combined
with some of the elegances of a high-class preparatory school. Tipton's
father, who was an extensive draper in an adjoining suburb, was rather
fond, I believe, of telling his friends that he had a boy at Dangerfield
College. It sounded well, especially when it was possible to add that
"my boy and his particular chum, young Tempest, son of the late Colonel
Tempest, you know, of the Guards, did this and that together, and might
perhaps spend their next holidays together at Tempest Hall, in
Lincolnshire, if he could spare the boy from home," and so on.

It was an awful fascination for some of us to speculate what the "Dux"
would have to say if he could hear this sort of talk. We trembled for
Tipton's father, and his shop, and the whole neighbourhood in which he
flourished.

Tempest's presence at the "College" did, however, add quite a little
prestige to the place. No one seemed to suppose that it had anything to
do with the fact that the terms were exceptionally moderate, and that
his gallant father had left very slender means behind him. Even Dr
Plummer had a habit, so people said, of dragging his aristocratic head
pupil's name into his conversation with possible clients, while we boys
mingled a little awe with the esteem in which we held our broad-backed
and well-dressed comrade.

Within the last few weeks especially the school had had reason to be
proud of him. He had taken an exhibition at Low Heath, one of the crack
public schools, and was going up there at Midsummer. This was an event
in the annals of Plummer's which had never happened before and in all
probability would never happen again.

To do the Dux justice, he set no special store by himself. He believed
in the Tempests as a race, but did not care a snap whether anybody else
believed in them or not. Any boy who liked him he usually liked back,
and showed his affection, as he did in my case, by frequent lickings.
Boys he did not like he left severely alone, and there were a good many
such at Dangerfield.

As to the exhibition, that had been entirely his own idea. He had not
said a word about it to Plummer or any of us, and it was not till after
he had got it, and Plummer in the fulness of his heart gave us a holiday
in celebration of the event, that we had any of us known that the Dux
had been in for it.

The second bell had already sounded before I had completed my toilet,
the finishing touches of which, consequently, I was left to ad