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Mr Limpney was talking, and Mr Limpney, being accustomed to lecture and teach, spoke very loudly, so that Dexter heard him say "I must have more authority, sir, and " Dexter heard no more, for he fled into the garden, but he knew that having authority meant the same as it meant with Mr Sibery, and it sounded like going backwards. He felt more miserable as he went out into the garden.
"Oh! you do?" "Yes; the boys all make fun of it, and call me Bed, and Go-to-bed, and Old Bedstead, and when they don't do that, they always call me Old Coal bag or Coaly." "That will do, sir. Don't chatter so," said Mr Sibery reprovingly. "Please, sir, he asked me," said the boy in protest; and there was a frank, bluff manner in his speech which took with the doctor. "Humph!" he said.
In an instant his arms were round her neck, and he was clinging to her unable to speak, but his eyes, his convulsed face, telling the doctor's daughter that she was right. That evening, feeling very strange and terribly depressed, Dexter had gone to his old bedroom, thinking it must be for the last time, and wondering how Mr Sibery would treat him.
That burst of genuine affection won Mother Curdley five shillings, which she pocketed with one hand, as she wiped her eyes with the other, and then had a furtive pinch of snuff, which made several babies sneeze as if they had bad colds. "Very eccentric man," said Mr Hippetts. "Very," assented Mr Sibery. "But he'll bring the young ruffian back."
And look here, my man, Mr Hippetts said that you were anything but a good boy, and your schoolmaster said the same." "Yes; everybody knows that I am a reg'lar bad boy. The worst boy in the whole school." Helen Grayson's face contracted. "Oh, you are, are you!" said the doctor drily. "Yes, Mr Sibery told everybody so." "Well, then, now, sir, you will have to be a very good boy." "All right, sir."
Dexter's eyes wandered from the doctor to a dark-looking bust upon the top of a book-shelf. From thence to a brown bust on the opposite shelf, at which he laughed, for though it was meant for Cicero, it put him greatly in mind of Mr Sibery, and he then fell a-wondering what the boys were doing at the workhouse school.
Then as they held him back he began to talk in a rapid disconnected way. "'Bliged to take it so hungry yes, sir please, sir I've come back, sir come back, Mr Sibery, sir if Mr Hippetts will let me stay where's Mother Curdley where's nurse!" "O father!" whispered Helen excitedly! "Poor, poor boy! what does this mean?"
"So you said before, but you are not good. You are about as mischievous a young rascal as I ever saw in my life." "Yes, sir; that's what Mr Sibery used to say," replied the boy quietly. "I don't want to be." "Then why are you, sir?" The boy shook his head, and looked up at the doctor thoughtfully. "I suppose it's in me," he said.
"May I say a word to the boys, Mr Sibery?" said the doctor, smiling. "Certainly, sir." "Will you call for silence?" The master called, and the doctor asked the lads to give their old schoolfellow a cheer as he was going away. They responded with a shout that made the windows rattle.
For there rose up before him the stern faces of Mr Hippetts and Mr Sibery, with the jeering crowd of schoolfellows, who could laugh at and gibe him for his downfall, and be sure to call him Gentleman Coleby, as long as they were together, the name, under the circumstances, being sure to stick.
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