"Well, I mean there's Davenham now and—"
"Davenham!" came the scornful retort. "What does it matter whathappens to Davenham? He's absolutely useless to the House,rotten at games and spends his whole time reading aboutfossils. Who cares a curse about Davenham!"
"Oh I suppose you're right, but—"
"My dear ass, of course I am right. Meredith is a simplyglorious fellow. Do you remember the way he brought downFreeman in the Two Cock? Why, the House simply couldn't get onwithout him."
To Gordon all this conveyed very little. He had no idea whoMeredith or Davenham were. The only thing he realised was thatfor those who wore a blue and gold ribbon laws ceased to exist.It was apparently rather advantageous to get into the Fifteen.He had not looked on athletics in that light before. Obviouslyhis preparatory school had failed singularly to keep level withthe times. He had always been told by the masters there thatgames were only important for training the body. But atFernhurst they seemed the one thing that mattered. To theathlete all things are forgiven. There was clearly a lot tolearn.
"To him who desireth much, much is given; and to him whodesireth little, little is given; but to neither according tothe letter of his desire."
GILBERT CANNAN
First published in Great Britain 1917
Reprinted July 1917, August 1917, September 1917 (twice)
November 1917, January 1918, March 1918, October 1918,
1919, 1921, 1930, 1933, 1945
Cassell's Pocket Library, 1928
Penguin Abridged Edition, 1942
New edition reset and revised 1955
Reprinted 1972
This edition published 1984
Copyright © Alec Waugh 1917
ISBN 0 413 54970 4 (hardback)
ISBN 0 413 54980 1 (paperback)
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd
Bungay, Suffolk
This book is available in both a hardcover and paperback edition. Thepaperback is solid subject to the condition that it shall not, by way oftrade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulatedwithout the Publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or coverother than that in which it is published and without a similar conditionincluding this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected in text.
My Dear Father,
This book, which I am bringing you, is a very small return for all youhave given me. In every mood, in every phase of my shifting pilgrimage,I have found you ever the same—loving, sympathetic, wise. You have beenwith me in my success, and in my happiness, in my failures and in mydisappointments, in the hours when I have followed wandering fires.There has never yet come to me a moment when I did not know that I hadbut to stretch out my hand to find you at my side. In return for somuch, this first book of mine is a very small offering.
But yet I bring it to you, simply because it is my first. For whateveraltars I may have raised by the wayside, whatever ephemeral loyaltiesmay have swayed me, my one real