the important sixth of october—important to the helstonleigh college boys—did not rise very genially. on the contrary, it rose rather sloppily. a soaking rain was steadily descending, and the streets presented a continuous scene of puddles. the boys dashed through it without umbrellas (i never saw one of them carry an umbrella in my life, and don’t believe the phenomenon ever was seen), their clean surplices on their arms; on their way to attend ten-o’clock morning prayers in the cathedral. the day was a holiday from school, but not from morning service.
the college bell was beginning to ring out as they entered the schoolroom. standing in the senior’s place, and calling over the roll, was tom channing, the acting senior for a few brief hours. since gaunt’s departure, the previous day, tom channing had been head of the school; it lay in the custom of the school for him so to be. would his place be confirmed? or would he lose it? tom looked flurried with suspense. it was not so much being appointed senior that he thought of, as the disgrace, the humiliation that would be his portion, were he deposed from it. he knew that he deserved the position; that it was his by right; he stood first on the rolls, and he had done nothing whatever to forfeit it. he was the school’s best scholar; and—if he was not always a perfect model for conduct—there was this much to be said in his favour, that none of them could boast of being better.
the opinion of the school had been veering round for the last few days in favour of tom. i do not mean that he, personally, was in better odour with it—not at all, the snow-ball, touching arthur, had gathered strength in rolling—but in favour of his chances of the seniorship. not a breath of intimation had the head-master given; except that, one day, in complaining to gaunt of the neglect of a point of discipline in the school, which point was entirely under the control of the senior boy, he had turned to tom, and said, “remember, channing, it must be observed for the future.”
tom’s heart leaped within him as he heard it, and the boys looked inquiringly at the master. but the master’s head was then buried in the deep drawer of his desk, hunting for a lost paper. unless he had spoken it in forgetfulness—which was not improbable—there could be no doubt that he looked upon tom as gaunt’s successor. the school so interpreted it, and chose to become, amongst themselves, sullenly rebellious. as to tom, who was nearly as sanguine in temperament as hamish, his hopes and his spirits went up to fever heat.—
one of the last to tear through the street, splashing his jacket, and splashing his surplice, was harry huntley. he, like all the rest, took care to be in time that morning. there would have been no necessity for his racing, however, had he not lingered at home, talking. he was running down from his room, whither he had gone again after breakfast, to give the finishing brush to his hair (i can tell you that some of those college gentlemen were dandies), when mr. huntley’s voice was heard, calling him into the breakfast-room.
“harry,” said he, “i don’t think that i need enjoin you not to suffer your manner to show triumph towards tom channing, should you be promoted over him to-day.”
“i shan’t be, papa. channing will have the seniorship.”
“how do you know that?”
“oh, from something pye let drop. we look upon it that channing is as good as senior.”
mr. huntley remembered the tenor of the private conversation the master had held with him, and believed his son would find himself mistaken, and that he, harry, would be made senior. that it would be gerald yorke, mr. huntley did not believe. “at any rate, harry, take heed to what i say,” he resumed. “be very considerate and courteous towards your friend channing, if you should obtain it. do not let me have to blush for my son’s ill feeling.”
there was a tone in mr. huntley’s voice which, to harry’s ears, seemed to intimate that he did not speak without reason. “papa, it would not be fair for me to go up over channing,” he impulsively said.
“no. comparing your merits together, channing is the better man of the two.”
harry laughed. “he is not worse, at all events. why are you saying this, papa?”
“because i fancy that you are more likely to be successful than tom channing. i wish i may be mistaken. i would rather he had it; for, personally, he had done nothing to forfeit it.”
“if harry could accept the seniorship and displace tom channing, i would not care to call him my brother again,” interrupted ellen huntley, with a flashing eye.
“it is not that, ellen; you girls don’t understand things,” retorted harry. “if pye displaces tom from the scholarship, he does not do it to exalt me; he does it because he won’t have him at any price. were i to turn round like a chivalrous knight templar and say i’d not take it, out of regard to my friend tom, where would be the good? yorke would get hoisted over me, and i should be laughed at for a duffer. but i’ll do as you like, papa,” he added, turning to mr. huntley. “if you wish me not to take the honour, i’ll resign it in favour of yorke. i never expected it to be mine, so it will be no disappointment; i always thought we should have channing.”
“your refusing it would do no good to channing,” said mr. huntley. “and i should have grumbled at you, harry, had you suffered yorke to slip over your head. every one in his own right. all i repeat to you, my boy, is, behave as you ought to tom channing. possibly i may pay the college school a visit this morning.”
harry opened his eyes to their utmost width.
“you, papa! whatever for?”
“that is my business,” laughed mr. huntley. “it wants only twenty minutes to ten, harry.”
harry, at the hint, bounded into the hall. he caught up his clean surplice, placed there ready for him, and stuck his trencher on his head, when he was detained by ellen.
“harry, boy, it’s a crying wrong against tom channing. hamish never did it—”
“hamish” interrupted harry, with a broad grin. “a sign who you are thinking of, mademoiselle.”
mademoiselle turned scarlet. “you know i meant to say arthur, stupid boy! it’s a crying wrong, harry, upon tom channing. looking at it in the worst light, he has been guilty of nothing to forfeit his right. if you can help him to the seniorship instead of supplanting him, be a brave boy, and do it. god sees all things.”
“i shall be late, as sure as a gun!” impatiently returned harry. and away he sped through the rain and mud, never slackening speed till he was in the college schoolroom.
he hung up his trencher, flung his surplice on to a bench, and went straight up, with outstretched hand, to tom channing, who stood as senior, unfolding the roll. “good luck to you, old fellow!” cried he, in a clear voice, that rang through the spacious room. “i hope, with all my heart, that you’ll be in this post for many a day.”
“thank you, huntley,” responded tom. and he proceeded to call over the roll, though his cheek burnt at sundry hisses that came, in subdued tones, from various parts of the room.
every boy was present. not a king’s scholar but answered to his name; and tom signed the roll for the first time. “channing, acting senior.” not “channing, senior,” yet. it was a whim of mr. pye’s that on sundays and saints’ day—that is, whenever the king’s scholars had to attend service—the senior boy should sign the roll.
they then put on their surplices; and rather damp surplices some of them were. the boys most of them disdained bags; let the weather be what it might, the surplices, like themselves, went openly through it. ready in their surplices and trenchers, tom channing gave the word of command, and they were on the point of filing out, when a freak took pierce senior to leave his proper place in the ranks, and walk by the side of brittle.
“halt!” said channing. “pierce senior, take your place.”
“i shan’t,” returned pierce. “who is to compel me?” he added with a mocking laugh. “we are without a senior for once.”
“i will,” thundered tom, his face turning white at the implied sneer, the incipient disobedience. “i stand here as the school’s senior now, whatever i may do later, and i will be obeyed. return to your proper place.”
there was that in tom’s eye, in tom’s tone, that somehow over-awed mr. pierce; and he walked sheepishly to his own place. there was no mistaking that channing would make a firm senior. the boys proceeded, two and two, decorously through the cloisters, snatching off their trenchers as they entered the college gates. tom and huntley walked last, tom bearing the keys. the choir gained, the two branched off right and left, huntley placing himself at the head of the boys on the left, or cantori side; tom, assuming his place as acting senior, on the decani. when they should sit next in that cathedral would their posts be reversed?
the dean was present: also three canons—dr. burrows, who was subdean, dr. gardner, and mr. mence. the head-master chanted, and in the stall next to him sat gaunt. gaunt had discarded his surplice with his schoolboy life; but curiosity with regard to the seniorship brought him amongst them again that day. “i hope you’ll keep the place, channing,” he whispered to him, as he passed the boys to get to his stall. arthur channing was at his place at the organ.
ere eleven o’clock struck, service was over, and the boys marched back again. not to the schoolroom—into the chapter-house. the examination, which took place once in three years, was there held. it was conducted quite in a formal manner; mr. galloway, as chapter clerk, being present, to call over the roll. the dean, the three prebendaries who had been at service, the head and other masters of the school, all stood together in the chapter-house; and the king’s scholars wearing their surplices still, were ranged in a circle before them.
the dean took the examination. dr. burrows asked a question now and then, but the dean chiefly took it. there is neither space nor time to follow it in detail here: and no one would care to read it, if it were given. as a whole, the school acquitted itself well, doing credit to its masters. one of the chapter—it was dr. gardner, and the only word he spoke throughout—remarked that the head boy was a sound scholar, meaning tom channing.
the business over, the dean’s words of commendation spoken, then the head-master took a step forward and cleared his throat. he addressed himself to the boys exclusively; for, what he had to say, had reference to them and himself alone: it was supposed not to concern the clergy. as to the boys, those who were of an excitable temperament, looked quite pale with suspense, now the long-expected moment was come. channing? huntley? yorke?—which of the three would it be?
“the praise bestowed upon you, gentlemen, by the dean and chapter has been, if possible, more gratifying to myself than to you. it would be superfluous in me to add a word to the admonition given you by the very reverend the dean, as to your future conduct and scholarly improvement. i can only hope, with him, that they may continue to be such as to afford satisfaction to myself, and to those gentlemen who are associated with me as masters in the collegiate school.”
a pause and a dead silence. the head-master cleared his throat again, and went on.
“the retirement of william gaunt from the school, renders the seniorship vacant. i am sorry that circumstances, to which i will not more particularly allude, prevent my bestowing it upon the boy whose name stands first upon the rolls, thomas ingram channing. i regret this the more, that it is not from any personal fault of channing’s that he is passed over; and this fact i beg may be most distinctly understood. next to channing’s name stands that of henry huntley, and to him i award the seniorship. henry huntley, you are appointed senior of helstonleigh collegiate school. take your place.”
the dead silence was succeeded by a buzz, a murmur, suppressed almost as soon as heard. tom channing’s face turned scarlet, then became deadly white. it was a cruel blow. huntley, with an impetuous step, advanced a few paces, and spoke up bravely, addressing the master.
“i thank you, sir, for the honour you have conferred upon me, but i have no right to it, either by claim or merit. i feel that it is but usurping the place of channing. can’t you give it to him, please sir, instead of to me?”
the speech, begun formally and grandly enough for a royal president at a public dinner, and ending in its schoolboy fashion, drew a smile from more than one present. “no,” was all the answer vouchsafed by mr. pye, but it was spoken with unmistakable emphasis, and he pointed his finger authoritatively to the place already vacated by tom channing. huntley bowed, and took it; and the next thing seen by the boys was mr. galloway altering the roll. he transposed the names of channing and huntley.
the boys, bowing to the clergy, filed out, and proceeded to the schoolroom, the masters following them. tom channing was very silent. huntley was silent. yorke, feeling mad with everyone, was silent. in short, the whole school was silent. channing delivered the keys of the school to huntley; and mr. pye, with his own hands, took out the roll and made the alteration in the names. for, the roll belonging to the chapter-house was not, as you may have thought, the every-day roll of the schoolroom. “take care what you are about, huntley,” said the master. “a careless senior never finds favour with me.”
“very well, sir,” replied huntley. but he was perfectly conscious, as he spoke, that his chief fault, as senior, would be that of carelessness. and gaunt, who was standing by, and knew it also, telegraphed a significant look to huntley. the other masters went up to huntley, shook hands, and congratulated him, for that was the custom of the school; indeed, it was for that purpose only that the masters had gone into the schoolroom, where they had, that day, no business. gaunt followed suit next, in shaking hands and congratulating, and the school afterwards; gerald yorke doing his part with a bad grace.
“thank you all,” said harry huntley. “but it ought to have been tom channing.” poor tom’s feelings, during all this, may be imagined.
the king’s scholars were slinging their surplices on their arms to depart, for they had full holiday for the remainder of the day, when they were surprised by the entrance of mr. huntley. he went straight up to the head-master, nodding pleasantly to the boys, right and left.
“well, and who is your important senior?” he gaily demanded of the master.
“henry huntley.”
mr. huntley drew in his lips. “for another’s sake i am sorry to hear it. but i can only express my hope that he will do his duty.”
“i have just been telling him so,” observed the master.
“what brings me here, is this, sir,” continued mr. huntley to the master. “knowing there was a doubt, as to which of the three senior boys would be chosen, i wished, should it prove to be my son, to speak a word about the oxford exhibition, which, i believe, generally accompanies the seniorship. it falls due next easter.”
“yes,” said mr. pye.
“then allow me to decline it for my son,” replied mr. huntley. “he will not need it; and therefore should not stand in the light of any other boy. i deemed it well, sir, to state this at once.”
“thank you,” warmly responded the head-master. he knew that it was an unselfish, not to say generous, act.
mr. huntley approached tom channing. he took his hand; he shook it heartily, with every mark of affection and respect. “you must not allow this exaltation of harry to lessen the friendship you and he entertain for each other,” he said, in tones that reached every pair of ears present—and not one but was turned up to listen. “you are more deserving of the place than he, and i am deeply sorry for the circumstances which have caused him to supplant you. never mind, tom; bear on bravely, lad, and you’ll outlive vexation. continue to be worthy of your noble father; continue to be my son’s friend; there is no boy living whom i would so soon he took pattern by, as by you.”
the hot tears rushed into tom’s eyes, and his lip quivered. but that he remembered where he was, he might have lost his self-control. “thank you, sir,” he answered, in a low tone.
“whew!” whistled tod yorke, as they were going out. “a fine friend he is! a thief’s brother.”
“a thief’s brother! a thief’s brother!” was the echo.
“but he’s not our senior. ha! ha! that would have been a good joke! he’s not our senior!”
and down the steps they clattered, and went splashing home, as they had come, they and their surplices, through the wet streets and the rain.
