Boarding schools -- England -- Fiction; Boys -- Fiction; Schools -- Fiction; Social classes -- England -- Fiction
Then there was that pocketful of small silver and stray gold. Two pounds
eighteen and sixpence, he ought to make it; and he did. The amount was
not the only point about the money that he recalled in lurid flashes as
he counted it all out upon the dressing-table. He took an envelope from
the stationery case on another table, swept all the coins in and stuck
it up with care. He even wrote the amount outside, then dropped the
jingling packet into a drawer. Soon after this he got to bed in the
superfine sheets dedicated to guests; of course his own sheets would not
have stretched across this great bedstead; and yet these reminded every
inch of him where he was, every hour of the night.
He heard them all struck by the old blue monkey of a church clock. It
was the first time he had heard it like this since his removal from the
little front dormitory, his first year in the Eleven. It was strange to
be sleeping over the street again, listening to all its old noises ...
listening ... listening again ... at last listening to the old harsh
bell!
That was the worst noise of all; for he must have been asleep, in spite
of everything; he only really woke up standing on the soft, spacious,
unfamiliar floor. The spare bedroom was full of summer sunshine. The
fine weather had come to stay. They would get a fast wicket over at
Repton, and Goose would have to win the toss.
Goose!
Meanwhile it was only Sunday, and Jan knew the habits of his house on
Sunday morning; now was his chance of the bath. Bathrooms were not as
plentiful then as now; there was only one between both sides of the
house, of course not counting the shower off the lavatory. That,
however, was now out of bounds; the bathroom was not, and Jan got to it
first, bolted both doors and looked out into the quad while the bath was
filling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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