perhaps the combination is as fair as any that exists. He hoped
that all his life he would never be peevish or unkind.

"Elliot is in a dangerous state," said Ansell. They had reached
the dell, and had stood for some time in silence, each leaning
against a tree. It was too wet to sit down.

"How's that?" asked Rickie, who had not known he was in any state
at all. He shut up Keats, whom he thought he had been reading,
and slipped him back into his coat-pocket. Scarcely ever was he
without a book.

"He's trying to like people."

"Then he's done for," said Widdrington. "He's dead."

"He's trying to like Hornblower."

The others gave shrill agonized cries.

"He wants to bind the college together. He wants to link us to
the beefy set."

"I do like Hornblower," he protested. "I don't try."

"And Hornblower tries to like you."

"That part doesn't matter."

"But he does try to like you. He tries not to despise you. It is