On Board the Esmeralda | Page 6

the point, so far as it went towards impressing me with his ponderous personality, for he was a big, smooth-faced, fat, oily man, with a crafty look in his little twinkling eyes.
"Ah, Leigh--ah," said he on coming, presently, into the room, "you've come at last--ah?"
This "ah-ing" of his was a confirmed habit, for he never seemed able to begin or end a sentence without dragging in the ejaculation.
"Yes, sir," I replied, rising up from my box, and taking off my cap politely.
"Ah--I've had a nice character of you from your aunt, my dear young gentleman," he proceeded, blinking his little ferret-like eyes furiously, and with a dubious sort of grin expanding his wide mouth, which was furnished with a set of teeth like a shark's. "She tells me-- ah--Master Leigh, that you are rude, and bold, and bad, and disobedient--ah--and that I shall have to keep a strict watch over your conduct; but I think--ah--you will find yourself in good hands here, my dee-er boy, really in good hands at last--ah!" and, smiling an ogreish smile, he rubbed the palms of the said members together up and down and over one another in a circular way as if he were kneading up a little ball of putty within them, and I was that ball!
CHAPTER THREE.
MY CHUM.
Of course, as you may suppose, I offered no reply to this characteristic introductory address of Dr Hellyer, although the allusion he made to Aunt Matilda's treachery in trying to prejudice him against me--an attempt which, apparently, was as successful as it was intended to be-- made me boil over with suppressed passion. It was just like her, I thought! I had hoped, on leaving Tapioca Villa, to have escaped the influence of her spiteful malignity; and yet here, at a distance, it was pursuing me still, when I really believed myself for ever beyond its reach.
The reflection so maddened me that, as I was unable at the time to give vent to my anger, my face flushed up as it always did when I was so roused by my temper getting the better of me; and I dare say I looked like a bellicose young turkey-cock.
My schoolmaster took advantage of the opportunity to "improve the occasion."
"Ah, I see," he went on, "your aunt was quite right in her estimate of your disposition; but, my dear excitable young friend, I must--ah--give you fair warning that if you feel inclined to be rude at any time, you'd better not be rude here, and if you are bold--ah--you'll get bowled out! Ah--that was an unintentional pun, Leigh, but I don't think you'll find me joking when I have to come to the point. Mind, I never flog a boy under any circumstances, but I've got an equally efficacious way of my own for making my pupils obey me, which never fails, and you'll probably have an early chance of getting familiar with it! Oh no, I never flog, but I've a way of my own, Master Leigh, a way of my own--ah!"
The infinite relish and gusto with which he repeated these last words of his are utterly indescribable; while the grin that overspread his fat countenance, wrinkling up its fleshy folds, can only be compared to the expression one sees carved out on those hideous gargoyles with which the architects of former days decorated the odd corners of our cathedrals.
I couldn't help shivering in my shoes; and Dr Hellyer, noticing this, evidently thought that he had made sufficient impression for a start, for, dropping his terrible, rolling, ponderous voice, he spoke to me more amiably.
"Now, leave your box here and it shall be taken up presently to the dormitory. Come along with me and I'll introduce you--ah--to your schoolfellows."
To hear was to obey; so, deserting my hitherto keenly-watched little property with many misgivings as to the chances of my ever setting eyes on it again, I followed Dr Hellyer out of the room and along a narrow passage that led directly to the back of the house. Throwing open a door at the further end, a flight of short stone steps was disclosed, descending to a wide yard or garden--that is, if one solitary tree in a remote corner supplied sufficient vegetation to give the place such a name--where I could see a lot of boys of all ages and sizes jumping about and otherwise diverting themselves.
"Ah--this is our--ah--playground, Leigh," explained the master, with a comprehensive wave of his arm; and, then, the chorus of yells, shouts, screams, and stray laughter that at first echoed through my ears, like the din of Pandemonium, having ceased as soon as the Doctor's presence in their midst was perceived by the boys, that worthy very briefly introduced me.
"Here's a new boy--ah--make friends with him; but, ah--no fighting!"
Having thus done as