"Good-bye, Tom, dear."

Chorus of aunts and other supers: "Goodbye, Tom."

Tom (comprehensively): "G'bye."

The train left the station.

* * * * *

Kennedy, the head of Dencroft's, said that when he wanted his study
turned into a beastly furnace, he would take care to let Spencer know.
He pointed out that just because it was his habit to warm the study
during the winter months, there was no reason why Spencer should light
the gas-stove on an afternoon in the summer term when the thermometer
was in the eighties. Spencer thought he might want some muffins cooked
for tea, did he? Kennedy earnestly advised Spencer to give up
thinking, as Nature had not equipped him for the strain. Thinking
necessitated mental effort, and Spencer, in Kennedy's opinion, had no
mind, but rubbed along on a cheap substitute of mud and putty.

More chatty remarks were exchanged, and then Spencer tore himself away
from the pleasant interview, and went downstairs to the junior study,
where he remarked to his friend Phipps that Life was getting a bit
thick.

"What's up now?" inquired Phipps.

"Everything. We've just had a week of term, and I've been in extra
once already for doing practically nothing, and I've got a hundred