"He ran the mile for Oxford," continued Carmichael. "Two years he ran it—and won both times. You may not appreciate quite what that means."
And, with a patience foreign to his character as they knew it, Carmichael proceeded to explain.
"But," he added, "that was nothing to his performance last Sunday, in getting here from beyond the boundary in the time he did it in—barefoot! It would have been good enough in shoes. But don't you forget his feet. I can see them—and feel them—still."
"Oh, he's a grand chap," the overseer allowed.
"We never said he wasn't," his ally chimed in.
Carmichael took no notice of a tone which the youth with the putty face had never employed toward him before.
"He was also in his school eleven," continued Carmichael, still in a reflective fashion.
"Was it a public school?" inquired Smart.
"Yes."
"The public school?" added Chaucer.