My Friend Smith | Page 7

instinctively ramming the box into one of my
side trousers pockets, and at the same time wondering whether both the
hats hanging on the pegs were Mr Ladislaw's, or whether one of them
belonged to some one else.
Then suddenly it came over me that the former gentleman stood at my
side, and all my misery returned as he said--
"I will take you to Miss Henniker, Batchelor; follow me."
The sound of the wheels of Mrs Hudson's coach were still audible
down the road, and as I turned my back on them and followed Mr
Ladislaw up the carpetless stairs, it seemed as if I was leaving all hope
behind me.
I found Miss Henniker in the middle of a large parlour, with my box
lying open on the ground beside her, and some of my vestments already
spread out on the table. A half inclination to renew the rebellion came
over me, as I thought how poor dear Mrs Hudson had been triumphed
over; and all these tokens of her kindly soul, folded so neatly,
inventoried so precisely, and all so white and well aired, had here fallen
into strange hands, who reverenced them no more than--than the shirts
and collars and cuffs of I do not know how many more "backward or
troublesome" boys like myself. But I restrained my feelings.
"I will leave Batchelor in your charge for the present," said Mr
Ladislaw. At the same time he added something in an undertone to
Miss Henniker which I did not catch, but which I was positive had
reference to the dear departed Mrs Hudson, whereat I fumed inwardly,
and vowed that somehow or other I would pay Miss Henniker out.

When Mr Ladislaw was gone Miss Henniker continued her work in
silence, leaving me standing before her. She examined all my clothes,
looked at the mark on every collar, every sock, and scrutinised the
condition of every shirt-front and "dicky." At last she came to my
Sunday suit, at the sight of which I remembered all of a sudden my
nurse's injunction, and said, as meekly as possible, "Oh, if you please,
Mrs Hudson says those are to be hung up, and not laid flat!"
Miss Henniker stared at me as if I had asked her her age!
"Silence!" she said, when she could sufficiently recover herself; "and--"
"And," continued I, carried away with my subject, and really not
hearing her remonstrance--"and, if you please, I'm to have three clean
collars a week, and you're to darn--"
"Frederick Batchelor!" exclaimed Miss Henniker, letting drop what she
had in her hand, and stamping her foot with most unwonted animation;
"did you hear me order you to hold your tongue? Don't dare to speak
again, sir, till you're spoken to, or you will be punished."
This tirade greatly surprised me. I had been quite pleased with myself
for remembering all Mrs Hudson's directions, and so intent on relieving
my mind of them, that I had not noticed the growing rage of the
middle- aged Henniker. In after years, when this story was told of me, I
got the credit of being the only human being, who all by himself, had
succeeded in "fetching" the Stonebridge housekeeper. At present,
however, I was taken aback by her evident rage, and considered it
prudent to give heed to her admonition. The unpacking was presently
finished, and the scarlet in the Henniker's face had gradually toned
down to its normal tint, when, turning to me, she silently motioned me
to follow her. I did so, along a long passage, in which there were at
least two turnings. At the end of this was a door leading into a room
containing half a dozen beds. Not a very cheerful room--long and low
and badly lighted, with only two washstands, and a rather fusty flavour
about the bedclothes. Don't suppose, at my age, I was critical on such
points; but when I take my boy to school, I do not think, with what I
know now, I shall put him anywhere where the dormitory is like that of

Stonebridge House.
"That," said Miss Henniker, pointing to one of the beds, "is your bed,
and you wash at this washstand."
"Oh," said I, again forgetting myself; "you are to be sure my brush and
comb--"
"Silence, Batchelor!" once more reiterated Miss Henniker.
From the dormitory I was conducted to the schoolroom, and from the
schoolroom to the dining-room, and from the dining-room to the boot-
room, and my duties were explained in each.
It was in the latter apartment that I first made the acquaintance of one
of my fellow "troublesome or backwards."
A biggish boy was adopting the novel expedient for getting on a tight
boot of turning his back to the wall and kicking out