l and a
Liddell and Scott; Gordon crossing the courts heard it, and he decided
to clinch his victory. He went down to the day-room and walked straight
in. There was instant silence. Gordon took no notice of Rudd whatever.

"Look here, you men, you are making a filthy row down here. I heard it
right across the courts. The Chief might hear it easily. You have got to
shut up. If I hear any more noise I shall give every man two hundred
lines; so shut up."

There was comparative peace after this. Rudd had ceased to count in
House politics. To all intents and purposes Gordon was head of the
House, and the House regarded him as such. Rudd was generally known as
the "nominal head." Gordon had got his power, and for the next six weeks
he decided to enjoy it to the full. On the cricket field, although not
quite keeping to the promise or the luck of May, he did well enough to
make the batting cup quite certain. There was now no fear of any defeat
clouding his last days. He had ceased to worry himself with analysing
his emotions. He let himself enjoy the hour of happiness while he still
had it, and did not trouble to question himself how long it would last.
He had passed through the time of blind depression during the Easter
term when he had seen hope after hope go down: he had come through
somehow. It did not matter with what inward searchings of heart.
Outwardly he had been a success. Now his outward triumph was even more
pronounced. As a few weeks before he had been too prone to look at the
inward to the total exclusion of the outward aspect of things, now he
began to consider only the things that seem. It was the swing of the
pendulum. It remained for him to find the _media via_.

* * * * *

The last days of June and the early weeks of July passed calmly. In the
mornings he lounged in his study, reading novels, or talking to Morgan.
The afternoons went by like a cavalcade, with the white figures on the
cricket ground, the drowsy atmosphere of the pavilion, the shadows
lengthening across the ground. Then the evenings came, with Morcombe
sitting in his study getting helped in his work, or talking about books
and people and ideas. The House matches began. A-K senior had an average
side, but no one expected them to do very much, and it was a surprise
when, by beating Christy's and Claremont's, they qualified to meet an
exceptionally strong Buller's side in the final. Foster and Gordon
looked forwa