48 THE LAME BOY.

would have been you answering, and not me, and that
would not have been right.”

“ And so you preferred the mortification of missing
the question,” said Frank, “before all the visitors, and
losing your place in the class, to using my memory !
_ Besides, allowing Philip Graham, who would not have
hesitated (had he not known the answer) to have made
use of the prompting I intended for you, to take your
place.”

“ Philip would not have been so simple,” said Bob
Newton, “as to have lost his place, if he could have
kept it by any means. He knows well enough how to
get along, and save himself from disgrace. When he
has not properly prepared his lessons, I have many a
time seen him with a scrap of paper in his hand, which
he adroitly concealed, and adroitly read, too, if occasion
required. If Mr. Harding knew that, what would he
think of his model? You are too particular, Maurice,
you may depend upon it, to get along here; and you
will find it so by-and-by.”

_ “I must do what my conscience tells me is right,”
answered Maurice, “whether I get along well or not.
If I do not, I should be very unhappy.”

“Which would cause you to feel most unpleasantly,”
asked Frank, “to miss a question on exhibition day,
lose your place in the class, and cause the visitors to
think you were an indolent, careless scholar, or to
answer one single question by my prompting ?”