HAT SEEM

But the heart of youth is essentially fickle; and Gordon's lambent
spirit, which had for some time almost ceased to strive for anything,
suddenly swept round to the other extreme, and was filled with the
desire to reassert itself at all costs. Suddenly, almost without
realising it, Gordon was fired with the wish to finish his school career
strongly, not to give way before adversity, but to end as he had begun.
He would be the Ulysses of Tennyson, not of Plato. "Though much is
taken, much abides ... 'tis not too late to seek a newer world." ...
Like a tiger he looked round, growling for his prey, and his opportunity
was not slow in coming.

Ferrers was sitting in his study one afternoon, talking very
despondently about the general atmosphere at Fernhurst.

"It is not what I had hoped for," he said; "in fact, it is quite the
reverse. The young masters are gone, the bloods are gone. The new
leaders are not sure of their feet, and these old pedants have taken
their chance of getting back their old power. And the whole school is
discontented, fed up; no keenness anywhere. The masters tell them: 'If
you aren't good at games you'll be useless in the trenches.' Wretched
boys begin to believe them. They think they are wrong, when really they
are just beginning to see the light. They are beginning to look at games
as they are. There's no glory attached to them now--no true
victories--glamour is all removed. They see games as they are, see the
things they have been worshipping all these years. But the masters tell
them games are right, they are wrong; it is their duty to do as others
did before them. Oh, I wish we could smash those cracked red spectacles
through which every Public School boy is forced to look at life."

"But can't we, sir?"

"It would be no good; they wouldn't believe you. I am getting sick. For
years I have been shouting out, and trying to prove to them what's
wrong. They won't believe. They are blind, and it is the masters' fault,
curse them. There they sit, talking and doing nothing. I begin to
worship that man, I forget his name, who said: 'Those who can, do--those
who can't, teach.' It sums up our modern education. It is all hypocrisy
and show."

"But, sir," said Gordon, "we can't do much, but let's do what we can.
Now, when the glamour has fallen off athleticism, let's show the school
what wretched things they have been serving so long. If we can in any
way put a check on this nonsense now