But if Ralph was unmoved, his companions in the Fourth were not, and Warren said, almost entreatingly, as he caught hold of Ralph's arm—
"Look here, Rexworth, you must fight him after that! It is no good talking, you must fight him!"
A statement which was received with approval by all the others there.
"Well," said Ralph, "if I must, I must. I don't want to, though."
"But for the honour of the class you must, or we shall never hear the last of it from them. You will meet him where he said?"
"Not I!" laughed Ralph. "If I must fight, I must; but I am not going to be ordered about by him; and I am not going to do anything which makes it look as though I were a party to the fight. If he wants me, he must come and find me, as he threatened to do. There, we will say no more about it now."
"He will do it all right," reflected Warren. "Elgert will find that he has gone a trifle too far."
The afternoon passed away in study, and whatever any of the others may have felt of anxiety or interest in the likelihood of the fight, certainly Ralph did not let it trouble him. He was engaged with some sums which worried him a trifle, and when once one of his neighbours whispered to him in reference to the combat, Ralph glared at him, and requested him to be quiet in a manner which there was no gainsaying. One thing at a time with Ralph.
But when the work of the day was finally over, he strolled calmly into the playground, calling to Charlton to accompany him. Charlton, who looked so terribly anxious, realized that Ralph must fight, and yet dreaded the issue, for Elgert was no mean foe. Charlton, who, in self-reproach, thought that it was all his fault—that it was only because Ralph had stood up for him concerning the study.
"I say, Charlton, I want you just to show me how to get on with cricket," Ralph said. "Every one seems to play; but I cannot make anything out of it, except that you have to hit the ball, and run if you can."