"`Backward and disobedient boys.'"
"But Dexter--"
"Hush, my dear; hear it all. Dexter is backward, and he is disobedient;
not wilfully perhaps, but disobedient decidedly. Now listen--
"`Backward and disobedient boys.--The Reverend Septimus Mastrum, MA
Oxon, receives a limited number of pupils of neglected education. Firm
and kindly treatment. Extensive grounds. Healthy situation. For terms
apply to the Reverend Septimus Mastrum, Firlands, Longspruce Station.'"
"There! What do you say to that?" said the doctor.
"I don't know what to say, papa," said Helen rather sadly. "Perhaps you
are right."
"Right!" cried the doctor. "The very thing, my dear. I'll write to Mr
Mastrum at once. Three or four years of special education will be the
making of the boy." The doctor sat down and wrote.
The answer resulted in a meeting in London, where the Reverend Septimus
Mastrum greatly impressed the doctor. Terms were agreed upon, and the
doctor came back.
"Splendid fellow, my dear. Six feet high. Says Mrs Mastrum will act
the part of a mother to the boy."
"Does he seem very severe, papa?"
"Severe, my dear? Man with a perpetual smile on his countenance."
"I do not like men with perpetual smiles on their countenances, papa."
"My dear Helen, do not be so prejudiced," said the doctor angrily. "I
have seen Mr Mastrum: you have not. I have told him everything about
Dexter; he applauds my plan, and assures me that in two or three years I
shall hardly know the boy, he will be so improved." Helen sighed.
"We had a long discussion about my book, and he agrees that I am quite
right. So pray do not begin to throw obstacles in the way."
Helen rose and kissed her father's forehead.
"I am going to do everything I can to aid your plans, papa," she said,
smiling. "Of course I do not like parting with Dexter, and I cannot
help feeling that there is some truth in what you say about a change
being beneficial for a time; but Dexter is a peculiar boy, and I would
rather have had him under my own eye."
"Yes, of course, my dear. Very good of you," said the doctor; "but this
way is the best. Of course he will have holidays, and we shall go to
see him, and so on."
"When is he to go, papa?"
"Directly."
"Directly?"
"Well, in a day or two."
Helen was silent for a moment or two, and then she moved toward the
door.
"Where are you going!" said the doctor sharply.
"To make preparations, and warn Mrs Millett. He must have a good box
of clothes and linen."
"To be sure, of course," said the doctor. "Get whatever is necessary.
It is the right thing, my dear, and the boy shall go at once."
The doctor was so energetic and determined that matters progressed very
rapidly, and the clothes and other necessaries increased at such a rate
in Dexter's room that most boys would have been in a state of intense
excitement.
Dexter was not, and he avoided the house as much as he could, spending a
great deal of time in the garden and stables.
"So they're going to send you off to school, eh, Master Dexter?" said
Peter, pausing to rest on his broom-handle.
"Yes, Peter."
"And you don't want to go? No wonder! I never liked school. Never had
much on it, neither; but I know all I want."
"Hullo!" said a voice behind them; and, turning, Dexter saw Dan'l
standing behind him, with the first dawn of a smile, on his face.
Dexter nodded, and began to move away.
"So you're going off, are yer!" said Dan'l. "Two floggings a day for a
year. You're in for it, youngster."
"Get out," said Dexter. "They don't flog boys at good schools."
"Oh, don't they?" said Dan'l. "You'll see. Well, never mind! And,
look here, I'll ask master to let me send you a basket o' apples and
pears when they're ripe."
"You will, Dan'l!" cried Dexter excitedly.
"Ay: Peter and me'll do you up a basket, and take it to the station. Be
a good boy, and no more Bob Dimsted's."
Dan'l chuckled as if he had said something very funny, and walked away.
"Here, don't look dumpy about it, my lad," said Peter kindly. "'Tain't
for ever and a day."
"No, Peter," said Dexter gloomily, "it isn't for ever."
"Sorry you're going, though, my lad."
"Are you, Peter!"
"Am I? Course I am. A man can't help liking a boy as can fight like
you."
Matters were growing harder for Dexter indoors now that his departure
was so near. Mrs Millett was particularly anxious about him; and so
sure as the boy went up to his room in the middle of the day, it was to
find the old housekeeper on her knees, and her spectacles carefully
balanced, trying all his buttons to see if they were fast.
"Now I'm going to put you up two bottles of camomile tea, and pack them
in the bottom of your box, with an old coffee-cup without a handle. It
just holds the right quantity, and you'll promise me, won't you, Master
Dexter, to take a dose regularly twice a week!"
"Yes; I'll promise you," said Dexter.
"Now, that's a good boy," cried the old lady, getting up and patting his
shoulder. "Look here," she continued, leading him to the box by the
drawers, "I've put something else in as well."
She lifted up a layer of linen, all scented with lavender, and showed
him a flat, round, brown-paper parcel.
"It's not a very rich cake," she said, "but there are plenty of currants
and peel in, and I'm sure it's wholesome."
Even Maria became very much interested in Master Dexter's boots and
shoes, and the parting from the doctor's house for the second time
promised to be very hard.
It grew harder as the time approached, for, with the gentleness of an
elder sister, Helen exercised plenty of supervision over the
preparation. Books, a little well-filled writing-case and a purse, were
among the things she added.
"The writing-case is for me, Dexter," she said, with a smile.
"For you?" he said wonderingly.
"Yes, so that I may have, at least, two letters from you every week.
You promise that?"
"Oh yes," he said, "if you will not mind the writing."
"And the purse is for you," she said. "If you want a little more money
than papa is going to allow you weekly, you may write and ask me."
It grew harder still on the morning of departure, and Dexter would have
given anything to stay, but he went off manfully with the doctor in the
station fly, passing Sir James Danby and Master Edgar on the road.
"Humph!" grunted the doctor. "See that, Dexter!"
"I saw Sir James laugh at you when he nodded."
"Do you know why!"
Dexter was silent for a few minutes.
"Because he thinks you are foolish to take so much trouble over me."
"That's it, Dexter," said the doctor eagerly. "So, now, I'll tell you
what I want you to do."
"Yes, sir?"
"Show him that I'm right and he's wrong." Dexter looked a promise, for
he could not speak just then, nor yet when they had passed through
London that afternoon, reached Longspruce station, and been driven to
the Reverend Septimus Mastrum's house, five miles away among the
fir-trees and sand of that bleak region.
Here the doctor bade him "Good-bye," and Dexter, as he was standing in
the great cold hall, felt that he was commencing a new phase in his
existence.