Look at it whichever way
he might, it didn't seem pleasant to view. And all the delight in the fire
and the companionship of Mr. Dyce, of whom all the boys were exceedingly
fond, was suddenly blotted out. He went home that night, and crept into
bed, a most disconsolate boy.
"I was a beastly cad," he fumed, kicking the covering down to the foot, and
rolling out with the vain attempt to find some diversion. But that being
impossible, he tumbled in again, with his unhappy thoughts.
And all through the following days, go whichever way he might, there was
the fact to stare him in the face, that he, Curtis Park, who had hitherto
prided himself upon his fine manners, had dropped from his height, to
blackguard a boy, who, despite the fact of having been born the son of a
little grocer on Common Street, had yet shown himself capable of the
height.
"It's no use to deny it. I've been a bully and a cad," he groaned, and
wiped the perspiration from his face. "What can I do!"
There was only one way, and he knew it, just as well at first as after all
the fencing with himself that ensued the next few days. And at last on this
very evening, he stopped fighting the idea, and marched up to what it
suggested, like a man.
"See here, will you, though I shouldn't think you'd want to speak to me."
It was a boy who said this to Jack standing on the step of the grocer's
front door, next to the shop.
Pages:
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321