“Well, you see, sir, there was such an awful change in the house when Frank and Cruikshank left at the end of last half. You see, they were proper prefects; they used their authority properly, and it was jolly well necessary to respect it. You couldn’t cheek fellows like them, when they gave orders; it simply couldn’t happen. And it was so frantically different to get little clever squirts like Manton and Crossley in authority instead. They couldn’t keep order a hang; the whole house would have been out of hand in no time. You’ll see that the Court of Appeal was really meant to preserve order. Why, the very fags used to laugh at them. One of them put soap in Manton’s kettle one day, and when it boiled it came bubbling out of the spout like blowing soap-bubbles. You never saw anything so funny. But the Court of Appeal stopped that.” Adams preserved his gravity. “That’s rather a new light,” he said. “Go on, David. You needn’t bring in names if you think you’d better not. But it’s only fair that the Head should know your side of the question, as he has heard Manton’s.” David got red in the face. “Manton’s a bl—— filthy little sneak,” he observed. “Also, I bet he hasn’t told the Head the truth.” “He probably told him the truth, as it struck him,” said Adams. “It strikes you differently. But he didn’t sneak as you think. The Head got his first news about the Court of Appeal from quite another source.” “May I know what source?” asked David. “Yes, I don’t mind telling you, but you must be officially ignorant. Jevons went to breakfast with the Head the other day, and remarked, in an outburst of confidence, that you were far the biggest swell in the house, because you were the President of the Court of Appeal. He said it in all innocence, but the Head was naturally interested to hear more, and applied to—well, to the proper quarter, which was Manton.” David recovered from his spurt of temper. “That funny little Jev probably thought it all quite regular,” he said. “Of course he did; he wouldn’t have given you away on purpose. Go on; we’ve got to the soap in the kettle.” David laughed.