onehenge some time.'

He stood still, looking down at the little mould of clay in his hand--so
still that his mother got up and came close to him.

'Quentin,' she said, 'darling, what is it?'

He leaned his head against her.

'I won't make a fuss,' he said, 'but you can't begin to be brave the
very first minute. Or, if you do, you can't go on being.'

And with that he began to cry, though he had not cried after the affair
of the grocer's boy.

* * * * *

The thought of school was not so terrible to Quentin as Mrs. de Ward had
thought it would be. In fact, he rather liked it, with half his mind;
but the other half didn't like it, because it meant parting from his
mother who, so far, had been his only friend. But it was exciting to be
taken to Southampton, and have all sorts of new clothes bought for you,
and a school trunk, and a little polished box that locked up, to keep
your money in and your gold sleeve links, and your watch and chain when
you were not wearing them.

Also the journey to Salisbury was made in a motor, which was very
exciting of course, and rather took Quentin's mind off the parting with
his mother, as she meant it should. And there was a very grand lunch at
The White Hart Hotel at Salisbury, and then, very suddenly indeed, it
was good-bye, good-bye, and the motor snorted, and hooted, and throbbed,
and rushed away, and mother was gone, and Quentin was at school.

I believe it was quite a nice school. It was in a very nice house with a
large quiet garden, and there were only about twenty boys. And the
masters were kind, and the boys no worse than other boys of their age.
But Quentin hated it from the very beginning. For when his mother had
gone the Headmaster said: 'School will be out in half-an-hour; take a
book, de Ward,' and gave him _Little Eric and his Friends_, a mere baby
book. It was too silly. He could not read it. He saw on a shelf near
him, _Smith's Antiquities_, a very old friend of his, so he said: 'I'd
rather have this, please.'

'You should say "sir" when you speak to a master,' the Head said to him.
'Take the book by all means.' To himself the Head said, 'I wish you joy
of it, you little prig.'

When school was over, one of the boys was told to show Quentin his bed
and his locker. The matron had already unpacked his box and his pile of
books was waiting for him to carry it over.

'Golly, what a lot of books,' said Smithson minor. 'What's this?