He, too, seemed infected with the depressing air of the place, and was furtively looking round among his new schoolfellows.

I felt half fascinated by his black eyes, and when presently they turned and met mine, I almost thought I liked the new boy.

My face must somehow have expressed what was passing through my mind, for as our eyes met there was a very faint smile on his lips, which I could not help returning.
"Batchelor and Smith, a bad mark each for inattention.

That makes four bad marks to Batchelor in one day.

No playground for half a week!" Cheerful! I was getting used to the lady by this time, and remember sitting for the rest of the time calculating that if I got four bad marks every day of the week, that would be twenty-eight a week, or a hundred and twelve a month; and that if four bad marks deprived me of half a week's playground, one month's bad marks would involve an absence of precisely fourteen weeks from that peaceful retreat; whereat I bit my pen, and marvelled inwardly.
The dreary day seemed as if it would never come to an end.