all."

"Oh!" said John.

"My governor has just told me. I came down here to curse and swear."

"Not going into Damer's? What rot--for you!"

"It is sickening. Look here, Verney; I feel like telling you about it.
I know you won't go bleating all over the shop. No. I said to myself,
'Mum's the word,' but----"

John's heart beat, his body glowed, his grey eyes sparkled.

"It's like this," continued Caesar, after a slight pause. "Damer told
the governor that two fellows he had expected to leave at the end of
this term were staying on. The governor hinted that Damer added
something about straining a point, and letting me in ahead of three
other fellows; but the governor wouldn't listen to that----"

"Jolly decent of him," said John.

"Was it? In my opinion he ought to have thought of me first. All my
brothers have been at Damer's. And he knew I'd set my heart on going
there. Look how civil the fellows are to me. I've been in and out of
the house like a tame cat. Confound it! if Damer did want to strain a
point, why shouldn't he? The governor played his own game, not mine.
What right has he to be so precious unselfish at my expense? I argued
with him; but he can put his foot down. Let's cut all that. Of
course, I don't want to stop in a beastly Small House for ever, and, if
Damer's is closed to me, I should like Brown's, but Brown's is full
too. And there are other good houses. But where--where do you think I
_am_ going?"'

"Reed's?"

"I don't call Reed's so bad. No; I'm going to Dirty Dick's. I'm
coming to you."

"Oh, I say."

"Why, dash it all, you're grinning. I don't want to be a cad--Dirty
Dick's is _your_ house--but--after Damer's! O Lord!"

The grin faded out of John's face. Caesar's loss outweighed his own
gain.

"Your governor was a Manorite," he said slowly.

"Yes, in its best days; and he's always had a sneaking liking for it;
but he knows, he knows, I say, that now it's rotten, and yet he sends
me there. Why?"

"Ask another," said John.

"I asked him another, and what do you think he said, in that peculiar
voice of his which always dries me up? 'Harry,' said he, 'when you're
a little older and a good deal wiser, you'll be able to answer that
question yourself.'"

John's face brightened. A glimmering of the truth shone out of the
darkness. He tried to advance nearer to it, gropingly.

"I dare say----"

"Well, go on!"

"Your governor may feel that we want a