CHAPTER X.
THE WAY OUT The ruling spirit of the Academy was Mrs.Tootle.Her husband's constitutional headache, and yet more constitutional laziness, left to her almost exclusively the congenial task of guiding the household, and even of disciplining the school.

In lesson-time she would even flit about the classrooms, and not scruple to administer sharp rebukes to a teacher whose pupils were disorderly, the effect of this naturally being to make confusion worse confounded.

The boys of course hated her with the hatred of which schoolboys alone are capable, and many a practical joke was played at her expense, not, however, with impunity.
Still more pronounced, if possible, was the animus entertained against Mrs.Tootle's offspring, and it was upon the head of Master Felix that the full energy of detestation concentrated itself.

He was, in truth, as offensive a young imp as the soil of a middle-class boarding-school could well produce.

If Mrs.Tootle ruled the Academy, he in turn ruled Mrs.Tootle, and on all occasions showed himself a most exemplary autocrat.