en better if he had done what Scarborough had suggested, less
undignified, more manly really. But he couldn't turn back now.

He was cold and his teeth had begun to chatter, so he started to run. He
hoped that when he came out of the woods he might be fortunate enough to
elude observation on the way to the Upper School, but in this he was
disappointed. As he jogged by the Study building, with his clothes
jouncing and slapping heavily upon his shoulders, out came the rector
and met him face to face.

"Upset canoeing?" asked the rector with a smile.

"Yes," Irving answered; he stood for a moment awkwardly.

"Well, it will happen sometimes," said the rector. "Don't catch cold."
And he passed on.

There was some consolation for Irving in this matter-of-fact view. In
the rector's eyes apparently his dignity had not suffered by the
incident. But when a moment later he passed a group of Fourth Formers
and they turned and stared at him, grinning, he felt that his dignity
had suffered very much. He felt that within a short time his misfortune
would be the talk of the school.

At supper it was as he expected it would be. Westby set about airing the
story for the benefit of the table, appealing now and then to Irving
himself for confirmation of the passages which were least gratifying to
Irving's vanity. "You _did_ look so woe-begone when you stood up on
shore, Mr. Upton," was the genial statement which Irving especially
resented. To have Westby tell the boys the first day how he had called
the new master a new kid and the second day how he had ducked him was a
little too much; it seemed to Irving that Westby was slyly amusing
himself by undermining his authority. But the boy's manner was
pleasantly ingratiating always; Irving felt baffled. Carroll did not
help him much towards an interpretation; Carroll sat by self-contained,
quietly intelligent, amused. Irving liked both the boys, and yet as the
days passed, he seemed to grow more and more uneasy and anxious in their
society.

In the classroom he was holding his own; he was a good mathematical
scholar, he prepared the lessons thoroughly, and he found it generally
easy to keep order by assigning problems to be worked out in class. The
weather continued good, so that during play time the fellows were out
of doors instead of loafing round in dormitory. They all had their own
little affairs to organize; athletic clubs and literary societies held
their first meetings; there w