was at that moment angrily
leaving the room)--I don't think we need trouble any more about him.
(Cheers and laughter.) All I wished to say was this: I always
understood from the gentlemen of Parrett's that Mr Bloomfield was
captain of Willoughby," (Loud cries of "So he is!"), "and that nobody
cared a straw for Mr Riddell." ("No more they do!"). "Then, I don't
think Mr Ashley is very complimentary to Mr Bloomfield when he says
the fault of all the mischief is that the captain is not an all-round
man. For all that he's quite correct. Mr Bloomfield is a well-meaning
man, no doubt, but he certainly is not an all-round man." (Uproar.)

Riddell then rose, and his rising was the signal for a great
demonstration of party feeling. Parrett's of course went against him,
and a large section of Welch's, but the schoolhouse, aided by Cusack,
Pilbury, and Co., backed him up. He spoke nervously but boldly.

"I am sorry to have to support the motion of Mr Ashley. I agree with
him that Willoughby is not what it was, and not what it should be.
(Cheers.) And I also agree with him in thinking that the school might
have a good deal better captain than it has." (Cries of "No!" from the
schoolhouse.) "However, I do not want to say a word about myself. What
I do want to say is this--it's one thing to discover that we are
degenerate, and another to try to put ourselves right again. And are we
likely to do that as long as we are all at sixes and sevens, pulling
different ways, caring far more about our own gratifications than the
good of the whole school? I don't think so, and I don't believe Mr
Bloomfield does either. Every fellow worth the name of a Willoughbite
must be sorry to see things as they are. (Hear, hear.) Why should they
remain so? Surely the good of the school is more important than
squabbling about who is captain and which is the best house. Of course,
we all back up our own house, and, as a Welcher now, I mean to try if
our house can't give a good account of itself before the term's over.
(Loud cheers from Pilbury, Cusack, Philpot, etcetera.) And if each
house pulls itself up, not at the expense of a rival house--(Hear,
hear)--but for the glory of the school--(Hear, hear)--we shan't have to
complain of Willoughby being degenerate much longer. You remember what
old Wyndham said the night before he left. As long as the fellows think
first of the school and then of themselves Willoughby will be all right.
Depe