as busy in his study
getting tea.

"Hullo, Wray," he shouted, as the elder boy entered; "don't you wish it
was this time to-morrow? I do, I'm mad to hear the result!"

"Are you?" said Wraysford.

"Yes, and so are you, you old humbug. Noll says he thinks he did pretty
well, and that you answered well too. I say, what a joke if it's a dead
heat, and you both get bracketed first."

"Cut away now," said Wraysford, as coolly as he could, "and don't make
such a row."

There was something unusual in his tone which surprised the small boy.
He put it down, however, to worry about the examination, and quietly
withdrew as commanded.

The next day came at last. Two days ago, in the Fifth Form, at any
rate, it would have been uphill work for any master to attempt to
conduct morning class in the face of all the eagerness and enthusiasm
with which the result of the examinations would have been looked-for.
Now, however, there was all the suspense, indeed, but it was the
suspense of dread rather than triumph.

"Never mind," said Ricketts to Pembury, after the two had been talking
over the affair for the twentieth time. "Never mind; and there's just
this, Tony, if Wray is only second, it will be a splendid win for the
Fifth all the same."

"I see nothing splendid in the whole concern," said Pembury. And that
was the general feeling.

Oliver entered and took his accustomed seat in silence. No one spoke to
him, many moved away from him, and nearly all favoured him with a long
and unfriendly stare.

All these things he took unmoved. He sat coolly waiting for class to
begin, and when it did begin, any one would have supposed he was the
only comfortable and easy-minded fellow in the room. The lesson dragged
on languidly that morning. Most of the boys seemed to regard it as
something inflicted on them to pass the time rather than as a serious
effort of instruction. The clock crawled slowly on from ten to eleven,
and from eleven to half-past, and every one was glad when at last Mr
Jellicott closed his book. Then followed an interval of suspense. The
Doctor was due with the results, and was even now announcing them in the
Sixth. What ages it seemed before his footsteps sounded in the passage
outside the Fifth!

At last he entered, and a hush fell over the class. One or two glanced
quickly up, as though they hoped to read their fate in the head master's
face. Others waited, too anxious to stir or look up. Others gr