aste made the Caterpillar awfully funny."

"I see."

"Do you see? I doubt it, Caesar. Perhaps I shall horrify you when I tell
you that vice interests me. I used to buy the _Police News_ when I was a
kid, and simply wallow in it. I told a woman that last Easter, and she
laughed--she was as clever as they make 'em--and said that I suffered
from what the French call _la nostalgie de la boue_; that means, you
know, the homesickness for the gutter. Rather personal, but dev'lish
sharp, wasn't it?"

"I think she was a beast."

"Not she, she's a sort of cousin; she came from the same old place
herself; that's why she understood. You don't want to know what goes on
in the slums, but I do. Why? Because my grand-dad was born in 'em."

"He pulled himself out by brains and muscles."

"But he went back--sometimes. Oh yes, he did. And the governor--I'm up
to some of _his_ little games. I could tell you----"

"Oh--shut up!" said Caesar, the colour flooding his cheeks.

Upon the last Saturday of the term the School Concert took place. Few of
the boys in the Manor, and none out of it, knew that John Verney had
been chosen to sing the treble solo; always an attractive number of the
programme. John, indeed, was painfully shy in regard to his singing, so
shy that he never told Desmond that he had a voice. And the
music-master, enchanted by its quality, impressed upon his pupil the
expediency of silence. He wished to surprise the School.

The concerts at Harrow take place in the great Speech-room. Their
characteristic note is the singing of Harrow songs. To any boy with an
ear for music and a heart susceptible of emotion these songs must appeal
profoundly, because both words and music seem to enshrine all that is
noble and uplifting in life. And, sung by the whole School (as are most
of the choruses), their message becomes curiously emphatic. The spirit
of the Hill is acclaimed, gladly, triumphantly, unmistakably, by
Harrovians repeating the creed of their fathers, knowing that creed will
be so repeated by their sons and sons' sons. Was it happy chance or a
happier sagacity which decreed that certain verses should be sung by the
School "Twelve," who have struggled through form after form and know
(and have not yet had time to forget) the difficulties and temptations
which beset all boys? They, to whom their fellows unanimously accord
respect at least, and often--as in the case of a Captain of the Cricket
Eleven--enthusiastic admira