calling, "Fred--Fred Acton!"
The dux turned a trifle pale, but pulling himself together, marched off
with a firm step to learn his fate.

"She called him Fred," murmured Diggory; "that sounds hopeful."

"Oh, that's nothing," answered Jack Vance; "Miss Eleanor always calls
fellows by their Christian names. There's one thing," he added, after a
few moments' thought--"if she'd cut up rough over the letter, she might
have called him Mr. Acton. Hullo, here he comes!" As he spoke Acton
emerged from the house, and came down the path towards them; his straw
hat was tilted forward over his eyes, and his cheeks were glowing like
the red glass of a dark-room lamp. He sauntered along, kicking up the
gravel with the toe of his boot.

"Well, what happened?" inquired Jack Vance.

No answer.

"What's the matter ?" cried Diggory; "what did she say?"

"Why, this!" answered the other, in a voice trembling with suppressed
emotion: "she said I was a silly boy, and--and--_gave me a lump of
cake!_"

If any one else had done it, the probability is Acton would have slain
them on the spot. Diggory opened his eyes and mouth wide, and then
exploded with laughter. "Oh my!" he gasped, "I shall die, I know I
shall! Ha, ha, ha!"

Acton eyed him for a moment with a look of indignant astonishment; then
he began to smile, Jack Vance commenced to chuckle, and very soon all
three were laughing in concert.

"Well, I think it's rather unfeeling of you fellows," said the rejected
suitor; "I can tell you I'm jolly cut up about it."

"I'm awfully sorry," answered Diggory, "but I couldn't help laughing.
Cheer up; why, think, you won't have to get the ring now, so you can do
what you like with that five and ninepence you saved. Why, it's worth
being refused to have five and ninepence to spend in grub!"

"Ah, Diggy !" said the other, shaking his head in a mournful manner,
"wait till you're as old as I am: when you're close on fifteen you'll
think differently about love and all that sort of thing."

As has already been hinted, it was the failure of this attempt on the
part of the dux to win the heart and hand of Miss Eleanor that
indirectly brought about the formation of the famous supper club.
About a week after the events happened which have just been described,
Acton invited the Triple Alliance to meet the "House of Lords" in the
work-shed, to discuss an important scheme which he said had been in his
mind for some days past; and the door h