rd full-back.

"Oh, thanks very much," he murmured, and went on with his talk.

Michael would not have missed that small sentence for any dignity in the
world.

During his first term at St. James', Michael went on with his study of
the art of dancing, begun during the previous winter without much
personal satisfaction and with a good deal of self-consciousness. These
dancing lessons took place in the hall at Randell's, and Michael
revisited his old school with a new confidence. He found himself
promoted to stay beyond the hour of pupilage in order pleasantly to pass
away a second hour by dancing formally with the sisters and cousins of
other boys. He had often admired last year those select Jacobeans who,
buttoning white gloves, stood in a supercilious group, while their
juniors clumped through the Ladies' Chain uninspired by the swish of a
single petticoat. Now he was of their sacred number. It was not
surprizing that under the influence of the waltz and the Circassian
circle and the schottische and the quadrille and the mazurka that
Michael should fall in love. He was not anxious to fall in love: many
times to other boys he had mocked at woman and dilated upon the folly of
matrimony. He had often declared on his way to and from school that
celibacy should be the ideal of every man. He used to say how little he
could understand the habit of sitting in dark corners and kissing. Even
Miss Carthew he grew accustomed to treat almost with rudeness, lest some
lynx-eyed friend of his should detect in his relation with her a
tendency towards the sentimental. However, Muriel in her
salmon-coloured, accordion-pleated frock bowled Michael off his superior
pedestal. He persuaded himself that this was indeed one of those
unchangeable passions of which he read or rather did read now. This
great new emotion was certainly Love, for Michael could honestly affirm
that as soon as he saw Muriel sitting on a chair with long black legs
outstretched before her, he loved her. No other girl existed, and when
he moved towards her for the pleasure of the next dance, he felt his
heart beating, his cheeks on fire. Muriel seemed to like him after a
fashion. At any rate, she cordially supported him in a project of
long-deferred revenge upon Mr. Macrae of the Upper Fourth at Randell's,
and she kept 'cave' while Michael tried the door of his empty class-room
off the top gallery of the hall. It was unlocked, and Michael crept in
and quickly threw th