ver, small and slightly built, and cared little
for rowing, cricket, or football. He had gained his place in the Sixth
by sheer hard work rather than by talent. He was fussy and irritable,
with a strong sense of the importance of his position as a Sixth town
boy and head of Richards'. Between him and Frank there was no
cordiality, for it irritated him that the latter was upon all occasions
appealed to, and his advice asked in everything relating to games, and
all matters of dispute referred to him. Frank, on the other hand,
although he at all times gave way to Johnstone in house matters, was
constantly annoyed by his continual self-assertion and his irritation at
trifles. They were the only two Sixth town boys at Richards', but there
were three Upper 'Shells,' Harris, Travers, and James, and these ranked
almost with the Sixth, for the great demarcation of the School was
between the Upper and Under 'Shells,' the former having the right to
fag.

Frank and Johnston had each a small room of their own; the three Upper
"Shells" had a room together, but they used Frank's study almost as much
as their own; one or other would generally come in to work with him in
the evening, and it was here that councils were held as to house matters
or knotty points connected with field or water.

"I wish Trafalgar Square wasn't out of bounds," Harris said one evening.

They had finished the work for the next day, and had gathered for a chat
in Frank's room before turning into bed. Frank was sitting in a rickety
arm-chair by the fire, Harris on the table, and the other two on the
bed.

"Why do you wish so, Harris?" Frank said.

"Why, I should like to go up to see those rows they have pretty nearly
every day. Thompson, the home boarder, told me he saw a regular fight
there yesterday evening between the police and the Chartists."

"Well, it's no use wishing, because bounds begin at the gate in Dean's
Yard. I never could understand myself why we should be allowed to go the
other way, down the slums, as far as we please, where there is every
chance of getting into a row, while we are not allowed to walk quietly
up Parliament Street; then we may go along the other way, by the new
Houses of Parliament, to Westminster Bridge, and across the bridge to
baths; but we may not go out from Dean's Yard and walk across in front
of the Abbey to the Bridge. I expect when the rules were made there were
no houses built beyond us, and there were fields exte