"And Stafford?"
"I am, sir."
"And Felgate?"
"I am, sir."
That was all over. The master smiled. The boys looked grave.
"Won"t you sit down?" said the former, drawing his own chair up to the hearth and poking the fire.
Ainger and Felgate dropped into two seats, and Stafford, after a short excursion to a distant corner, deposited himself on another.
Barnworth--there being no more chairs in the room--sat as gracefully as he could on the corner of the table.
"I thought it would be well," began Railsford, still dallying with the poker--"won"t you bring your chair in nearer, Stafford?"
Stafford manoeuvred his chair in between Ainger and Felgate.
"I thought it would not be a bad thing--haven"t you a chair, Barnworth?
dear me! I"ll get one out of the bedroom!"
And in his flurry he went off, poker in hand, to the cubicle.
"What a day we"re having!" murmured Barnworth.
Stafford giggled just as Railsford re-entered. It was awkward, and gave the new master a very unfavourable impression of the most harmless boy in his house.
"Now," said he, beginning on a new tack, "I am anxious to hear from you something about the state of the house. You"re my police, you know," he added with a friendly smile.
Stafford was the only one who smiled in response, and then ensued a dead silence.
"What do you think, Ainger? Do things seem pretty right?"
"Yes," said Ainger laconically.
"Have you noticed anything, Barnworth?"
"There"s a draught in the big dormitory, sir," replied Barnworth seriously.
"Indeed, we must have that seen to. Of course, what I mean is as to the conduct of the boys, and so on. Are the rules pretty generally obeyed?"
It was Stafford"s turn, and his report was disconcerting too.
"No, sir, not very much."
The new master put down the poker.
"I am sorry to hear that; for discipline must be maintained. Can you suggest anything to improve the state of the house?"
"No, sir," replied Felgate.
This was getting intolerable. The new master"s patience was oozing away, and his wits, strange to say, were coming in.
"This is rather damping," he said. "Things seem pretty right, there"s a draught in the big dormitory, the rules are not very much obeyed, and nothing can be suggested to improve matters."
The four sat silent--the situation was quite as painful to them as to Mark.
The latter grew desperate.
"Now," said he, raising his voice in a way which put up Ainger"s back.
"You four boys are in the Sixth, and I understand that the discipline of the house is pretty much in your hands. I shall have to depend on you; and if things go wrong, of course I shall naturally hold you responsible."
Ainger flushed up at this; while Stafford, on whom the master"s eyes were fixed, vaguely nodded his head.
"I am very anxious for the house to get a good name for order, and work--and," added he, "I hope we shall be able to do something at sports, too."
Here, at least, the master expected he would meet with a response. But Ainger, the boy chiefly interested in sports, was sulking; and Barnworth, who also was an athlete, was too absorbed in speculating what remark was maturing itself in Felgate"s mind to heed what was being said.
"I suppose the house has an eleven--for instance?"
"Yes, generally," said Stafford.
Felgate now came in with his remark.
"Something ought to be done to prevent our house being interfered with by Mr Bickers," said he; "there are sure to be rows while that lasts."
"Oh," said Railsford, who had heard rumours of this feud already; "how are we interfered with?"
"Oh, every way," replied Ainger; "but we needn"t trouble you about that, sir. We can take care of ourselves."
"But I should certainly wish to have any difficulty put right," said the new master, "especially if it interferes with the discipline of the house."
"It will never be right as long as Mr Bickers stays at Grandcourt,"
blurted Stafford; "he has a spite against everyone of our fellows."
"You forget you are talking of a colleague of mine, Stafford," said Railsford, whom a sense of duty compelled to stand up even for a master whom he felt to be an enemy. "I can"t suppose one master would willingly do anything to injure the house of another."
Ainger smiled in a manner which offended Railsford considerably.
"I am sorry to find," he said, rather more severely, "that my head boys, who ought to aim at the good of their house, are parties to a feud which, I am sure, can do n.o.body any good. I must say I had hoped better things."
Ainger looked up quickly. "I am quite willing to resign the captaincy, sir, if you wish it."
"By no means," said Railsford, a little alarmed at the length to which his protest had carried him, and becoming more conciliatory. "All I request is that you will do your best to heal the feud, so that we may have no obstacle in the way of the order of our own house. You may depend on me to co-operate in whatever tends in that direction, and I look to you to take the lead in bringing the house up to the mark and keeping it there."
At this particular juncture further conference was entirely suspended by a most alarming and fiendish disturbance in the room above.
It was not an earthquake, for the ground beneath them neither shook nor trembled; it was not a dynamite explosion, for the sounds were dull and prolonged; it was not a chimney-stack fallen, for the room above was two storeys from the roof. Besides, above the uproar rose now and then the shrill yapping of a dog, and sometimes human voices mingled with the din.