"Ah, so much?--they can't treat cases like yours for nothing. When are you going in?"

"In September. It's a splendid place--five hundred fellows there."

"So many! It's rather sad to think about, isn't it, Hodges? Five hundred! What a lot of trouble there is in the world, to be sure!"

"I can't say I shall be sorry--I know one or two chaps there already."

"Very likely, if it runs in the family at all."

"What runs?" said I, not taking him.

Mr Evans tapped his forehead.

"Never mind," said he, "it's not your fault. I expect four years will do marvels with you. We'll come and see you sometimes, on visiting days."

"Ah, I don't suppose there are visiting days, except for parents," said I.

"I know one or two of the staff, though," said one of the party. "I shall be able to hear about you from them."

"Oh, all right," said I. "I hope things here will go on all right when I'm at school."

"School?" said Mr Evans, stooping with his hands on his knees, and looking into my face. "Did you say school? Is Low Heath a school?"

"Rather. What did you think it was?"

"We thought it was an idiot asylum," said Mr Evans. And a shout of laughter at my expense confirmed his statement.

I did not deign to explain; and for the few days I remained at the office I made no further reference to my academic triumphs, though my comrades rarely failed to make merry over the asylum.

At the end of a fortnight I began to come to myself, and realise that I had not exactly borne my honours blushingly. And I was glad when my mother proposed a week or two at the seaside, to brace up before plunging into the ocean of public school fife.

My guardian, who had of late grown fairly civil to me, in the prospect of getting me off his hands, was good enough to release me from the office; and I shook the dust of that detestable place off my feet with unfeigned thankfulness.

Mr Evans wanted to get up a farewell supper for me, and I was very near allowing myself the honour, when I accidentally discovered that all the provisions were to be ordered in my name and the bill sent to me.

Whereupon I declined the invitation with thanks, and regretted that a previous engagement would prevent my having the pleasure of joining their party.

Once in the quiet of the seaside, with my mother for companion, I recovered my proper frame of mind, and began to take sober views of the prospect before me.

I wrote to Tempest--rather a c.o.c.ky letter, perhaps, but one full of delight at the prospect of joining him at Low Heath, and claiming his patronage and support.

His reply was characteristic to say the least.

"The examiners for exhibitions here are the biggest m.u.f.fs out. They plough the only men worth having and let in no end of scugs. The consequence is. Low Heath is packed full of a.s.ses, as you'll find out.

I'm glad they let you in, though, as it will be sport having you here and making you sing small. I do hope, though, it won't get out that you've been coached by a female, or there'll be a terrific lark. I'm getting quite a dab at photography, and shall have my camera up next term. Mind you get the right-shaped boiler, or I shall cut you. The kids are to be stopped wearing round tops like their betters, so you'd best cut yours square. Brown was too 'cute to try for an exhibition.

It's bad enough for him to be a day boy, but it would be a jolly sight worse to be an exhibitioner as well. When you come up, mind you're not to collar me. It's bad form for a kid to collar a senior. Wait till I speak to you, or else get some chap to bring you and introduce you.

Fellows who shirk form get jolly well lammed; so you'd better go easy at first. Bring plenty of pocket-money, and some thick boots for kicking chaps back.--Yours truly, H.T. Tempest."

This letter both gratified and perturbed me. It was pleasing to be hailed as one of the inner circle of a fellow like Tempest; but it made me suspect that I should not be taken into the fold at my own valuation, but that of my betters, which in a public school is a very different thing. The little details, too, about dress and manners rather startled me. For supposing I had gone up not knowing these things, what mistakes I should have made! Suppose, for instance, I had gone up in a billyc.o.c.k with a round instead of a square top; or suppose I had hailed Tempest without his first speaking to me, what would have become of me? I trembled to think of it, and was glad to feel I had a friend at court who would see I didn't "shirk form."

What made me still more uneasy was the reference to my connection with a girl's school. The prize list had made it appear, to any one who did not know better, that I was a pupil from Miss Steele's, High School, Fallowfield. Suppose this list should get into the hands of any of the fellows, or that some other new boy should carelessly leave his copy about! I wished I had had more sense than to mention the High School at all. This came of my chivalrous desire, said I to myself, to give Miss Steele and her princ.i.p.al the benefit of my distinction. Now I might have to thank them for endless trouble. I did my best to hope the worst would not happen.

"Fellows never read prize lists of exams, they've not been in for,"

thought I; "and when they have been in, they never trouble themselves about any one's name but their own. Why, I haven't even noticed where a single other chap comes from. They may all be girls' schools, for all I know. It's not likely any one has noticed mine."

And to avoid all accident I dropped mine into the fire, and had to stand my mother's reproaches for destroying a doc.u.ment she had intended to treasure till her dying day.

As the time for my going to Low Heath approached, I began to turn my attention seriously to my _trousseau_.

My first care was to get the square-topped boiler, and a rare job I had to procure it. None of the hatters in Fallowfield knew of such a shape in young gents' hats; and the shopkeepers in Wynd, whither I went over on purpose, were equally benighted. My mother, too, protested that she had never heard of such a kind of hat, and that it would be hideous when I got it.

That was no fault of mine. It was the Low Heath form, and that was enough for me.

At length I heard of a hat of the kind at Deercut, five miles off, and walked thither. It had been made, said the hatter, for a young sporting party who attended to a gentleman's stables, and knew a thing or two.

He had got into trouble, it was explained, and was "doing his time on the circular staircase," which I took to mean the treadmill. That was the reason the article had been thrown on the maker's hands. It seemed just the thing Tempest described. The top was as flat as the lid of a work-box; indeed, it was precisely like a somewhat broad-brimmed chimney-pot-hat cut down to half height; and after a little pinching in at the sides fitted me beautifully. The maker was delighted to be able to suit me, and smiled most graciously when I paid him my five shillings and walked out of the shop with my junior exhibitioner's "boiler" on my head.

I set down to envy or ignorance the jeers of the village youths who encountered me on my way home. Some people will laugh at anything they do not understand. My mother's protests, when she saw me, however, were not so easy to dispose of.

"Why, Tommy, it makes you look like a common cheap-jack," said she.

"It's not a gentleman's hat at all. I'm sure they would not tolerate it at Low Heath."

"On the contrary," said I, "it's the form there. You might say the same of mortar boards or blue-coat dresses. It all depends on the school."

"But are you sure Tempest was not exaggerating?"

"Tempest is the most particular chap about form I know," said I.

"Well, dear, promise me you won't wear this dreadful hat till you go to school. Wear your nice cap that suits you so well till then."

I humoured her. Indeed, I was a little shy myself of meeting Mr Evans, or any of that set, in my new garb. They would be sure to pa.s.s their nasty personal remarks upon it. It would be better to preserve it in its virgin purity for my entrance to Low Heath.

I took the precaution to write to Tempest and mention that I had got it, appending to my letter a rough sketch of the hat, so that, if there were anything wrong about it, he would be able to correct me.

He wrote back in great good spirits.

"Just the thing, kid. It'll take the shine out of all the boilers up here. Did I tell you about gloves? The knowing ones mostly sport lavender; but the outsiders don't wear any, except at the first call- over in the term, when of course it's compulsory. One m.u.f.f last term got pretty well lammed because he only had two-b.u.t.ton gloves instead of six. I believe one or two others were just as bad, only they didn't get kotched; but it was a lesson to them. I wonder if young Brown will be up to the tips, or whether he'll turn up in black boots instead of tan.

I sha'n't write to him, because he's a town-boy, and it would be low.

Ta-ta. Don't forget to wear your collar outside your great-coat, or I sha'n't speak to you.--Yours, till then, H.T."

I kept this letter carefully from my mother. I knew it would only distress her, and suggest all sorts of difficulties. For, dear soul, it would be so hard to explain to her the exigencies of school form. What would have become of me without old Tempest? I should have come utterly to grief, I felt. My only fear was that he might have forgotten something which it was as important I should be made aware of as the hat, or the six-b.u.t.ton lavender gloves, or the tan boots.

I am afraid I must plead guilty to a little duplicity in the matter of purchasing these highly necessary articles of my kit. I had to persuade my mother to allow me to choose my own gloves and boots; and expended the money in such a manner that I could show her an ordinary pair of each, while the special articles were carefully concealed in my box.

She thought the cheap black shoes and dog-skin gloves I paraded before her dear at the price; but she little knew that I had safely stowed away an elegant pair of light lavender gloves and a pair of tan boots of the most fashionable appearance.

I had some difficulty about the former. For six-b.u.t.ton gloves for young gents was not a "stock-line" in any of the shops. I had finally to get a lady's twelve-b.u.t.ton pair and cut them down to suit my requirements.

The tan boots were more easily procured, although it grated somewhat against my feelings to be sent over to the ladies' side of the shop to get them, as they were not kept for boys on the men's side. As it was, I feared they did not come up to Tempest's description of "thick boots for kicking back in," but they were the thickest I could procure.

At length my preparations were all complete. My mother had been an angel about them all. She had let me have my own way, and forborne criticism when my taste--or rather my conjecture as to what the Low Heath form might demand--ran counter to hers. On this account she made no remark about my check shirts, or the steel chain which, after the most approved fashion, came out from under the side of my waistcoat and supported the weight of my keys in my side trouser pocket. I confess it was an inconvenient arrangement. It was impossible to unlock my portmanteau without either half undressing, or kneeling down so as to bring the end of the chain on a level with the keyhole, or else standing the portmanteau on a chair or table to bring it up to the key. But it was undoubtedly the smart way of carrying keys. So the tailor said, and so one or two friends in whom I confided also a.s.sured me.