act I wanted to slack,
and I did not see why Jack should choose my rooms to work in. The mere
sight of him annoyed me; he took his coat off and turned up his
shirt-sleeves to read, and whenever I made the slightest noise he told
me to be quiet. I impressed upon him most earnestly that he could go
anywhere he liked or didn't like, but he had settled upon me, and
nothing I did could make him go or lose his temper. After a few days I
got quite accustomed to him, and I believe that I should have missed
him if he had not come to annoy me, but he showed no signs of
slackening off, and I was watching for them every day.

We were within a few days of the end of term before I believed that
Jack had any serious intentions of changing his manner of living, and
then he explained the whole thing to me.

"I have worked for a solid fortnight," he said to me, "and if I can go
on for a fortnight I can go on for two years. I didn't want to explain
anything until I knew whether it was any good, for I have never worked
before in my life and I didn't know what it was like. My father has
suddenly got very sick with me, and says I have got to read or go down
altogether; besides I am tired of doing nothing, and there are enough
slackers in the college without me. We have got to pull this place
together somehow." He threw himself into an arm-chair and picked up
_The Ordeal of Richard Feverel_. "George Meredith," he said, "I tried
him once," and he shook his head.

"Try him again."

"I shan't have time, you are always coming out in unexpected places. I
should have thought you would have liked a good sporting novel, I can't
understand Meredith."

"The Bradder told me to read this."

"The Bradder's an idiot; you be careful, or you'll write stuff which
the examiners won't trouble to read. An examiner doesn't like any
other style except his own."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"I guess from the look of them, they must get so horribly tired; facts
are what I mean to give them, piles of dates and things like that.
Just let 'em know what I know at once and no rot about it."

"You have got to write essays, not answer questions like a
Sunday-school class," I said, and yawned.

"The Bradder will have to teach me all about essays, but I am going to
stick to plain English, no going round corners for me. I mean to row
next year, and I am going to be coached in the vac; if I don't get into
the college eight next summer, I----"

"Aren'