A Day of Punishment 



parlour, Master Hyde," said a gentle voice 

 from the doorway. I rose vaguely and 

 followed the schoolmaster's daughter. I 

 had only once been in the parlour before, 

 and that was when my mother first brought 

 me to school ; I had then thought it a 

 fascinating room, for it contained several 

 large glass cases full of all manner of 

 stuffed creatures, from a fox to a humming- 

 bird, but I had no eye or heart for such 

 things to-day. 



Mr. Blocker was at tea with his wife ; 

 he put down his cup as I entered and 

 looked at me over the tops of his spectacles. 

 '' I have been telling Mrs. Blocker," he 

 said, " what a sad trouble you have been 

 to your mother, and she is quite grieved to 

 think of it." 



I kept my eyes riveted on the engraving 

 of the king in coronation robes which hung 

 over the mantel, behind Mrs. Blocker, but 

 I felt that she looked appealingly at her 

 husband, and then at me, with a world of 

 kindness in her eyes. 



" I am glad to say, however," continued 

 Mr. Blocker rather hurriedly, ''that your 

 punishment is now at an end, and I hope 

 you will have benefited by it. I have 

 been very sorry," he went on in a much 

 kinder and a less professional tone, "very 

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