Then there was Miss Purdie. "To my face!" cried Miss Purdie, fluttering into "Post Offic" one afternoon, "to my face he called the sum a _beastly_ sum--the sum, mind you, I had set him myself! A _beastly_ sum!" and then completely spoilt the horror of it by sighing and winding up, "but he is such a _sweet_. So lovable! So merry!"
"He's growing, you see," joined Aunt Maggie.
"Of _course_, he is," agreed Miss Purdie. "It's just his spirit. He's so _manly_!" and she gave herself a little shake and said: "Oh, I like a _manly_ boy!"
Still, the truculence of character that had brought her warring down to "Post Offic" remained to be settled. Moreover, the boy's mind was developing outside the range of Miss Purdie's primers and exercise books. "He wants _Latin_," said Miss Purdie. "He wants _algebra_. He wants _Euclid_!" and the ladies decided that his tuition had better be handed over to Miss Purdie's brother, who could supply these correctives. They shook hands on it and agreed that Mr. Purdie should take over the duties on the morrow. On the doorstep Miss Purdie repeated the necessity with terrible emphasis: "He wants _Latin_! He wants _algebra_! But I shall miss our lessons together! Oh, dear, how I shall miss them!"
She hurried home with little sniffs which she strove to check by repeating very fiercely: "He wants _Latin_!"
Percival took up with immense zest the new freedom from petticoat control and the new regimen of lessons. He liked the new subjects; and it was notable in him that he carried into the exercise of his tasks the same quickness and determination with which he entered upon--and completed--all pleasanter affairs that came to his hand. Mr. Purdie, for his part, was enchanted. Mr. Purdie was plump and soft, with lethargic ways and pronounced timidity of character. In his youth Mr. Purdie had been called to the Bar. A very small legacy came to him thereafter, and his lymphatic nature led him at once to abandon town life, to go to sloth at his ease with his sister at Burdon village. He was vastly attracted by Percival. Very shortly after their introduction as master and pupil, he came to Aunt Maggie with the suggestion that Percival might spend with him some leisure as well as the school-hours. "A boy can be taught in his play as well as his work," he announced in his pompous manner. "At Percival's age, and as he grows, there are things in which only a man can guide him." He gave one of his shrill, absurd chuckles: "And I think Master Percival likes me. Eh, Percival?"