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Harrison smiled feebly. Venables junior grinned. What seemed to Harrison a mystery was how the brothers had managed to arrive at the School at different times. The explanation of which was in reality very simple. The elder Venables had been spending the last week of the holidays with MacArthur, the captain of the St Austin’s Fifteen, the same being a day boy, suspended within a mile of the School.

‘But what I can’t make out,’ went on Venables, relentlessly, ‘is this furniture business. To the best of my knowledge I didn’t leave suddenly at the end of last term. I’ll ask if you like, to make sure, but I fancy you’ll find you’ve been mistaken. Must have been thinking of someone else. Anyhow, we thought you must know best, so we lugged all the furniture out into the passage, and now it appears there’s been a mistake of sorts, and the stuff ought to be inside all the time. So would you mind putting it back again? We’d help you, only we’re going out to the shop to get some tea. You might have it done by the time we get back. Thanks, awfully.’

Harrison coughed nervously, and rose to a point of order.

‘I was going out to tea, too,’ he said.

‘I’m sorry, but I think you’ll have to scratch the engagement,’ said Venables.

Harrison made a last effort.

‘I’m fagging for Welch this term,’ he protested.

It was the rule at St Austin’s that every fag had the right to refuse to serve two masters. Otherwise there would have been no peace for that down-trodden race.

‘That,’ said Venables, ‘ought to be awfully jolly for Welch, don’t you know, but as a matter of fact term hasn’t begun yet. It doesn’t start till tomorrow. Weigh in.’

Various feelings began to wage war beneath Harrison’s Eton waistcoat. A profound disinclination to undertake the suggested task battled briskly with a feeling that, if he refused the commission, things might–nay, would–happen.

‘Harrison,’ said Venables gently, but with meaning, as he hesitated, ‘do you know what it is to wish you had never been born?’

And Harrison, with a thoughtful expression on his face, picked up a photograph from the floor, and hung it neatly in its place over the mantelpiece.