David thought he had never seen so pleasant a room, nor one which less suggested “school” as he had known it. The windows looked out on to a big lawn, in the centre of which two boys and a tall, black-haired girl, whom he conjectured to be Adams’s daughter, were playing croquet. Round the edge were cut five or six golf-holes where other boys were putting, slightly to the derangement of geranium beds, and half a dozen more were sitting in the shade of lime-trees reading and talking. Here inside, two occupied the sofa, and, as David waited for Ted to be construed to, another tall fellow strolled in and lay down on the hearthrug with an illustrated paper. The walls were lined with low bookshelves, on the top of which were strewn cricket-balls, books, and straw hats, while on the table in the centre was a litter of papers, and in the middle a great bowl of roses. Honeysuckle trailed trumpeted sprays over the spaces of open window, and the dark-stained floor was bright with Persian rugs. The construing was soon over, and Adams gave the book back to one of the boys. Then he who had lain down on the hearthrug looked up from the paper. “Sir, Jessop’s coming down,” he said. Adams got up from his chair. “Then get him out at once with the very fastest ball ever bowled, Crookles,” he said. Some one from the sofa joined in. “Oh, don’t be too hard on him, Crookles,” he said. “Let him hit you over the pavilion a bit first.” David’s eyes took on their most reverential roundness. Without doubt this must be Cruikshank, the fastest bowler the school had ever had. And yet he had a casual private life of his own, and was called Crookles. “And here’s Blaize come down on purpose to see it all,” said Adams, “and incidentally to get a scholarship—eh, David?” Horrors! The Christian name again! But nobody appeared to think it the least ridiculous, any more than that Ted, who was climbing out of the window, should be known as Ted. Adams looked rather unfavourably at one of the two boys on the sofa. “Ozzy, go and wash your hands at once,” he said. “I won’t have fellows in here with dirty paws.” “Sir, mayn’t I just finish——” began Ozzy. “No: finish when you’re clean. Come out into the garden, David. How’s your father? Topknot met you at the station, didn’t he, and you’re going to have tea with him. We might find some strawberries.” * * * * *