And he might well be anxious! For a day or two Wyndham was an altered boy.

He surprised his masters by his attention in class, and his schoolfellows--all except Riddell--by the steadiness of his behaviour.

He avoided his former companions, and devoted himself with enthusiasm to his new duties as librarian, to which the doctor, at Riddell's suggestion, had appointed him.
This alteration, approved of as it was in many quarters, was by no means appreciated by two boys at Willoughby.

It was not that they cared twopence about the society of their young Limpet, or that they had any moral objection to good behaviour and steady work.

What irritated Gilks and Silk over the business was that they saw in it the hand of an enemy, and felt that the present change in their _protege_ was due to Riddell's influence in opposition to their own.