Suffice it to say, the two dear lads put their heads together for some time, and were extremely busy in the privacy of their own study all that evening.
Bilk, little dreaming of the compassion and interest he was evoking in the hearts of his schoolfellows, retired early to his sorrowful couch, and mourned his departed gipsies till slumber gently stepped in and soothed his troubled mind.

But returning day laid bare the old wound, and Alexander girded himself listlessly to the duties of the hour, with a heart far away.
He was wandering across the playground after dinner, disinclined alike for work and play, when Dell accosted him.

Bilk might have known Dell by this time, but his memory was short and his mind preoccupied, and he smelt no rat, as the Irish would say, in his companion's salutation.
"Hullo! where are you off to, Lamp-post?
How jolly blue you look!" "I'm only taking a walk." "Well, you don't seem to be enjoying it, by the looks of you.

I've just been taking a trot over the common." "I suppose the gipsies have all gone ?" inquired Bilk, as unconcernedly as he could.
"Yes, I suppose so," answered Dell, offhand.

"Anyhow, they've cleared off the common." "But I was told," said Bilk rather nervously, "they'd gone quite away." "Not all of them, anyhow," said Dell.