They shook hands and avoided each other's eyes, and Cardillac had a
sudden desire to fling the Grand Tour and the rest of it to the dogs and
to come back for another year to Dawson's.
“Well, I must get back, got to be in library at four,” he said.
“I'm going to stop here a bit,” said Peter.
He watched Cards walk slowly down the hill and then he flung himself on
his face and pursued with a vacant eye the efforts of an ant to climb a
swaying blade of grass ... he was there for a long time.
III
And so he entered into his third year at Dawson's with a dogged
determination to get through with it as well as possible and not to miss
Cards more than he could help. He did, as an actual fact, miss Cards
terribly. There were so many places, so many things that were connected
with him, but he found, as a kind of reward, that Bobby Galleon was
more of a friend than before. Now that Cards had departed Galleon came
a little out of his shell. He anticipated, obviously with very
considerable enjoyment, that year when he would have Peter all to
himself. Bobby Galleon's virtue was, at any rate, that one was not
conscious of him, and during the time of Peter's popularity he was
useful without being in the very least evident. When that year was
over and he had seen the last shining twinkle of Cards' charms and
fascinations he looked at Peter a little wistfully, “Peter, old man,
next year will be topping....” and Peter, the pleasant warmth of
popularity about him, felt that there was a great deal to be said for
Galleon after all.
* * * * *
But with the first week of that third year trouble began. Things lifted
between the terms, into so different an air; at the end of the summer
with Peter's authority in prospect and his splendid popularity (confined
by no jailer-like insistence on rules) around him that immediate year
seemed simple enough. But in the holidays that preceded the autumn
term something had occurred; Peter returned in the mists and damp of
September with every eye upon him. Although only fifteen and a half he
was a Monitor and Captain of the Football ... far too young for both
these posts, with fellows of a great size and a greater age in the
school, but Barbour (his nose providing, daily, a more lively guide to
his festal evenings) was seized by Peter's silence and imperturbability
in the midst of danger, “That kid's got guts” (this a vinous confidence
amongst friends) “and will pull the place up--gettin' a bit slack, yer
know--Young? Lord bless yer, no--wonderful for his age and Captain of
the Football--that's always popular.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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