will be
a long time before we have as wonderful a time again," Gordon said, as
he passed in the sunset, for the last time, through the gate of the
cricket-field which had been, for him, the place of so many happy
hours.

CHAPTER VI: THE TAPESTRY COMPLETED

To Gordon this match seemed the ideal rounding off of his career. There
had been no anti-climax, with him the best had come at the end. He would
not have to look back and compare his last term unfavourably with the
glories of yester year. He had done what he set out to do, he would step
rose-garlanded out of the lighted room, in the flush of his success. It
was exactly as he had wished. Perfectly satisfied, he lay back in his
chair, with his feet on the table, too tired to do anything, merely
thinking.

There was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

Rudd came in nervously with a House list in his hand.

"The Chief wants a list of the trains people are going home by."

"Eight-forty to Waterloo."

"Thanks."

Rudd walked towards the door, but as he put his hand on the knob he
turned round.

"Well," he began falteringly, "I suppose you are jolly proud of yourself
now, aren't you?"

"What the hell do you mean?"

"You know quite well. You have done damned well according to your own
point of view. You have aimed at getting the supreme power, and you have
got it all right." Rudd had lost his nervousness now, he was shifting
his feet a little, but the sentences flowed easily. "I am a weak head, I
know, and you have managed to smash me quite easily. It wasn't very
hard, although you pretend you are the devil of a fellow."

"What on earth are you driving at?"

"Oh, not much; only I want to show you how much you have done for the
House. You are big, and you're strong, and all that; you've broken up
any authority I ever had, and you've taken it yourself. And, of course,
as long as you are here, it's all very well. But what about when you
have left? You are too self-centred to see anybody else's point of view.
_Apres moi le deluge_; that's your philosophy. As long as you yourself
prosper, you don't care a damn what happens to anyone else, and you have
prospered right enough. You'll have left a name behind you, all right."

"I don't want to have to kick you out, Rudd," said Gordon.

"I don't care what you say; I'm going to finish what I have got to say.
You'll probably not understand, you are too short-sighted. But what sort
of future have you left the Ho