was published in the papers on the Monday,
but some one told me that our committee were not meeting until the
Monday evening. This did not interest me much, for apart from wanting
to see that Fred had got his blue, and I thought he was a certainty, I
did not mind who else was chosen. Sykes had played better against the
O. C.s than he had ever done before, and even Fred said that he was
afraid my chance had gone for this year.

After dinner on Monday evening I was sitting in my rooms with Murray,
and although it was not nine o'clock, I was wondering how soon I could
go to bed, when Ward suddenly burst in, fairly bubbling over with
excitement. He turned me right out of my chair, and hitting me
violently on the back, said he had never been so awfully glad in all
his life. My first impression was that he had been made glad by wine,
and I told him to clear out if he could not behave himself, which made
him catch hold of me and dance me round the room. By the time we had
finished I found that Dennison, Collier, Lambert, Webb and a host of
other people had come to my rooms, and at last I discovered that I had
got my blue. For a moment I did not believe it, but I managed to push
Ward into a corner, and told him I would never speak to him again if it
was not true. Then he swore that he had seen the names of the XV. to
play against Cambridge stuck up in the window of Howell's shop in the
Turl, and the first name he saw was G. Marten (St. Cuthbert's), back.

"And Foster, of course?" I said.

Then Jack Ward's face fell. "No, they've gone mad," he answered; "it's
that man Potts, of Queen's."

Men buzzed about congratulating me, and one part of me felt most
tremendously glad, and the other part most outrageously sorry. I said
a lot of things about the committee, and everybody except Ward and
Murray thought I had gone mad. The college clock struck nine, and old
Tom's nightly warning began to sound over the city. I seized a cap and
bolted down-stairs, leaving my rooms full of astonished men. But Fred
Foster was the only man I wanted to see, and by making a tremendous
rush for Oriel I got there before the gates were closed. I cannot
describe how I was feeling that evening, but I knew that Fred was
infinitely better at footer than I was, and in my wildest moments I had
never imagined that I should be put in the XV. while he was left out of
it.

I found him sitting in his room alone, but directly he saw me he jumped
up