'Recollect yourself.'
'He followed us to-night, when we first came here!'
'Yer lie, I didn't!' replies Deputy, in his one form of polite
contradiction.
'He has been prowling near us ever since!'
'Yer lie, I haven't,' returns Deputy. 'I'd only jist come out for
my 'elth when I see you two a-coming out of the Kin-freederel. If
I - ket - ches - Im - out - ar - ter - ten!'
(with the usual rhythm and dance, though dodging behind Durdles),
'it ain't ANY fault, is it?'
'Take him home, then,' retorts Jasper, ferociously, though with a
strong check upon himself, 'and let my eyes be rid of the sight of
you!'
Deputy, with another sharp whistle, at once expressing his relief,
and his commencement of a milder stoning of Mr. Durdles, begins
stoning that respectable gentleman home, as if he were a reluctant
ox. Mr. Jasper goes to his gatehouse, brooding. And thus, as
everything comes to an end, the unaccountable expedition comes to
an end - for the time.
CHAPTER XIII - BOTH AT THEIR BEST
MISS TWINKLETON'S establishment was about to undergo a serene hush.
The Christmas recess was at hand. What had once, and at no remote
period, been called, even by the erudite Miss Twinkleton herself,
'the half;' but what was now called, as being more elegant, and
more strictly collegiate, 'the term,' would expire to-morrow. A
noticeable relaxation of discipline had for some few days pervaded
the Nuns' House. Club suppers had occurred in the bedrooms, and a
dressed tongue had been carved with a pair of scissors, and handed
round with the curling tongs.
Pages:
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192