His discovery irritated him the more.

Next thing, this ole Teacher's Pet would do she'd get to thinkin' she was pretty! If _that_ happened, well, nobody _could_ stand her! The long lashes made her eyes shadowy, and it was a fact that her shoulder blades ceased to insist upon notoriety; you couldn't tell where they were at all, any more.

Her back seemed to be just a regular back, not made up of a lot of implements like shoulder blades and things.
A contemptible thing happened.

Wesley Bender was well known to be the most untidy boy in the class and had never shown any remorse for his reputation or made the slightest effort either to improve or to dispute it.

He was content: it failed to lower his standing with his fellows or to impress them unfavourably.