rovement till the true state of affairs was
understood?

And then a sudden doubt came to Gordon. What if these old Harrovians
were right? What if this man Lunn had depicted the life of the
exceptional, not of the average boy? What then of Fernhurst? He had
judged the book by his own experiences. Was it possible that his school
was worse than other schools, and what was usual there, would be
exceptional at Rugby, Eton and Winchester? He had been so proud of
Fernhurst, with its grey cloisters and dreaming Abbey, with its
magnificent Fifteen and fine boxers. He had cursed at the Public School
system because he thought it had done harm to Fernhurst. What if
Fernhurst and not the system were at fault? For several days this
worried him.

One evening, however, during the last week of the holidays, a Mr Ainslie
came to dinner. He had been a contemporary of Lunn's at Harrow, and had
himself been head of his house for two years. The conversation had
drifted to a discussion of recent books: _The Woman Thou Gavest Me_,
_Sinister Street_, _The Devil's Garden_, _Round the Corner_.

"By the way, Gordon," said Ainslie, "read that book, _The Harrovians_?"

"Oh yes, sir."

"What did you think of it?"

"I liked it very much--thought it was the finest school story I had ever
read." Gordon felt rather nervous. He was aware that he was on thin ice,
and timidly blurted out: "But, sir, was it true to Harrow life?"

"Absolutely; and it's as true to the life of any other Public School.
They are all much the same, you know, at the root."

An immense weight was lifted from Gordon's mind.

"I thought so, sir, but such a lot of fellows wrote to the papers saying
it was all rot, and I began to wonder if----"

"My dear Gordon, don't you make any mistake about it. Lunn knows what he
is talking about. But old Public School men shroud their school life in
a mist of sentiment; so they forget what they really did. All they
remember is how they ragged the 'stinks' master, and pulled off the
Senior cricket cup. Why, when that new house master--oh, what's his
name, Lee? Well, at any rate, when he came to Lunn's house he was slowly
getting rid of undesirables for terms, actually for terms. Cayley was
not the only one who had to go, and, of course, no one thought of
anything but games. I got a schol. there from my prep., and I literally
had to live it down. It took me some time, too. We want a good deal of
improvement in this rusty old system."

S