Darkness Visible Read Online Free PDF

then, up to the second bough. Right?”
    “Sir.”
    After that, the headmaster sent round the various masters concerned to find out more about Matty and it was obvious that someone had been too kind—or perhaps unkind—and he was in a stream that was too much for him. The boy would never pass an examination and it was silly to make him try.
    It was for this reason, therefore, that one morning when Mr Pedigree was dozing in front of his class as they drew a map, that Matty came clumping in, books under his arm, and stopped in front of the master’s desk.
    “Good God boy. Where have you come from?”
    It seemed the question was too quick or too profound for Matty. He said nothing.
    “What d’you want, boy? Say quickly!”
    “I was told, sir. C.3, sir. The room at the end of the corridor.”
    Mr Pedigree gave a determined grin and wrenched his gaze away from the boy’s ear.
    “Ah. Our simian friend swinging from branch to branch. Don’t laugh, you men. Well. Are you house-trained? Reliable? Brilliant intellect?”
    Quivering with distaste, Mr Pedigree looked round the room. Itwas his custom and entertainment to arrange the boys in order of beauty so that the most beautiful occupied the front row. There was no doubt at all in his mind as to where the new boy should go. At the back of the room on his right, a tall cupboard left enough space for a desk that would be partly concealed by it. The cupboard could not be shifted flush against the wall without blocking a window.
    “Brown, you exquisite creature, I shall want you out of there. You can sit in Barlow’s place. Yes, I know he’ll be back; and then we shall have to do some more arranging, shan’t we? Anyway Brown, you’re an imp, aren’t you? I know what you get up to at the back there when you think I can’t see you. Stop laughing, you men. I won’t have you laughing. Now then, what’s your name, Wandgrave. Can you keep order, mm? Go and sit in that corner and just keep quiet and tell me if they don’t behave, mm? Go along!”
    He waited, grinning with determined cheerfulness until the boy was seated and partly out of sight. Mr Pedigree found that he could divide the boy by the line of the cupboard so that only the more-or-less undamaged side of his face was visible. He sighed with relief. Such things were important.
    “All right everybody. Just get on. Show him what we’re doing, Jones.”
    He relaxed, dallying now with his agreeable game, for Matty’s unexpected arrival gave him an excuse for another round of it.
    “Pascoe.”
    “Sir?”
    There was no denying that Pascoe was losing what had never been a very high degree of attractiveness. Mr Pedigree wondered in passing what he had ever seen in the boy. It was fortunate the affair had gone very little way.
    “Pascoe, dear friend, I wonder if you would mind changing places now with Jameson so that when Barlow comes back—you don’t mind being just a little further from the seat of judgement? Now, what about you, Henderson. Eh?”
    Henderson was in the middle of the front row. He was a child of bland and lyric beauty.
    “You don’t mind being close to the seat of judgement, do you, Henderson?”
    Henderson looked up, smiling, proudly and adoringly. His star was in Mr Pedigree’s ascendant. Moved inexpressibly, Mr Pedigree came out of his desk and stood by Henderson, his fingers in the boy’s hair.
    “Ghastly, dear friend, when did you last wash all this yellow stuff, eh?”
    Henderson looked up, still smiling and secure, understanding that the question was not a question, but communication, brightness, glory. Mr Pedigree dropped his hand and squeezed the boy’s shoulder, then went back to his desk. To his surprise the boy behind the cupboard had his hand up.
    “What is it? What is it?”
    “Sir. That boy there. He passed a note to him, sir. That’s not allowed is it sir?”
    For a while Mr Pedigree was too astonished to answer. Even the rest of the class were silent until the enormity of