It was.
Then again he had brought back a record of some distinction from St.
Salvator"s. He had won the school golf championship. He possessed also a fine bat with an inscription on silver, telling how in the match with St. Aiden"s, a rival college of much pretension, he had made 100 not out, and taken eight wickets for sixty-nine.
Besides this presentation cricket bat Hugh John had brought home only one other prize. This was a fitted dressing-bag of beautiful design, with a whole armoury of wonderful silver-plated things inside. It was known as the Good Conduct Prize, and was awarded every year, not by the masters, but by the free votes of all the boys. Prissy was enormously proud of this tribute paid to her brother by his companions. The donor was an old gentleman whose favourite hobby was the promotion of the finer manners of the ancient days, and the terms of the remit on which the award must be made were, that it should be given to the boy who, in the opinion of his fellow-students, was most distinguished for consistent good manners and polite breeding, shown both by his conduct to his superiors in school, and in a.s.sociation with his equals in the playing fields.
At first Hugh John had taken no interest whatever in this award, perhaps from a feeling that his own claims were somewhat slender--or thinking that the prize would merely be some "old book or other." But it happened that, in order to stimulate the school during the last lax and sluggish days of the summer term, the head-master took out the fittings of the dressing-bag, and set the stand containing them on his desk in view of all.
There was a set of razors among them.
Instantly Hugh John"s heart yearned with a mighty desire to obtain that prize. How splendid it would be if he could appear at home before Toady Lion and Cissy Carter with a moustache!
That night he considered the matter from all points of view--and felt his muscles. In the morning he was down bright and early. He prowled about the purlieus of the playground. At the back of the gymnasium he met Ashwell Major.
"I say, Ashwell Major," he said, "about that Good Conduct Prize--who are you going to vote for?"
"Well," replied Ashwell Major, "I haven"t thought much--I suppose Sammy Carter."
"Oh, humbug!" cried our hero; "see here, Sammy will get tons of prizes anyway. What does he want with that one too?"
"Well," said the other, "let"s give it to little Brown. b.u.t.ter wouldn"t melt in his mouth. He"s such a cake."
Hugh John felt that the time for moral suasion had come.
"Smell that!" he said, suddenly extending the clenched fist with which a week before he had made "bran mash" of the bully of the school.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "SMELL THAT!"]
Reluctantly Ashwell Major"s nostrils inhaled the bouquet of Hugh John"s knuckles. Ashwell Major seemed to have a dainty and discriminating taste in perfumes, for he did not appear to relish this one.
Then Ashwell Major said that now he was going to vote solidly for Hugh John Smith. He had come to the conclusion that his manners were quite exceptional.
And so as the day went on, did the candidate for the fitted dressing-bag argue with the other boarders, waylaying them one by one as they came out into the playground. The day-boys followed, and each enjoyed the privilege of a smell at the fist of power.
"I rejoice to announce that the Good Conduct Prize has been awarded by the unanimous vote of all the scholars of Saint Salvator"s to Hugh John Picton Smith of the fifth form. I am the more pleased with this result, that I have never before known such complete and remarkable unanimity of choice in the long and distinguished history of this inst.i.tution."
These were the memorable words of the headmaster on the great day of the prize-giving. Whereupon our hero, going up to receive his well-earned distinction, blushed modestly and becomingly; and was gazed upon with wrapt wonder by the matrons and maids a.s.sembled, as beyond controversy the model boy of the school. And such a burst of cheering followed him to his seat as had never been heard within the walls of St. Salvator"s. For quite casually Hugh John had mentioned that he would be on the look-out for any fellow that was a sneak and didn"t cheer like blazes.
MORAL.--_There is no moral to this chapter._
CHAPTER x.x.xVIII.
HUGH JOHN"S BLIGHTED HEART.
On the first evening at home Hugh John put on his new straw hat with its becoming school ribbon of brown, white and blue, for he did not forget that Prissy had described Cissy Carter as "such a pretty girl."
Now pretty girls are quite nice when they are jolly. What a romp he would have, and even the stile would not be half bad.
He ran down to the landing-stage, having given his old bat and third best fishing-rod to his brother to occupy his attention. Toady Lion was in an unusually adoring frame of mind, chiefly owing to the new bat with the silver inscription which Hugh John had brought home with him. If that were Toady Lion"s att.i.tude, how would it be with the enthusiastic Cissy Carter? She must be more than sixteen now. He liked grown-up girls, he thought, so long as they were pretty. And Cissy was pretty, Prissy had distinctly said so.
The white punt b.u.mped against the landing-stage, but the brown was gone. However, he could see it at the other side, swaying against the new pier which Mr. Davenant Carter had built opposite to that of Windy Standard. This was another improvement; you used to have to tie the boat to a bush of bog-myrtle and jump into wet squashy ground. The returned exile sculled over and tied up the punt to an iron ring.
Then with a high and joyous heart he started over the moor, taking the well-beaten path towards Oaklands.
Suddenly, through the wood as it grew thinner and more birchy, he saw the gleam of a white dress. Two girls were walking--no, not two girls, Prissy and a young lady.
"Oh hang!" said Hugh John to himself, "somebody that"s stopping with the Carters. She"ll go taking up all Cissy"s time, and I wanted to see such a lot of her."
The white dresses and summer hats walked composedly on.
"I tell you what," said Hugh John to himself, "I"ll scoot through the woods and give them a surprise."
And in five minutes he leaped from a bank into the road immediately before the girls. Prissy gave a little scream, threw up her hands, and then ran eagerly to him.
"Why, Hugh John," she cried, "have you really come? How could you frighten us like that, you bad boy!"
And she kissed him--well, just as Prissy always did.
Meanwhile the young lady had turned partly away, and was pulling carelessly at a leaf--as if such proceedings, if not exactly offensive, were nevertheless highly uninteresting.
"Cissy," called Priscilla at last, "won"t you come and shake hands with Hugh John."
The girl turned slowly. She was robed in white linen belted with slim scarlet. The dress came quite down to the tops of her dainty boots.
She held out her hand.
"How do you do--ah, Mr. Smith?" she said, with her fingers very much extended indeed.
Hugh John gasped, and for a long moment found no word to say.
"Why, Cissy, how you"ve grown!" he cried at length. But observing no gleam of fellow-feeling in his quondam comrade"s eyes, he added somewhat lamely, "I mean how do you do, Miss--Miss Carter?"
There was silence after this, as the three walked on together, Prissy talking valiantly in order to cover the long and distressful silences.
Hugh John"s usual bubbling river of speech was frozen upon his lips.
He had a thousand things to tell, a thousand thousand to ask. But now it did not seem worth while to speak of one. Why should a young lady like this, with tan gloves half-way to her elbows and the shiniest shoes, with stockings of black silk striped with red, care to hear about his wonderful bat for the three-figure score at cricket, or the fact that he had won the golf medal by doing the round in ninety-five?
He had even thought of taking some credit (girls will suck in anything you tell them, you know) for his place in his cla.s.s, which was seventh. But he had intended to suppress the fact that the fifth form was not a very large one at St. Salvator"s.
But now he suddenly became conscious that these trivialities could not possibly interest a young lady who talked about the Hunt Ball in some such fashion as this: "He is _such_ a nice partner, don"t you know! He dances--oh, like an angel, and the floor was--well, just perfection!"
Hugh John did not catch the name of this paragon; but he hated the beast anyhow. He did not know that Cissy was only bragging about her bat, and cracking up her score at golf.
"Have you seen "The White Lady of Avenel" at the Sobriety Theatre, Mr.