do you now believe him innocent?”

”I say I am content to accept his innocence,” was the reply of Mr. Galloway; and Arthur, who was within hearing, could only do as he had had to do so many times before--school his spirit to patience. ”Content to accept,” and open exculpation, were essentially different things.

”Let me speak with you a minute, Galloway,” said Mr. Channing, taking the proctor's arm and leading him across the hall to the drawing-room. ”Tom,” he added, looking back, ”you shall tell me of these grievances another time.”

The drawing-room door closed upon them, and Mr. Channing spoke with eagerness. ”Is it possible that you still suspect Arthur to have been guilty?”

”Channing, I am fairly puzzled,” returned Mr. Galloway, ”His own manner, relating to it, has not changed, and that manner is not compatible with innocence, You made the same remark yourself, at the time.”

”But you have had the money returned to you, I understand.”

”I know I have.”

”Well, that surely is a proof that the thief could not have been Arthur.”

”Pardon me,” replied Mr. Galloway, ”It may be a proof as much against him as for him: it may have come from himself.”

”Nay, where was Arthur to find twenty pounds to send to you?”

”There are two ways in which he might find it. But”--Mr. Galloway broke off abruptly--”I do not like to urge these things on you; they can only inflict pain.”

”Not greater pain than I have already undergone,” was Mr. Channing's answer. ”Tell me, I pray you, all your thoughts--all you suspect: just as though you were speaking to any indifferent friend. It is right that I should know it. Yes, come in, Huntley,” Mr. Channing added, for Mr. Huntley at that moment opened the door, unconscious that any private conference was going forward. ”I have no secrets from you. Come in. We are talking of Arthur.”

”I was observing that there are two means by which the money could have come from Arthur,” resumed Mr. Galloway, when Mr. Huntley had entered. ”The one, by his never having used the note originally taken; the other, by getting a friend to return it for him. Now, my opinion is, that he did not pursue the first plan, I believe that, if he took the note, he used it. I questioned him on the evening of its arrival, and at the first moment his manner almost convinced me that he was innocent. He appeared to be genuinely surprised at the return of the money, and ingenuously confessed that he had not possessed any to send. But his manner veered again--suddenly, strangely--veered round to all its old unsatisfactory suspiciousness; and when I hinted that I should recall b.u.t.terby to my counsels, he became agitated, as he had done formerly. My firm belief,” Mr. Galloway added, laying his hand impressively upon Mr. Channing--”my firm belief is, that Arthur did get the money sent back to me through a friend.”

”But what friend would be likely to do such a thing for him?” debated Mr. Channing, not in the least falling in with the argument. ”I know of none.”

”I think”--and Mr. Galloway dropped his voice--”that it came from Hamish.”

”From Hamis.h.!.+” was Mr. Channing's echo, in a strong accent of dissent. ”That is nonsense. Hamish would never screen guilt. Hamish has not twenty pounds to spare.”

”He might spare it in the cause of a brother; and for a brother's sake he might even screen guilt,” pursued Mr. Galloway. ”Honourable and open as Hamish is, I must still express my belief that the twenty pounds came from him.”

”Honourable and open as Hamish is!” the words grated on Mr. Huntley, and a cynical expression rose to his face. Mr. Channing observed it. ”What do you think of it?” he involuntarily asked.

”I have never had any other opinion but that the money did come from Hamish,” drily remarked Mr. Huntley. And Mr. Channing, in his utter astonishment, could not answer.

”Hamish happened to call in at my office the afternoon that the money was received,” resumed Mr. Galloway. ”It was after I had spoken to Arthur. I had been thinking it over, and came to the conclusion that if it had come from Arthur, Hamish must have done it for him. In the impulse of the moment, I put the question to him--Had he done it to screen Arthur? And Hamish's answer was a mocking one.”

”A mocking one!” repeated Mr. Channing. ”A mocking, careless answer; one that vexed me, I know, at the time. The next day I told Arthur, point blank, that I believed the money came from Hamish. I wish you could have seen his flush of confusion! and, deny it, he did not. Altogether, my impression against Arthur was rather confirmed, than the contrary, by the receipt of the money; though I am truly grieved to have to say it.”

”And you think the same!” Mr. Channing exclaimed to Mr. Huntley.

”Never mind what I think,” was the answer. ”Beyond the one opinion I expressed, I will not be drawn into the discussion. I did not intend to say so much: it was a slip of the tongue.”

Mr. Huntley was about to leave the room as he spoke, perhaps lest he should make other ”slips;” but Mr. Channing interposed and drew him back. ”Stay, Huntley,” he said, ”we cannot rest in this uncertainty. Oblige me by remaining one instant, while I call Hamish.”

Hamish entered in obedience. He appeared somewhat surprised to see them a.s.sembled in conclave, looking so solemn; but he supposed it related to Charles. Mr. Channing undeceived him.

”Hamish, we are speaking of Arthur. Both these gentlemen have expressed a belief--”

”I beg your pardon,” interrupted Mr. Huntley. ”I said that I should be obliged if you would leave me out of the discussion.”

”What does it signify?” returned Mr. Channing, his tone one of haste. ”Hamish, Mr. Galloway has expressed to me a belief that you have so far taken part with Arthur in that unhappy affair, as to send back the money to him.”

”Oh, indeed!” said Hamish; and his manner was precisely what Mr. Galloway had described it to have been at the time; light, mocking, careless. ”Mr. Galloway did me the honour to express something of the same belief, I remember.”

”Did you send it, Hamish?” asked his father, a severe look crossing his face.

”No, sir, I did not,” emphatically replied Hamish. And Mr. Huntley turned and bent his keen eye upon him. In his heart of hearts he believed it to be a deliberate falsehood.

”I did not send the money, and I do not know who did send it,” went on Hamish. ”But, as we are upon the subject, perhaps I may be allowed to express my opinion that, if there were as much labour taken to establish Arthur's innocence, as it seems to me there is to prove him guilty, he might have been cleared long ago.”

That the remark was aimed at Mr. Galloway, there was no doubt. Mr. Huntley answered it; and, had they been suspicious, they might have detected a covert meaning in his tone.

”You, at any rate, must hold firm faith in his innocence.”

”Firm and entire faith,” distinctly a.s.sented Hamish. ”Father,” he added, impulsively turning to Mr. Channing, ”put all notion of Arthur's guilt from you, at once and for ever. I would answer for him with my life.”

”Then he must be screening some one,” cried Mr. Galloway. ”It is one thing or the other. Hamish, it strikes me you know. Who is it?”

A red flush mounted to Hamish's brow, but he lapsed into his former mocking tone. ”Nay,” said he, ”I can tell nothing about that.”

He left the room as he spoke, and the conference broke up. It appeared that no satisfactory solution could be come to, if they kept it on till midnight. Mr. Galloway took leave, and hastened home to dinner.

”I must be going also,” remarked Mr. Huntley. Nevertheless, he returned with Mr. Channing to the other room.

”You told me at Borcette that you were fully persuaded of Arthur's innocence; you were ready to ridicule me for casting a doubt upon it,” Mr. Channing remarked to him in a low tone, as they crossed the hall.

”I have never been otherwise than persuaded of it,” said Mr. Huntley. ”He is innocent as you, or as I.”

”And yet you join Mr. Galloway in a.s.suming that he and Hamish sent back the money! The one a.s.sertion is incompatible with the other.”