“Thanks, yes, they were really very decent to me. Where I made my mistake, Cathcart, was in not coming up the other stairway.” Hugh smiled. “You wouldn’t have heard me then, I fancy.”
“I don’t think I would,” agreed the other. “I—I wish you had. Someone said you got shut up in the gym, I believe?”
“In School Hall.” Hugh narrated his adventures on Thursday evening.
“But if you had shouted out the window someone would surely have heard you,” said Cathcart.
“Yes, but I didn’t want to give those lower middle beggars the satisfaction, if you know what I mean. And I rather funked having it get around that I’d been such a silly ass, too! I say, I’m keeping you from work, eh?”
“No, you’re not, really. Push those books aside and make yourself comfortable. I wish you’d tell me whether Bert has it in for me, Ordway.”
“Oh, I don’t think so! He was a bit crumby that night, but he soon gets over it.”
“I hope so. I like Bert. I suppose I’ll have to make up my mind to getting a few of the fellows down on me before the year’s over. Bound to, I guess. It’s hard to make them realize that it’s my duty to report things. They don’t think anything about it if it’s one of the masters, but they resent it if it’s a proctor. How do you like the school, Ordway? I suppose it’s different from your schools in England.”
“I fancy so. I never went to an English school, though; never went to any school before I came here. Of course I’ve heard lots about the English schools; I know quite a few chaps at Rugby and Charterhouse and Winchester; and I rather fancy we’re a bit different here. But I like it very much. Fact is, Cathcart, I was in a regular blue funk about coming here. I rather thought the chaps would rag me a lot, you know, but they haven’t. Nick Blake does, but I don’t mind Nick a bit. Of course, I am different, I fancy; rather stupid about a lot of things; and I’m only just beginning to understand that you chaps don’t mean more than about half you say. It puzzled me a lot at first, you know. You have a way of poking fun at things, if you know what I mean, that sounds odd until you understand that it is fun. I didn’t; not at first. I’m learning, though.”
“I suppose we are different,” acknowledged Cathcart, “in some ways. Sometimes I think we don’t take things seriously enough, Ordway, we fellows here at Grafton. Not that Grafton is much different from other preparatory schools, though.”