'Time, sir, time!' the men shouted, and the examiner smiled benignly down on the crowd beneath.
'Time! time!'
How eager the men were! They couldn't all be Senior Wranglers!
Perhaps there were not many expectant Senior Wranglers there. It is not often that a man whose name is on every lip has the courage to face the ordeal. There is always a chance of disappointment. Wyatt Edgell was not among the crowd. Lucy must have seen him from her elevated place on the steps as she looked down at the upturned faces of the men, had he been there. Eric Gwatkin was close beneath the window among a crowd of St. Benedict's men, but Edgell was not among them.
'Time! time!' the men shouted, but the examiner only smiled and looked at his watch.
The minute-hand of the clock of great St. Mary's had travelled round to within a few seconds of the hour. A Proctor who was standing near the examiner, with the list in his hand, looked down at the crowd of undergraduates beneath with an eye to business, and took down the names of the men who were making a row.
It was the unpopular Proctor, and at the sight of his unwelcome face at the window the crowd beneath set up a groan, and in the midst of the groan the clock of the University church struck nine.
'Time!'
It was time indeed. The examiner opened the list, and held up his hand for silence. The men were still groaning as he read out the first name on the list: