"Thank you; you are the first fellow that ever beat me rowing, and I honor you for it, but I don't understand it. Shall we be friends now, Grant?"
"With all my heart."
Richard could not have been more astonished if the sky had fallen, than he was when his great enemy approached him with words of kindness and conciliation. He could scarcely believe his senses; but there was Nevers by his side, as good-natured as though he had won the race; and more than this, the rival crews were suddenly on the most excellent terms, and were fraternizing like brothers. Nevers had evidently given up the point, and intended to withdraw all opposition to the advancement of Richard.
Nevers and his friends seemed to be sincere, and the hatchet appeared to have been actually buried. Richard was so well treated by them, that he came to the conclusion that the Regulators had been dissolved, or at least that they had turned their attention to some more promising field of labor.
On the first of November, when the boys assembled for morning prayers, the principal announced a new regulation, requiring every member of the Institute to be in-doors during the off time, from seven till nine in the evening. Before, they had been permitted to go where they pleased during these hours, as long as they did not leave the estate. But some of the boys had been seen in the village of Tunbrook after eight in the evening; and all efforts to discover who they were had been unavailing. The prohibition had been made to correct this evil.
When the new regulation was announced, there was a general murmur of disapprobation among the students, for some of their best sport had been enjoyed out of doors, after dark. No one ventured to remonstrate, but the order was exceedingly unpopular.
"I won't stand it," said one and another, during the first recreation hour in the afternoon. "It's too bad; it will spoil all our fun."
"The fellows are all agreed on this point," said Redman.
"I am willing to observe all reasonable regulations, but we might as well go into a monastery as submit to this thing," added Nevers. "What do you say, Grant?"
"I don't like it. We intended to have a first-rate game of foot ball these moonlight evenings."