He awed them, too, but only for the moment, and the
waste of misery swallowed him up once more.
Was this to be his life?--he asked himself. Would this last for
ever?
For some reason, the morning after the visit to the masters' room
just spoken of found him in rather better spirits than usual.
Perhaps it was that he had slept fairly well; a gleam of unwonted
sunshine had doubtless something to do with it. Yet there was
another reason, though he would scarcely admit it to himself. It was
the day on which he gave a drawing-lesson to Dr. Tootle's two eldest
children. These drawing-lessons were always given in a room
upstairs, which was also appropriated to the governess who came
every morning to teach three other young Tootles, two girls and a
boy, the latter considered not yet old enough to go into the school.
On the previous day, Waymark had been engaged in the room for half
an hour touching up some drawings of boys in the school, which were
about to be sent home. He knew that he should find a fresh governess
busy with the children, the lady hitherto employed having gone at a
moment's notice after a violent quarrel with Mrs. Tootle, an
incident which had happened not infrequently before.
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