Mark Hope, the soldier, he honored! Mark Hope, the
veteran, he revered! Mark Hope, the teacher, he despised; for his
crutches made him a safe barricade against which no Biggest Boy with a
spark of honor would dare to hurl himself. There might be in the school
boys base enough to charge that he lacked spirit in his attitude of armed
neutrality. Let those traducers step forward, whether they be two or a
dozen. What would follow, the Biggest Boy did not say; but he had pulled
off his coat, and there was none to dispute him. His position was
established. Thereafter he assumed toward me a calm indifference. He
was never openly offensive. He always kept within certain carefully laid
bounds of supercilious politeness. At first he was exasperating, and I
longed to have him forget himself and overstep those bounds, that I might
make up for his disappointment in being cheated out of Perry Thomas. But
he never did.
To-day William Bellus really opened the school, for not till he had
buried his face in his book did the general buzz begin.
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