llow-worshippers?

If you have ever been to such a place, you can imagine Oliver
Greenfield's experiences during this Christmas term at Saint Dominic's.

When the gentlemen of the Fifth Form had once made up their minds to
anything, they generally carried it through with great heartiness, and
certainly they never succeeded better in any undertaking than in this of
"leaving Oliver to himself."

The only drawback to their success was that the proceeding appeared to
have little or no effect on the _very_ person on whose behalf it was
undertaken. Not that Oliver could be _quite_ insensible of the honours
paid him. He could not--they were too marked for that. And without
doubt they were as unpleasant as they were unmistakable. But, for any
sign of unhappiness he displayed, the whole affair might have been a
matter of supreme indifference to him. Indeed, it looked quite as much
as if Greenfield had sent the Fifth to Coventry as the Fifth Greenfield.
If they determined none of them to speak to him, he was equally
determined none of them should have the chance; and if it was part of
their scheme to leave him as much as possible to himself, they had
little trouble in doing it, for he, except when inevitable, never came
near them.

Of course this was dreadfully irritating to the Fifth! The moral
revenge they had promised themselves on the disgracer of their class
never seemed to come off. The wind was taken out of their sails at
every turn. The object of their aversion was certainly not reduced to
humility or penitence by their conduct; on the contrary, one or two of
them felt decidedly inclined to be ashamed of themselves and feel
foolish when they met their victim.

Oliver always had been a queer fellow, and he now came out in a queerer
light than ever.

Having once seen how the wind lay, and what he had to expect from the
Fifth, he altered the course of his life to suit the new circumstances
with the greatest coolness. Instead of going up the river in a pair-oar
or a four, he now went up in a sculling boat or a canoe, and seemed to
enjoy himself quite as much. Instead of doing his work with Wraysford
evening after evening, he now did it undisturbed by himself, and, to
judge by his progress in class, more successfully than ever. Instead of
practising with the fifteens at football, he went in for a regular
course of practice in the gymnasium, and devoted himself with remarkable
success to the horizontal bar and