great community. And afterwards when old boys would run down Clarke, and
say how he had stirred up faction and rebellion, Gordon kept silent; he
knew that whatever mistakes the head of the House might have made, he
had the welfare of the House at heart and loved it with a blind,
unreasoning love that was completely misunderstood.

It is inevitable that a new boy's first few days should be largely taken
up in making mistakes, and though it is easy to laugh about them
afterwards, at the time they are very real miseries. At Fernhurst,
things are not made easy for the new boy. Gordon found himself placed in
the Upper Fourth, under Fleming, a benevolent despot who was a master of
sarcasm and was so delighted at making a brilliant attack on some
stammering idiot that he quite forgot to punish him. "Young man, young
man," he would say, "people who forget their books are a confounded
nuisance, and I don't want confounded nuisances with me." Gordon got on
with him very well on the whole, as he had a sense of humour and always
laughed at his master's jokes. But he only did Latin and English in the
Fourth room, for the whole school was split up into sets, regardless of
forms, for sharing such less arduous labours as science, maths, French
and Greek. So that Gordon found himself suddenly appointed to Mr
Williams' Greek set No. V. with no idea of where to go. After much
wandering, he eventually found the Sixth Form room. He entered; someone
outside had told him to go in there. A long row of giants in stick-up
collars confronted him. The Chief sat on a chair reading a lecture on
the Maccabees. All eyes seemed turned on him.

"Please, sir," he quavered out in trembling tones, "is this Mr Williams'
Greek set, middle school No. V?"

There was a roar of laughter. Gordon fled. After about five more
minutes' ineffectual searching he ran into a certain Robertson in the
cloisters. Now Robertson played back for the Fifteen.

"I say, are you one of the new boys for Williams' set?"

"Yes."

"Well, look here, he's setting us a paper, and I don't know much about
it, and I rather want to delay matters. So look here, hide yourself for
a few minutes. I am just going to find Meredith and have a chat."

For ten minutes Gordon wandered disconsolately about the courts. When at
last Robertson returned with his protege the hour was well advanced, and
there would be no need for Robertson to have to waste his preparation
doing an imposition.

On an