e done. We took the Greene
person" (the Caterpillar alone refused to defame the fine name of
Beaumont by linking it to Greene) "and placed him naked in a large
tosh. Into that tosh the house was invited to pour any fluid that
could be spared. One forgets things; but, unless I'm mistaken, the
particular sheep-wash used was made up of lemonade, syrups, ink--plenty
of that--milk (I bought a quart myself), tooth-powder, paraffin, and a
cake of Sapolio--Monkey Brand! We scrubbed the Yahoo thoroughly,
washed its teeth, ears, hair, and then we dried it. I don't know who
smeared marmalade on to the towel, but the drying part was not very
successful. Rather tough--eh? Yes, very tough--on _us_, but
effective. The Greene person has toshed regularly ever since. At
least, so I'm told; I never go near him myself, and he's considerate
enough to keep out of my way."

Beaumont-Greene had not, it is true, the appetite for reckless breaking
of the law which distinguished Lovell and his particular pals; but
Lovell's good qualities cancelled to a certain extent what was vicious.
A fine cricketer, a plucky football-player, he might have proved a
credit to his house had a master other than Dirty Dick been originally
in command of it. Before he was out of the Shell, he had declared war
against Authority. Beaumont-Greene, on the other hand, detested games,
and sneered at those who played them. Pulpy, pimply, gross in mind and
body, he stood for that heavy, amorphous resistance to good, which is
so difficult to overcome.

During the first half of the winter quarter, John saw but little of
Esme Kinloch. It is one of the characteristics of a Public School,
that the boys--as in the greater world for which it is a
preparation--are in layers. Some layers overlap; others never touch.
Fluff was a fag; his friend John was in the Fifth Form, and a "fez."
In a word, an Atlantic rolled between them. John, however, would often
give Fluff a "con," and occasionally they would walk together. Fluff
was no longer the delicate, girlish child of a year ago. He had
bloomed into a very handsome boy, attractive, like all the members of
his mother's family, with engaging manners, and he had also shown signs
of developing into a cricketer. Fluff could paddle his own canoe,
provided, of course, that he kept out of the rapids.

But about the middle of the term John noticed that Fluff was losing
colour and spirits, the latter never very exuberant. It