hopeless to try and raise a revolt. And then, when left alone, he would think that perhaps if he could but wish hard enough he might change himself into some one quite different; perhaps even—who could tell ?—into Orr.
The following Wednesday it rained, and so, instead of being taken out for a walk over the Common, as always on half-holiday afternoons had up till then been the case, they were obliged to stop indoors and amuse themselves as best they could, either in the Schoolroom or in the Playroom below. Jaspar at any rate was by no means sorry thus unexpectedly to have a whole long afternoon to spend in reading The History of the Plague, an old copy of which he had got from the Library the last time books had been given out. The story by itself was interesting, but there was besides something in its old withered binding and in the smell of the curiously blotched pages which made him almost see the red crosses on the doors and hear, approaching down the deserted grass-grown street, the ringing of a bell, and then the cry: ‘Bring out your dead!’ And so deeply was he soon immersed in his reading that, although he by and by became aware of some movement going on among the others in the room, it was not till the sudden and absolute cessation of every noise had caused him to look up that he found himself quite alone. He knew at once where everybody must be gone: to the Playroom. ‘Two or three times already, when the weather had prevented their going out, he had been driven in there with the rest by Orr who had then proceeded to pick out a couple of them and make them fight. He himself had never so far been chosen though, unlike the others, he had on each occasion done his best to be so, for he had longed to let Orr see how, without a notion of managing his fists, he yet by sheer endurance would end by licking whoever it was he was opposed to. Now of course it was altogether different and he only hoped he had been forgotten: for while firmly resolved he would refuse to fight, he was by no means averse to having the actual moment of revolt still a little longer delayed. And
