Rose.
Eric just glanced round and moved slightly; he might have gone away,
but that he caught a satirical look in Wildney's eye, and besides wanted
to show off a little indifference to his old master, with whom he had
had no intercourse since their last-mentioned conversation.
"Williams, go away instantly; what do you mean by staying after I have
dismissed you?" said Mr. Rose sternly.
Every one knew what a favorite Eric had once been, so this speech
created a slight titter. The boy heard it just as he was going out of
the room, and it annoyed him, and called to arms all his proud and
dogged obstinacy. Pretending to have forgotten something, he walked
conceitedly back to Wildney, and whispered to him, "I shan't go if he
chooses to speak like that."
A red flush passed over Mr. Rose's cheek; he took two strides to Eric,
and laid the cane sharply once across his back.
Eric was not quite himself, or he would not have acted as he had done.
His potations, though not deep, had, with the exciting events of the
evening, made his head giddy, and the stroke of the cane, which he had
not felt now for two years, roused him to madness.
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