“Oh, yes, I know that game,” he said. “I shall tell you her name and then you’ll wish you hadn’t promised and you’ll get frightened, and when the time comes you will have sprained an ankle in a house match and won’t be able to come for a walk. That won’t do at all.”
“But I swear I wouldn’t do that,” Brewster protested. “Really, I wouldn’t.”
“Yes, and I promised that I wasn’t going to tell.”
“But that’s so silly. Suppose now that I was really keen on her. For all you know, or I, for that matter, I may have seen her walking about the town and thought her jolly pretty without knowing who she was.”
“And I’m damned certain you haven’t. You told me that you didn’t take any interest in girls.”
“No, but really, honest, man, I may have seen her. Only this morning as I was going down to Fort’s after breakfast I saw an absolutely ripping girl, and I believe it was me she smiled at. It’s very likely her.”
“Yes, yes, I daresay, but——”
“Oh, come on, do tell me, and I promise you I’ll come and see her; honest, I will.”
But at that moment the roll-bell issued its cracked summons.
“If you don’t run like sin you’ll be late for roll-call, and that’ll finish everything,” Roland said, and Brewster turned and sprinted across the courts.