“Oh,” said Railsford, who had heard rumours of this feud already; “how are we interfered with?”
“Oh, every way,” replied Ainger; “but we needn’t trouble you about that, sir. We can take care of ourselves.”
“But I should certainly wish to have any difficulty put right,” said the new master, “especially if it interferes with the discipline of the house.”
“It will never be right as long as Mr Bickers stays at Grandcourt,” blurted Stafford; “he has a spite against everyone of our fellows.”
“You forget you are talking of a colleague of mine, Stafford,” said Railsford, whom a sense of duty compelled to stand up even for a master whom he felt to be an enemy. “I can’t suppose one master would willingly do anything to injure the house of another.”
Ainger smiled in a manner which offended Railsford considerably.
“I am sorry to find,” he said, rather more severely, “that my head boys, who ought to aim at the good of their house, are parties to a feud which, I am sure, can do nobody any good. I must say I had hoped better things.”
Ainger looked up quickly. “I am quite willing to resign the captaincy, sir, if you wish it.”
“By no means,” said Railsford, a little alarmed at the length to which his protest had carried him, and becoming more conciliatory. “All I request is that you will do your best to heal the feud, so that we may have no obstacle in the way of the order of our own house. You may depend on me to co-operate in whatever tends in that direction, and I look to you to take the lead in bringing the house up to the mark and keeping it there.”
At this particular juncture further conference was entirely suspended by a most alarming and fiendish disturbance in the room above.