Friends and Foes.
“He who hath a thousand friends hath not one friend to spare,
And he who hath one enemy shall meet him everywhere.”
Already Walter had got someone to talk to, someone he knew; for in spite of Kenrick’s repudiation of Henderson’s jest, he felt already that he had discovered a boy with whom he should soon be friends. It doesn’t matter how he had discovered it; it was by animal magnetism; it was by some look in Kenrick’s eyes; it was his light-heartedness; it was by the mingled fire and refinement of his face which spoke of a wilful and impetuous, yet also of a generous and noble nature. Already he felt a sense of ease and pleasure in the certainty that Kenrick—evidently no cipher among his schoolfellows—was inclined to like him, and to show him the ways of the school.
They went into a large hall, where the four hundred had their meals. They sat at a number of tables arranged breadth-wise across the hall; twenty or thirty sat at each table, and either a master or a monitor (as the sixteen upper boys were called) took his place at the head of it.
“Now, mind you don’t begin to smoke,” said Henderson, as Walter went in, and found most of the boys already seated.
“Smoke?” said Walter, taking it for a bit of good advice; “do fellows smoke in Hall? I never have smoked.”
“Why, you’re smoking now,” said Henderson, as Walter, entering among the crowd of strange faces and meeting so many pairs of eyes, began to blush a little.
“Don’t teaze him, Flip,” said Kenrick. “Smoking is the name fellows give to blushing, Evson; and if they see you given to blushing, they’ll stare at you for the fun of seeing the colour mount up in your cheeks.”
Accordingly, as he sat down, he saw that numerous eyes were turned upon him and upon Tracy, who happened to sit at the same table. Tracy, unaccustomed to such very narrow scrutiny, blushed all over; and, as he in vain looked up and down, this way and that, his cheeks grew hotter and hotter, and he moved about in the most uneasy way, to the great amusement of his many tormentors, until at last his eyes subsided finally into his teacup, from which he did not again venture to raise them until tea was over. But Walter was at once up to the trick, and felt thoroughly obliged to Henderson and Kenrick for telling him of it. So he waited till he saw that a good dozen fellows were all intently staring at him; and then, looking up very simply and naturally, he met the gaze of two or three of them steadily in succession, and stared them out of countenance with a quiet smile. This turned the laugh against them; and he heard the remark that he was “up to snuff, and no mistake.” No one ever tried to make Walter smoke again, but for some time it used to be a regular joke to pass round word at tea-time, “Let’s make Tracy smoke,” and as Tracy always did smoke till he got thoroughly used to it, he was generally glad when tea-time was over.
In spite of Henderson, who poked fun at them all tea-time (till he saw that he really embarrassed them, and then he desisted), Kenrick sat by Walter, and took him more or less under his protection; for an “old boy” can always patronise a newcomer at first, even if they are of the same age.