Chapter 24 Section VII

Victor and five other children are being held at school for a precious day during the Easter week break for secretly smoking cigars in the attic.Victor is prone to vomiting, and his nose doesn't like to smell this and that (he kindly concealed these two problems from the Wends), but he didn't really participate in smoking, but only took two puffs with a grimace; Both obediently followed his two best friends, the adventurous, rowdy Tony Brad Jr. and Lance Burke, to the attic where climbing was strictly prohibited.Go through the luggage room and climb up the iron ladder that is just in the narrow passage under the roof.Here, the charming and strangely fragile skeleton of the building can be seen and felt, the beams and planks, the intricate partitions, the patches of shadows, and the thin and brittle planks, under the foot. As it goes up, it sinks into the gap, causing the plaster on the invisible ceiling below to come off with a crackling sound.The maze ended in a recess at the top of the pointed garret, a small covered terrace where there was a jumble of old comic books and recent cigar ashes.The soot was found and the children confessed.Tony Brad Jr., the grandson of a famous former headmaster, is on leave because of a family matter: an amorous cousin wants to see him before leaving for Europe, but Tony wisely asks to be detained with the rest of his mates in school.

Victor's headmaster at school, as I have already mentioned, was the Reverend Hopper, a dark-haired, good-looking, agreeable mediocrity, who was greatly admired by the Boston matrons.Victor and his accomplices dine with the Hoppers, and here and there there are crystal-clear hints, not least from the sweet-toned Mrs. Hopper, an Englishwoman Well, the aunt married an earl; the Vicar might have shown mercy by taking the six children into town last night to a movie instead of sending them to bed early.After dinner she gave them a friendly wink and told them to hurry up with the pastor who was walking softly down the aisle.

Trustees of the old school might have thought it appropriate to pardon a whipping, which Hopper had used once or twice in his brief and unremarkable career on particular offenders; It was the bitter smirk of the principal's red lips, as he paused in the passage to pick up a neatly folded suit of robes--his black monk's robe and white cassock; A station wagon was parked at the door, and, as the children said, "twist the punishment," and the phony priest led them to a cold brick church in Lubairne, twelve miles away, to see a A specially invited religious show for a few religious believers.