“Why, he came up to me ... and held out his hand ... and then he said: ‘Circumstances have arisen which make you very welcome. Come and have a chat in my study.’ That’s how it was.”
The following day Roe appeared in school with the colours tie of the Harley First Fifteen knotted around his neck, and the result was immediately evident. Rouse and Smythe, the only two in the school who were entitled to wear that tie without the formality of winning it back for the coming season, were forthwith to be noted wearing the neat black tie of Harley’s mourning.
CHAPTER XIII
SOMETHING UP HIS SLEEVE
One week later that bubbling effervescence which had been the outward and visible sign of the school’s unrest had very largely subsided.
Harleyans were once more going in dignity about their ways.
At morning prayers those who knew best the temper of the school looked out over the sea of faces, all of which seemed calmly set as if in resignation.
It was true that there had been a couple of friendly matches between houses, but real enthusiasm was lacking. There was over all that hard fact that however well a fellow played he could not win his colours. There were not going to be any colours. This hit the rising and ambitious youngsters badly.
Roe himself had kept discreetly quiet.
The Head had made no further mention of the matter, except to cause it to be known that his own son was Harley’s official Rugger captain.