“ What’s the matter, Wakem? what was that noise about? Who slammed the door?”
Philip looked up, and hastily dried his eyes. “It was Tulliver who came in—to ask me to go out with him.”
“ And what are you in trouble about?” said Mrs Stelling.
Philip was not her favourite of the two pupils; he was less obliging than Tom, who was made useful in many ways. Still, his father paid more than Mr Tulliver did, and she meant him to feel that she behaved exceedingly well to him. Philip, however, met her advances toward a good understanding very much as a caressed mollusk meets an invitation to show himself out of his shell. Mrs Stelling was not a loving, tender-hearted woman; she was a woman whose skirt sat well, who adjusted her waist and patted her curls with a preoccupied air when she inquired
