It was a desperately hot day. There had been no day like it all the
summer. Indeed, Squires, the head gardener at Garden Vale, positively
asserted that there had been none like it since he had been employed on
the place, which was fourteen years last March. Squires, by the way,
never lost an opportunity of reminding himself and the world generally
of the length of his services to the family at Garden Vale; and on the
strength of those fourteen years he gave himself airs as if the place
belonged not to Mr Cruden at all, but to himself. He was the terror of
his mistress, who scarcely dared to peep into a greenhouse without his
leave, and although he could never exactly obtain from the two young
gentlemen the respect to which he considered himself entitled, he still
flattered himself in secret "they couldn't do exactly what they liked
with his garden!"
To-day, however, it was so hot that even Squires, after having expressed
the opinion on the weather above mentioned, withdrew himself into the
coolest recess of his snug lodge and slept sweetly, leaving the young
gentlemen, had they been so minded, to take any liberty they liked with
"his" garden.
The young gentlemen, however, were not so minded.
They had been doing their best to play lawn tennis in the blazing sun
with two of their friends, but it was too hot to run, too hot to hit,
and far too hot to score, so the attempt had died away, and three of
them now reclined on the sloping bank under the laurel hedge, dividing
their time between lazily gazing up at the dark-blue sky and watching
the proceedings of the fourth of their party, who still remained in the
courts.
This last-mentioned youth, who, to judge by his countenance, was brother
to one of those who lolled on the bank, presented a curious contrast to
the general languor of the afternoon. Deserted by his companions in the
sport, he was relieving himself of some of his superfluous energy by the
novel diversion of playing tennis with himself. This he accomplished by
serving the ball high up in the air and then jumping the net, so as to
take it on the other side, following up his return by another leap over
the net, and so on till either he or the ball came to grief. On an
ordinary day the exertion involved in this pastime would be quite enough
for any ordinary individual, but on a day like the present, with the
thermometer at ninety in the shade, it was a trifle too much even to
watch.
"For goodness' sake shut up, Horrors," said the elder brother. "We
might as well be playing ourselves as watch you at that sort of thing."
The young gentleman addressed as Horrors was at that moment in the midst
of one of his aerial flights, and had neither leisure nor breath to
answer.
"Do you hear?" repeated the other. "If you want to keep warm, go
indoors and put on a great-coat, but don't fag us to death with that
foolery."
"Eight!" exclaimed the young athlete, scoring the number of times the
ball had crossed the net, and starting for another jump. "Shut up, Reg,
till I've done."
He soon was done. Even Horace Cruden could not keep it up for ever, and
at his tenth bound his foot caught in the net, and he came all fours on
to the court.
"There, now you're happy!" said his brother. "Now you may as well come
and sit here out of the cold."
Horace picked himself up, laughing.
"All very well," said he. "I'm certain I should have done it twelve
times if you hadn't put me off my jump. Never mind, I'll do it yet."
"Oh, Horace," interposed one of the others, beseechingly, "if you love
us, lie down now. I'm quite ill watching you, I assure you. We'll all
vow we saw you do it twelve times; we'll put it in the _Times_ if you
like, and say the net was five feet ten; anything, as long as you don't
start at it again."
This appeal had the effect of reducing the volatile Horace to a state of
quiescence, and inducing him to come and share the shade with his
companions.
"Never saw such a lazy lot," said he, lying flat on his back and
balancing his racquet on his finger; "you won't do anything yourselves
and you won't let any one else do anything. Regular dogs in the
manger."
"My dear fellow," said the fourth of the party in a half drawl, "we've
been doing nothing but invite you in to the manger for the last hour,
and you wouldn't come. Can't you take a holiday while we've got one?"
"Bad luck to it," said Reginald; "there's only a week more."
"I don't see why you need growl, old man," said the visitor who had
spoken first; "you'll get into the sixth and have a study to yourself,
and no mathematics unless you like."
"Poor Harker," said Horace, "he's always down on mathematics. Anyhow, I
shan't be sorry to show up at Wilderham again, shall you, Bland?"
"Depends on the set we get," drawled Bland (whose full name was
Blandford). "I hear there's a crowd of new fellows coming, and I hate
new fellows."
"A fellow must be new some time or other," said Horace. "Harker and I
were new boys once, weren't we, Harker?"
Harker, who had shared the distinction of being tossed with Horace in
the same blanket every night for the first week of his sojourn at
Wilderham, had not forgotten the fact, and ejaculated,--
"Rather!"
"The mischief is," continued Blandford, "they get such a shady lot of
fellows there now. The school's not half as respectable as it was--
there are far too many shopkeepers' sons and that sort of--"
"Sort of animal, he'd like to say," laughed Horace. "Bland can't get
over being beaten for the French prize by Barber, the tailor's son."
Blandford flushed up, and was going to answer when Reginald interposed.
"Well, and suppose he can't, it's no wonder. I don't see why those
fellows shouldn't have a school for themselves. It's not pleasant to
have the fellow who cuts your waistcoat crowing over you in class."
Horace began to whistle, as he generally did when the conversation took
a turn that did not please him.
"Best way to remedy that," said he, presently, "is not to get beaten by
your tailor's son."
"Shut up, Horace," said the elder brother; "what's the use of making
yourself disagreeable? Bland's quite right, and you know you think so
yourself."
"Oh, all serene," said Horace, cheerfully; "shouldn't have known I
thought so unless you had told me. What do you think, Harker?"
"Well," said Harker, laughing, "as I am disreputable enough to be the
only son of a widow who has barely enough to live on, and who depends on
the charity of a cousin or some one of the sort for my education, I'm
afraid Bland and I would have to go to different schools."