Then I shook in
my glee. Someone had pushed on the hands of the clock, and it was
three minutes to twelve. There was a rustle of excitement in the
room. The silence of expectancy followed. "Two-minutes-to" narrowed
into "One-minute-to"; and after a premonitory click, which produced
sufficient excitement to interfere with our breath, the clock struck
twelve.

Inasmuch as I occupied a very favourable position, I got up to
conduct proceedings. I faced the class, stretched out my right hand,
which held a pen by way of a baton, and whispered: "One. Two.
_Three_."

It began. I have often wondered since how I could have been so wrong
in my calculations. I had estimated that, if we all hummed, there
would result a gentle murmur. I never dreamt that each of the twenty
boys would respond so splendidly to my appeal. Instead of a gentle
murmur, the National Hymn was opened with extraordinary volume and
spirit.

My first instinct was the low one of self-preservation. Feeling no
desire to play a leading part in this terrible outbreak, I hastily
sat down with a view to resuming my studies. Unfortunately I sat
down too heavily, and there was the noise of a bump, which served to
bring the performance to an effective conclusion. My books clattered
to the floor, and Mr. Caesar turned on me with a cry of wrath.

"Ray, what are you doing?"

It was a sudden and awkward question; and, for a second, I was at a
loss for words to express to my satisfaction what I was doing. Penny
seemed disappointed at my declension into disgrace, and murmured
reproachfully: "O Rupert, my little Rupert, _st. st._" I saw that
the game was up. Mr. Caesar had inquired what I was doing; and a
survey of what I was doing showed me that, between some antecedent
movements and some subsequent effects, my central procedure was a
conducting of the class. So, very red but trying to be impudent, I
said as much, after first turning round and making an unpleasant
face at Penny.

"Conducting, sir," I explained, as though nothing could be more
natural at twelve o'clock.

"Conducting!" said Mr. Caesar. "Well, you may be able to conduct the
class, but you certainly cannot conduct yourself."

This resembling a joke, the class expressed its appreciation in a
prolonged and uproarious laugh. It was a stupendous laugh. It had
fine crescendo and diminuendo passages, and only died hard, after a
chain of intermittent "Ha-ha's." Then it had a glorious
resurrection, but faded a