He became as if suddenly galvanised into attention. "What! Jealous! Jealous!--Of whom?--Of what?--Of you having me to take you home?" Clare shook her head. "Oh, no. Of you having me to take home." He thought a moment and then said: "What, really?--Do you mean to tell me that----" "Yes," she interrupted. "And of course you don't understand it, do you?--Men never understand Helen." "And why don't they?" "Because Helen doesn't like men, and men can never understand that." He rejoined, heavily despondent: "Then I expect she dislikes me venomously enough. For it was I who asked her to play the piano, wasn't it?" "She wouldn't dislike you any more for that," replied Clare. "But let's not discuss her. I hate gossiping about my friends." They chattered intermittently and inconsequently about books after that, and at the corner of High Street she insisted on his leaving her and proceeding to the general post-office by the shortest route. CHAPTER TWO I In the morning he was awakened by Hartopp the School House porter ringing his noisy hand-bell through the dormitories. He looked at his watch; it was half-past six. There was no need for him to think of getting up yet; he had no early morning form, and so could laze for another hour if he so desired. But it was quite impossible to go to sleep again because his mind, once he became awake, began turning over the incidents of the day before and anticipating those of the day to come. He lay in bed thinking and excogitating, listening to the slow beginnings of commotion in the dormitories, and watching bars of yellow sunshine creeping up the bed towards his face. At half-past seven Hartopp tapped at the door and brought in his correspondence. There was a letter from home and a note, signed by the Head, giving him his work time-table. He consulted it immediately and discovered that he was put down for two forms that morning; four _alpha_ in drawing and five _gamma_ in general supervision. His letter from home, headed "Beachings Over, near Framlingay, Essex. Tel. Framlingay 32. Stations: Framlingay 2½ miles; Pumphrey Bassett 3 miles," ran as follows: