Sometimes Miss Steele had positively to hunt me out for a walk, or, if I would not go alone, to drag me along with her to some place where, regardless of our possible detection by Evans and his friends, we could combine fresh air and education.
The fatal day came at last when I had to go off to my ordeal.

I was obliged at the last moment to disclose my well-kept secret to my mother and my guardian.

The former fell on my neck, the latter grunted incredulously and embarrassed me by presenting me with a five-shilling piece.
Miss Steele came down to see me off at the station.

"Keep cool," said she; "sit where you can see the clock, and don't try to answer two questions at once." Never did tyro get better advice! I was too excited to heed much of the big stately building I was so eager some day to claim as my own school.

It was holiday time, and only a little band of combatants like myself huddled into one corner of the big hall, and gazed up in an awestruck way at the portrait of the Jacobean knight to whom Low Heath owed its foundation.
To me it was all like a dream.