The Jester of St. Timothys | Page 6

those younger and more ignorant than himself.
It was pleasant, too, to have one mother who was wandering round vaguely with her small son and to whom he shyly proffered assistance, show such appreciation of his courtesy and end by appealing to him to keep always a friendly eye on her little forlorn Walter. As it turned out, Irving never afterwards came much into contact with the boy, who lived in a different building and was not in any of his classes; he asked about him from time to time, and discovered that Walter was a mischievous person, not troubled by homesickness.
But most agreeable and reassuring was it to take charge of the examination-room, where the new boys were undergoing the tests of their scholarship. Most of them were candidates for the Second, Third, and Fourth Forms, and their ages ranged from twelve to fifteen; Irving sat at a desk on the platform and surveyed them while they worked, or tiptoed down the aisle in response to an appeal from some uplifted hand.
He had come so recently from examination-rooms where he had been one of the pupils that this experience exhilarated him; it conferred upon him an authority that he enjoyed. He liked to be addressed by these nice-mannered young boys as "sir," and to be recognized by them so unquestioningly as a person to whom deference must be shown. Altogether this first day with the new boys inspired him with confidence, and at the end of it he attacked the pile of examination books enthusiastically.
Mr. Barclay aided him in that task; Mr. Barclay was a young master also, comparatively, though he had had several years' experience. Irving was attracted to him at once, and was grateful for the way in which he made suggestions when there was some uncertainty as to how a boy should be graded.
Irving liked, too, the genial chuckle which preceded an invitation to inspect some candidate's egregious blunder; Irving would read and smile quietly, unaware that Barclay was watching him and wondering how appreciative he might be of the ludicrous.
Two nights Irving spent all alone in the Sixth Form dormitory; it amused him to walk up and down the corridors with the list of those to whom rooms there had been assigned. "Collingwood, Westby, Scarborough, Morrill, Anderson, Baldersnaith, Hill"--some of them had occupied these rooms as Fifth Formers, and Irving had asked Mr. Barclay about them.
Louis Collingwood was captain of the school football team; Scarborough was captain of the school crew.
"Neither of them will give you any trouble," said Barclay. "Scarborough used to be a cub, but he has developed very much in the last year or two, and now he and Collingwood are the best-liked fellows in the school. They have a proper sense of their responsibility as leaders of the school, and are more likely to help you than to make trouble. Morrill is their faithful follower, though a little harum-scarum at times. Westby--" the master hesitated over that name and looked at Irving with a measuring glance--"Westby is what you might call the school jester. He's very popular with the boys--not equally so with all the masters. Personally I'm rather fond of him. He's almost too quick-witted sometimes."
That evening Barclay took the new master home to dine with him. Mrs. Barclay was as cordial and as kind as her husband; Irving began to feel more than satisfied with his surroundings.
"Pity you're not married, Upton," Barclay said, half jokingly. "You'd escape keeping dormitory if you were--which you'll find the meanest of all possible jobs. And then if your wife's the right kind--the boys have to be pretty decent to you in order to keep on her good side."
Mrs. Barclay laughed. "I suppose that's the only reason they're pretty decent to you, William!--You'll find it easy, Mr. Upton,--for the reason that they're a pretty decent lot of boys."
The next day at noon the old boys began to arrive. Irving was coming out of the auditorium, where he had been correcting the last set of examination papers, when a barge drew up before the study building and boys clutching hand-bags tumbled out and hurried into the building to greet the rector.
Irving stood for a few moments looking on with interest: other barges kept coming over the hill, interspersed with carriages, in which a few arrived more magnificently.
It occurred to Irving that perhaps he had better hasten to his dormitory in order to be on hand when his charges should begin to appear; he was just starting away when three boys arm in arm rushed out of the study building. They came prancing up to him, all smiles and twinkles; they were boys of seventeen or eighteen. They confronted him, blocking his path; and the one in the middle, a slim, straight fellow in a blue suit,