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Updated: June 11, 2025
Then came another weary time of waiting, and I was beginning to think that I should escape again, when there were steps on the stairs the decided, heavy steps of Mr Rebble, who always stamped when he came up by the boys' bedrooms to give him importance, we used to say. It was not a meal-time, so I felt that at last I was to be taken down to the Doctor's library.
"I am glad to welcome you among us, Frank, to join in our curriculum of study, and I hope you will do us all credit. Er rum! Let me see. Burr Frank Burr. We have another Burr here, who has stuck among us for some years." The Doctor paused and looked round with a very fat smile, in the midst of a peculiar silence, till Mr Rebble at the other end said loudly, "Ha! ha!
I glanced once at Mercer, but he did not meet my eyes, and we took our places as pointed out by Mr Rebble, who then stood waiting, and at last coughed softly. "Yes, Mr Rebble," said the Doctor huskily, as he dropped his hand, and I saw that there was a look of pain on his plump face that I had not seen before. "Yes, Mr Rebble, I see.
Good-night." He went out, and closed and locked the door, and we heard him take out the key and go down the stairs. "Well, that's a rum one!" cried Mercer. "I say, Burr, old Rebble made an Irish bull, or something like it. How can we go down if the door's locked?" "It's because they're afraid we shall run away," I said bitterly. "They needn't have thought that."
Then, once more drawing a deep breath, we walked in together through the door Mr Rebble threw open, and closed behind us, when, as if through a mist, I saw the Doctor sitting at a writing-table, looking very stern and portly, the General, grey, fierce, and rather red-faced, seated a little way to the Doctor's right, with his malacca cane between his legs, and his hands, in their bright brown gloves, resting on the ivory handle, so that his arms and elbows stood out squarely; while again on his right, about a couple of yards away, stood big, dark, and burly-looking Bob Hopley, in his best brown velveteen jacket.
Mr Rebble thrust in his hand again, and my spirits sank lower as he drew out another tuft of tow, compressed it, and then, frowning heavily, began to tear it open. "There is nothing there, then, Mr Rebble?" cried the Doctor eagerly.
I was angry because I had touched it, and wished that I had sulked, and shown myself too much injured to go on as if nothing had happened. But it was too late then. After a while, Mr Rebble came back, looking very severe. He watched the maid as she took the tray, but the girl gave me a sympathetic look, and then I was once more left alone.
The hall was reached, and Mr Rebble crossed to the library, waited till I was on the mat, threw the door wide-open and seemed to scoop me in. A low murmur of voices fell on my ear as the door was opened, and I knew that I was not to see the Doctor alone, but I did not anticipate facing such a gathering as I gazed at wildly, with my heart throbbing, my cheeks hot, and a film coming over my eyes.
"Disgraceful!" exclaimed Mr Rebble. "Who began it? You, I suppose, Burr." My first instinct was to disclaim this excitedly, but I thought it would be cowardly, so I held my tongue, leaving it to Burr major to answer. To my surprise, though, he remained silent, and little Wilson squeaked out, "No, sir, please, sir, it wasn't Burr junior, sir.
"I haven't been to the scorers' table, sir," said Mercer, who had just come back from a spot near the tent, where he could get a better view of the field than from where I lay under the big oak tree. "Run and ask, my lad," said Mr Rebble, and he and Mr Hasnip sat down near me, and chatted so pleasantly that I forgot all about the way in which they tortured me sometimes with questions.
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