The orator had his back to the door of this ancient apartment, which was open, and a gentleman who was quite familiar with the place, for both Major Arthur and Mr.John Pendennis had been at the school, was asking the fifth-form boy who sate by the door for Pendennis.

The lad grinning pointed to the culprit against whom the Doctor was pouring out the thunders of his just wrath--Major Pendennis could not help laughing.

He remembered having stood under that very pillar where Pen the younger now stood, and having been assaulted by the Doctor's predecessor years and years ago.

The intelligence was 'passed round' that it was Pendennis's uncle in an instant, and a hundred young faces wondering and giggling, between terror and laughter, turned now to the new-comer and then to the awful Doctor.
The Major asked the fifth-form boy to carry his card up to the Doctor, which the lad did with an arch look.

Major Pendennis had written on the card, "I must take A.P.