A
week--only a week longer."

"Aren't you done?" was the only reply; "aren't you going home?"

"Will you, Cripps? Have pity on me! I'm so miserable!"

Cripps only whistled pleasantly to himself.

Loman, almost frantic, made one last effort.

"Give us just a week more," he entreated.

No answer.

"Do speak, Cripps; say you will; please do!"

Cripps only laughed and went on whistling.

"Oh, what shall I do, what _shall_ I do?" cried the wretched boy. "I
shall be ruined if you don't have some pity--"

"Look here," said Cripps, curtly, "you'd better stop that noise here, my
lad. You can go; do you hear? Look alive."

It was no use staying further. Loman went What anguish he endured for
the next twenty-four hours no one knows. What plans he turned in his
head, what wild schemes, what despair, what terrors filled him, only he
himself could tell. Every moment he expected the fatal vision of Cripps
at Saint Dominic's, and with it his own certain disgrace and ruin, and,
as time went on, his perturbation became so great that he really felt
ill with it.

But Cripps did not come that day or the next. The next day was one of
mighty excitement in Saint Dominic's. The result of the examination for
the Waterston Exhibition was announced.

Had any other three boys but those actually taking part been the
competitors, few outsiders would have felt much interest in the result
of an ordinary examination confined to Sixth Form boys. But on this
occasion, as we have seen, the general curiosity was aroused. No one
expected much of Loman. The school had discovered pretty well by this
time that he was an impostor, and their chief surprise had been that he
should venture into the list against two such good men as Oliver and
Wraysford.

But which of those two was to win? That was the question. Every one
but a few had been positive it would be Wraysford, whom they looked upon
as the lawful winner of the Nightingale last term, and whom, they were
convinced, Oliver was unable to beat by fair means. And yet to these it
had been a great astonishment to hear that Oliver had entered for the
examination. Unless he was certain of winning he would only do himself
harm by it, and confirm the suspicions against him. And yet, if he
should win after all--if he was able fairly to beat Wraysford--why
should he have gone to the trouble last term of stealing the examination
paper and making himself the most unpopular boy in all