The Jester of St. Timothys | Page 7

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,
said,--

"Hello, new kid! What name?"
A blush of embarrassment mounted in Irving's cheeks; feeling it, he
conceived it all the more advisable to assert his dignity. So he said
without a smile, in a constrained voice,--
"I am not a new kid. I am a master."
The three boys who had been beaming on him with good humor in their
eyes stared blankly. Then the one in the middle, with a sudden whoop
of laughter, swung the two others round and led them off at a run; and
as they went, their delighted laughter floated back to Irving's ears.
His cheeks were tingling, almost as if they had been slapped. He
followed the boys at a distance; they moved towards the Upper School.
His heart sank; what if they were in his dormitory?
He entered the building just as the last of the three was going up the
Sixth Form dormitory stairs.
CHAPTER II
HE ACHIEVES A NAME FOR HIMSELF
At the foot of the staircase Irving hesitated until the sound of the voices
and footsteps had ceased. The three boys had not seen him when he had
entered; he was wondering whether he had better be courageous, go
right up after them, and introduce himself,--just as if they had not
caught him off his guard and put him into a ridiculous position,--or
delay a little while in the hope that their memory of it would be less
keen.
He decided that he had better be courageous. When he reached the top
floor, he went into his room; he was feeling nervous over the prospect
of confronting his charges, and he wished to be sure that his hair and
his necktie looked right. While he was examining himself in the mirror,
he heard a door open on the corridor and a boy call, "Lou! Did you
know that Mr. Williams won't be back this term?"

Farther down the corridor a voice answered, "No! What's the matter?"
"Typhoid. Mr. Randolph told me."
"Who's taken his place?" It was another voice that asked this question.
"A new man--named Upton. I haven't laid eyes on him yet."
"Wouldn't it be a joke--!" The speaker paused to laugh. "Suppose it
should turn out to be the new kid!"
"'I am not a new kid; I am a master.'"
The mimicry was so accurate that Irving winced and then flushed to the
temples. In the laughter that it produced he closed his door quietly and
sat down to think. He couldn't be courageous now; he felt that he could
not step out and face those fellows who were laughing at him. Of
course they were the ones who ought to be embarrassed by his
appearance, not he; but Irving felt they would lend one another support
and brazen it through, and that he would be the one to exhibit weakness.
He decided that he must wait and try to make himself known to each
one of them separately--that only by such a beginning would he be
likely to engage their respect.
It was the first time that he had been brought face to face with his
pitiable diffidence. He was ashamed; he thought of how differently
Lawrence would have met the situation--how much more directly he
would have dealt with it. Irving resolved that hereafter he would not be
afraid of any multitude of boys. But he refrained from making his
presence known in the dormitory that afternoon.
At half past five o'clock he went downstairs to the rooms of Mr.
Randolph, who had charge of the Upper School. Mr. Marcy, the Fifth
Form dormitory master, and Mr. Wythe, the Fourth Form dormitory
master, were also there. They were veterans, comparatively, and it was
to meet them and benefit by what they could tell him that Irving had
been invited. All three congratulated him on his good fortune in
obtaining the Sixth Form dormitory.

"The older they are, the less trouble they are," said Wythe. "My first
year I was over at the