"Your mother and I must see what's to be done with you.

Don't I understand, indeed ?" The conceit was fairly taken out of me now.

To be called a little boy was bad enough; to be referred to as a child was even worse; but to be sent to bed at a quarter to eight on a summer evening was the crowning stroke.

Certainly, Plummer's itself was better than this.
What my mother and guardian said to one another I do not know.

My mother, I think, had great faith in Mr Girdler's wisdom; and although she tried not to think ill of me, would probably feel that he knew better than she did.
I knew my fate next morning--it was worse than my most hideous forebodings.
I was to work at my guardian's office every morning, and in the afternoon I was to go up and learn Latin and arithmetic at--oh, how shall I say it ?--a girls' school! For an hour after this discovery I candidly admit that I was sorry, unfeignedly sorry, I had not turned sneak and informed against Harry Tempest.