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JASPAR TRISTRAM
15

had: such stern imperious ways. He would no doubt have preferred doing so after some other fashion, but, since this could not be, there was nothing for it but to try and surpass the others in the quickness with which he got out of bed when called, and in the steadiness and silence with which, his small body bared, he knelt while Orr lammed into him. But one day he overheard a few stray words that led him to fancy Orr looked upon him in a light quite other than that in which he was so anxious to be regarded; and it made him furious to think that, while he had been admiring Orr and flattering himself he was making way in his esteem, this latter had been entertaining for him nothing but dislike and contempt; and his feeling towards him became on the instant one of hate; and hate which appeared all the more bitter as he knew that not only had it tried to be something very different, but would gladly, had it been possible, have been so still. So his thoughts, which for a while had been quite content to stop with him, now for a moment went back to home; and he tried to find consolation in the thought that the holidays would soon be come. But the comfort he was able to obtain from this reflection was very small, and, driven back, as it were, again to school, he fell to questioning within himself Orr’s right to the power he exercised. Would it not be possible to resist? Of course alone he wouldn’t have a chance, but how would it be if he could get the other chaps to join? So very soon he was holding forth to any who would listen on the wrongs both he and they were always suffering at the hands of their tyrant. And as he talked he would feel himself carried away and his eyes would brighten and his voice grow firm. Sooner or later of course the things he said would be carried to Orr’s ears; but, far from giving him pause, this consideration seemed only to make him even more audacious in his speech; an effect that was much increased by the mingled feelings with which he saw himself listened to by his audience. Such as it was indeed, the delicious thrill it gave him, talking after this fashion, was, he soon perceived, all he would ever get; it was