But Jeffreys could be stubborn when he chose, and stood out grimly on this point.

Had it not been for this weekly respite, Galloway House would have become intolerable before a month was over.
He heard occasionally from Mr Frampton; but the one question which would have interested him most was generally passed over.

Mr Frampton probably considered that any reference to Forrester would be painful to his correspondent, and therefore avoided it.

At last, however, in reply to Jeffreys' entreaty to know where the boy was and how he was progressing, the head-master wrote:-- "I really cannot tell you what you want to know about Forrester, as I have heard nothing of him.

His father, as you know, is an officer in India, and his only relative in England was his grandmother, to whose house at Grangerham he was removed on leaving here.