ll still be rich and poor,
for our Hodges is a Tory, but there'll be a spirit of fellowship oozing
everywhere."

"'Running things' is all these chaps really care about," said Davenant,
intervening. "I don't believe they care a straw about their summer
camps and boys' brigades as far as the boys go. They like to be in
charge of clubs and canteens and order kids about and tell them what a
good thing discipline is and how wicked Trades Unions are."

"Those are the neos," added Rendell quickly. "The old ones like to rag
about, and there's something to be said for that. Hodges likes
ragging. Of course he is an ass, but he's not a dangerous ass. On the
whole, we may call him a dear old thing and let him go on shouting.
But the bad men are Steel-Brockley's gang. They all suffer from
bossing fever and can't live unless they're running something. And
they're desperately fair-minded and don't believe in party, which
simply means that they are Tory agents, and tell the boys what a sin it
is to be discontented with five or six bob for a seventy-hour week."

"And they're dragging in the freshers," said Lawrence. "Ought to be
strangled."

So in private they settled the business of the Hearties. But in
public, partly because they were freshers and partly because they had
not the courage of their convictions, they found themselves being quite
polite to these good young men.

Religion had an ever-living appeal for the Push, because it is one of
the few subjects about which argument is as fascinating as it is
futile. Chard, it is true, couldn't be bothered with metaphysics: he
was a history scholar, and his line was a first in history and then the
Bar. But the discussions were never metaphysical in the technical
sense and it amused him to listen and sum up with an epigram. Davenant
used to murmur that he thought Christ rather a beautiful figure and
that the Church had saved Art in the Middle Ages, but he did not
receive much attention. It became more and more the custom to regard
Davenant as a picturesque background to conversations, except when
artistic matters were under discussion. Then he held the floor, or
rather he stood gracefully before the fire and spoke slowly between
puffs of smoke.

They met most often in Lawrence's rooms, which were large and
conveniently situated on the ground floor. He had added to the
dilapidated furniture some new cushions and a really good arm-chair,
and, having no money, he star