"

John wondered what Scaife had said to the Fifth. At any rate, they asked
John no questions, and treated him with distinguished courtesy and
favour; but that evening, when John was fagging in Lawrence's room, the
great man said abruptly--

"I saw you walking with Lovell senior this afternoon."

John explained. Lawrence frowned.

"Oh, you've been celebrating, have you? Thanksgiving service at the
Creameries. Now, look here, Verney, I've met your uncle, and he asked me
to keep an eye on you. Because of that I made you my fag--you, a green
hand, when I had the pick of the House."

"It was awfully good of you," said John, warmly.

"We'll sink that. I'm five years older than you, and I know every
blessed--and _cursed_"--he spoke with great emphasis--"thing that goes
on in this house. I know, for instance, that dust was thrown, and very
cleverly thrown, into Rutford's eyes, and you helped to throw it. Don't
speak! You didn't quite know what you were up to. Well, it's lucky for
Lovell and Co. that one innocent kid was mixed up in that affair. But
it's been rather unlucky for you. I'd sooner see you kicked about a bit
by those fellows than petted. I'm sorry--sorry, do you hear?--the whole
lot were not sacked. And now you can hook it. I've said enough, perhaps
too much, but I believe I can trust you."

After this John showed his gratitude by painstaking attention to
fagging. Lawrence became aware of faithful service: that his toast was
always done to a turn, that his daily paper was warmed, as John had seen
the butler at home warm the _Times_, that his pens were changed, his
blotting-paper renewed, and so forth. In John's eyes, Lawrence occupied
a position near the apex of the world's pyramid of great men.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] {kraipale} is translated by Liddell and Scott as "the result of a
debauch."

CHAPTER IV

_Torpids_

"Again we rush across the slush,
A pack of breathless faces,
And charge and fall, and see the ball
Fly whizzing through the bases."

The remainder of the term slipped away without farther accident or
incident. Apart from the preparation of work, John saw little of Scaife
or Egerton. The Fifth nodded to him in a friendly fashion when he passed
them in the street, and, greater kindness on their part, left him alone.
Possibly, Lawrence had said a word to Lovell. Such leisure as John
enjoyed (a new boy at Harrow has not much) he spent with the devoted
Fluff. Desmon