It was very pleasant and warm inside the study and damnably unpleasant anywhere else. If only he were a prefect, and had a fag, how simple his life would become. His shoes would be cleaned for him, his shaving water would be boiled in the morning, his books would be carried down to his classroom, and on this rain-drenched afternoon he would only have to put his head outside the study door and yell “Fag!” and it would be settled. But he was not a prefect, and he had no fag. It was no use growling about it. He would have to go, of course he would have to go, then added as a corollary--yes, certainly, at three o’clock. By that time the weather might have cleared up.
But it had not cleared up by three o’clock, and Roland had become hopelessly intrigued by a novel by Wilkie Collins, called _The Moonstone_. He had just reached the place where Sergeant Cuff looks up at Rachel’s window and whistles _The Last Rose of Summer_. He could not desert Sergeant Cuff at such a point for a pair of football boots, and at three o’clock, with the whole afternoon before him. At half-past there would be tons of time. But by half-past three it was raining in the true Fernhurst manner, fierce, driving rain that whipped across the courts, heavy gusts of wind that shrieked down the cloisters. Impossible weather, absolutely impossible weather. No one but a fool would go out in it. He would wait till four, it was certain to have stopped a bit by then.
And by four o’clock it certainly was raining a good deal less, but by four o’clock some eight persons had assembled in the study and a most exciting discussion was in progress. Someone from Morgan’s had started a rumor to the effect that Fitzgerald, the vice-captain of the XV., was going to be dropped out of the side for the Tonwich match and his place given to Feversham, a reserve center from James’s. It was a startling piece of news that had to be discussed from every point of view.
First of all, would the side be improved? A doubtful matter. Fitzgerald had certainly been out of form this season, and he had played miserably in the last two matches, but he had experience; he would not be likely to lose his head in a big game, and Feversham, well, it would be his first school match. Altogether a doubtful issue, and, granted even that Feversham was better than Fitzgerald, would it be worth while in the long run to leave out the vice-captain and head of Buxton’s? Would it be doing a good service to Fernhurst football? Buxton’s was the athletic house; it had six school colors. The prestige of Fernhurst depended a good deal on the prestige of Buxton’s. Surely the prestige of Buxton’s was more important than a problematic improvement in the three-quarter line.