Dr. Wortles School | Page 8

and take with ease among each other. He had
fallen into a position in which neither he nor his wife could give
anything, and from which, though some might be willing to accept him,
he would be accepted only, as it were, by special favour. "Bosh!"
ejaculated the Doctor. Mr. Peacocke simply smiled. He said it might be
bosh, but that even were he inclined to relax his own views, his wife
would certainly not relax hers. So it came to pass that although the
Doctor and Mr. Peacocke were really intimate, and that something of
absolute friendship sprang up between the two ladies, when Mr.
Peacocke had already been more than twelve months in Bowick neither
had he nor Mrs. Peacocke broken bread in the Doctor's house.
And yet the friendship had become strong. An incident had happened
early in the year which had served greatly to strengthen it. At the
school there was a little boy, just eleven years old, the only son of a
Lady De Lawle, who had in early years been a dear friend to Mrs.
Wortle. Lady De Lawle was the widow of a baronet, and the little boy
was the heir to a large fortune. The mother had been most loath to part
with her treasure. Friends, uncles, and trustees had declared that the old

prescribed form of education for British aristocrats must be
followed,--a t'other school, namely, then Eton, and then Oxford. No;
his mother might not go with him, first to one, and then to the other.
Such going and living with him would deprive his education of all the
real salt. Therefore Bowick was chosen as the t'other school, because
Mrs. Wortle would be more like a mother to the poor desolate boy than
any other lady. So it was arranged, and the "poor desolate boy" became
the happiest of the young pickles whom it was Mrs. Wortle's special
province to spoil whenever she could get hold of them.
Now it happened that on one beautiful afternoon towards the end of
April, Mrs. Wortle had taken young De Lawle and another little boy
with her over the foot-bridge which passed from the bottom of the
parsonage garden to the glebe-meadow which ran on the other side of a
little river, and with them had gone a great Newfoundland dog, who
was on terms equally friendly with the inmates of the Rectory and the
school. Where this bridge passed across the stream the gardens and the
field were on the same level. But as the water ran down to the ground
on which the school-buildings had been erected, there arose a steep
bank over a bend in the river, or, rather, steep cliff; for, indeed, it was
almost perpendicular, the force of the current as it turned at this spot
having washed away the bank. In this way it had come to pass that
there was a precipitous fall of about a dozen feet from the top of the
little cliff into the water, and that the water here, as it eddied round the
curve, was black and deep, so that the bigger boys were wont to swim
in it, arrangements for bathing having been made on the further or
school side. There had sometimes been a question whether a rail should
not be placed for protection along the top of this cliff, but nothing of
the kind had yet been done. The boys were not supposed to play in this
field, which was on the other side of the river, and could only be
reached by the bridge through the parsonage garden.
On this day young De Lawle and his friend and the dog rushed up the
hill before Mrs. Wortle, and there began to romp, as was their custom.
Mary Wortle, who was one of the party, followed them, enjoining the
children to keep away from the cliff. For a while they did so, but of
course returned. Once or twice they were recalled and scolded, always

asserting that the fault was altogether with Neptune. It was Neptune
that knocked them down and always pushed them towards the river.
Perhaps it was Neptune; but be that as it might, there came a moment
very terrible to them all. The dog in one of his gyrations came violently
against the little boy, knocked him off his legs, and pushed him over
the edge. Mrs. Wortle, who had been making her way slowly up the hill,
saw the fall, heard the splash, and fell immediately to the ground.
Other eyes had also seen the accident. The Doctor and Mr. Peacocke
were at the moment walking together in the playgrounds at the school
side of the brook. When the boy fell they had paused in their walk, and
were standing, the Doctor with his