for
you!"

So it was. Now Oliver seemed to be getting over the ground quicker, and
now Wraysford. Now Wraysford lost a good second by looking up at the
clock; now Greenfield made a bad shot with his pen at the inkpot, and
had to dip again, which threw him back half a second at least.

Unconscious of the interest and amusement they were exciting among the
sporting section of the Sixth, they kept the pace up to the finish, and
when at last Mr Jellicott said, "Cease writing and bring up your
papers," both groaned simultaneously, as much as to say, "A second or
two more would have done it."

The examination was over, but the event of that memorable day was still
to take place.

Five minutes later Oliver, who had retired alone, as usual, to his
study, there to announce to the anxious Stephen how he had fared in the
examination, caught the sudden sound of an old familiar footstep outside
his door, which sent the blood to his cheeks with strange emotion.
Stephen heard it, and knew it too.

"There's that beast Wraysford," he said, at the very instant that
Wraysford, not waiting to knock, flung open the door and entered.

There was no need for him to announce his errand. It was written on his
face as he advanced with outstretched hand to his old friend.

"Noll, old man," was all he could say, as their eyes met, "the
youngster's right--I _am_ a beast!"

At the first word--the first friendly word spoken to him for months--
Oliver started to his feet like one electrified; and before the sentence
was over his hand was tightly grasping the hand of his friend, and
Stephen had disappeared from the scene. It is no business of ours to
pry into that happy study for the next quarter of an hour. If we did
the reader would very likely be disappointed, or perhaps wearied, or
perhaps convinced that these two were as great fools in the manner of
their making up as they had been in the manner of their falling out.

Oh! the happiness of that precious quarter of an hour, when the veil
that has divided two faithful friends is suddenly dashed aside, and they
rush one to the other, calling themselves every imaginable bad name in
the dictionary, insisting to the verge of quarrelling that it was all
their fault, and no fault at all of the other, far too rapturous to talk
ordinary common sense, and far too forgetful of everything to remember
that they are saying the same thing over and over again every few
minutes.

"The falling out of