really ought to have been captain instead of me; that’s one thing I wanted to say to you. Another is: I’m coming up to see the race with St. John’s if my tutor lets me. And if they lick you, why, I shall feel it was probably because of my leaving and busting up the crew that had chosen me captain; but if you win, I’ll feel—well, that I was captain of you for a little while and that I might have been there too.”
He turned away and stood for a moment gazing out of the window. Then he came back to Edward, who had been sitting with downcast eyes, unwilling to see Sheldon’s emotion or to show his own.
“You like me enough to want me to have a good time when I come back, and not a poor one—don’t you, Edward?”
There was an affectionate playfulness in Sheldon’s voice, in his smile; and Edward, looking up, only nodded; he felt too uncertain of his voice to speak.
“All right,” Sheldon continued, “that’s all I wanted to say to you as captain of the
