et and cheered their
champion, glaring defiantly as they did so at the Moderns, who having
held up their hands and cheered a little, relapsed into silence and left
the noise in the hands of the other side.

Then followed the election of vice-captain, which of course had to go to
Clapperton. This time the Moderns had their demonstration amid the
silence of the Classics, who thought they had never in their lives seen
fellows make such asses of themselves.

It was twenty minutes past the hour, and D'Arcy and Ashby were both
getting uncomfortable and impatient. What did these Modern idiots want
to waste the time of everybody by standing there and bellowing! It was
scandalous.

"Shut up--go on to the next vote," they cried, but in vain. The Moderns
were going to have their full share, if not a little more, of the row,
and to stop them before their time was hopeless.

"Disgusting exhibition, isn't it?" said D'Arcy; "never mind. Hullo, I
say, there's some one at the door. It's those chaps!"

No, it was only Fisher minor, who, having waited meekly all this time
outside the deserted gymnasium, now ventured, like a degenerate
Casabianca, to desert his post and come and see what was going forward
in the Hall.

As he tried to enter, a Modern boy, seeing by his ribbon that he was on
the wrong side, put his foot against the door and tried to turn him
back. But his little plot dismally failed. For D'Arcy and Ashby,
shocked and horrified witnesses of this scandalous act of corruption,
came to the rescue with a hubbub which even made itself heard above the
shouting.

"Let him in!--howling cheat!--he's trying to shut out one of our side!
Ya-boo! That's the way you elect your men, is it! Come in, Fisher
minor. Let him in, do you hear? All right; come on, you fellows, and
kick this Modern chap out for a wretched sneak--(that'll be seven off
their side, counting Wheatfield; and one more to us--bully!) Yah,
cheats! turn 'em out!"

Amid such cries of virtuous indignation, Fisher minor was hauled in, and
his obstructor, by the same _coup de main_, excluded. Fisher minor
might have had his head turned by this triumphal entry, had he not
recognised in the ejected Modern boy the gentleman to whom he had lent
his half-crown on the previous evening. Any reminder of yesterday's
misfortunes was depressing to him, and his joy at finding himself on the
right side of the door now was decidedly damped by the knowledge that
his h