then
remained severely and unpleasantly sober. There was no other possible
rival to Cardillac, to his distinction, his power of witty and malicious
after-dinner speaking, his wonderful clothes, his admirable football,
his haughty indifference. He would of course be elected.

And then, some three weeks ago, this wonderful, unexpected development
of Olva Dune had startled the world. His football, his sudden geniality
(he had been seen, it was asserted, at one of Med-Tetloe's revival
meetings with, of all people in the world, Bunning), his air of being
able to do anything whatever if he wished to exert himself, here was
a character indeed--so wonderful that it was felt, even by the most
patriotic of Saulines, that he ought, in reality, to have belonged to
St. Martin's.

It became at once, of course, a case of rivalry between Dune and
Cardillac, and it was confidently expected that Dune would be victorious
in every part of the field.

Cardillac had reigned for a considerable period and there were many men
to whom he had been exceedingly offensive. Dune, although he admitted no
one to closer intimacy, was offensive never. If, moreover, you had seen
him play the other day against the Harlequins, you could but fall down
on your knees and worship. Here, too, he rivalled Cardillac. Tester,
Buchan, and Whymper were quite certain of their places in the University
side--Whymper because he was the greatest three-quarter that Cambridge
had had for many seasons, and Tester and Buchan because they had been at
Fettes together and Buchan had played inside right to Tester's outside
since the very tenderest age; they therefore understood one another
backward. There remained then only this fourth place, and Cardillac
seemed certain enough . . . until Dune's revival. And now it depended
on Whymper. He would choose, of the two men, the one who suited him the
better. Cardillac had played with him more than had Dune. Cardillac
was safe, steady, reliable. Dune was uncertain, capricious, suddenly
indifferent. On the other hand not Whymper himself could rival the
brilliance of Dune's game against the Harlequins. That was in a place by
itself--let him play like that at Queen's Club in December and no Oxford
defence could stop him.

So it was argued, so discussed. Certain, at any rate, that Dune's
recrudescence threatened the ruin of Cardillac's two dearest ambitions,
and Cardillac did not easily either forget or forgive.

And yet behold them