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I quitted her, taking her message to Heriot: 'You may tell him tell him that I can't write. Heriot frowned on hearing me repeat it. 'Humph! he went, and was bright in a twinkling: 'that means she'll come! He smacked his hands together, grew black, and asked, 'Did she give that beast Boddy a rose? I had to confess she did; and feeling a twinge of my treason to her, felt hers to Heriot.
It took her longer than a fortnight before she could hear any reference to Totty. Early in December Totty had a bit of news to impart which gave Ackroyd a good deal of anxiety. She had been talking with Mrs. Bower, and that lady had as good as said that she could no longer keep old Mr. Boddy in her house.
Boddy looked in a puzzled way; had he really come in his coat and forgotten it? He drew nearer. "That's no coat o' mine, Lyddy," he said. Thyrza broke into a laugh. "Why, whose is it, then?" she exclaimed. "Don't play tricks, grandad; put it on at once!" "Now come, come; you're keeping Mary waiting," said Lydia, catching up the coat and holding it ready. Then Mr. Boddy understood.
'Oh! says Heriot, 'I mean private lessons'; and here he repeated one of Temple's pieces of communication: 'so much more can be imparted in a private lesson! Boddy sprang half up from his seat. 'Row, sir, and don't talk, he growled. 'Sit, sir, and don't dance in the boat, if you please, or the lady will be overset, said Heriot. Julia requested to be allowed to land and walk home.
How much more reprehensible, then, was one that could bring himself to defy a fellow-creature to mortal combat! We were not of his opinion; and as these questions are carried by majorities, we decided that Boddy was a coward, and approved the idea that Heriot would have to shoot or scourge him when the holidays came. Mr.
Eh, there wasn't much as the little 'un didn't see. One day how my wife did laugh! she looks at me for a long time, an' then she says: "How is it, Mr. Boddy," she says, "as you've got one eyelid lower than the other?" It's true as I have a bit of a droop in the right eye, but it's not so much as any one 'ud notice it at once. I can hear her say that as if it was in this room.
Other hymns followed; Mary Bower fell into her gentler mood and showed how pleasant she could be when nothing irritated her susceptibilities. The hours passed quickly to nine o'clock, then Mary said it was time for her to go. 'Do you want to stay a little longer, Mr. Boddy, she said, 'or will you go home with me? 'I'd rather walk home in good company than alone, Miss Mary, he replied.
After the fall of Boddy we had no sense of our hero suffering shame. Temple and I clutched fingers tight as long as the blows went on. We hoped for Boddy to make another attempt to touch Heriot; he held near the master, looking ready to spring, like a sallow panther; we kept hoping he would, in our horror of the murderous slashes of the cane; and not a syllable did Heriot utter.
'Yes, said Temple and I, in chorus, 'but you daren't strike Heriot! This was our consolation, and the sentiment of the school. Fancy, then, our amazement to behold him laying the cane on Heriot's shoulders as fiercely as he could, and Boddy seconding him. The scene was terrible.
Boddy should come and have tea with the girls in their own room. Lydia talked over these things with Mary in the kitchen below the shop, where odours of Christmas fare were already rife. The parlour was full of noisy people, amid whom Mr. Bower was holding weighty discourse; the friends had gone below for privacy. 'So I shall keep the coat till he comes, Lydia said.
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