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He was one of the crowd at an imaginary Oxford and Cambridge boat-race, cheering for all he was worth, when he suddenly saw four of his Eton friends sitting together in the front row of the stalls, and nodded to them.
His face had lost its roses, and it was set and determined, but there was no look of fear upon it, nor did his heart sink when a cry of triumph went up from the crowd on the banks. The white man knew by old experience in the cricket-field and in many a boat-race that it is well not to halloo till you are out of the woods.
With regard to the rest of the festivities, besides the pantomime mentioned above, we may notice as something new a boat-race of fifty powerful girls. In the sixteenth century the nobility were divided into corporations with a view to these festivals, whose most noteworthy feature was some extraordinary machine placed on a ship.
"Let's have a picnic on Strawberry Island," said one. "We want something exciting," said another "Let's have a boat-race." "Come, Frank," said Ben. Lake, "let's hear what you have got to say. Suggest something."
Simply, he had the feeling of motion, of journeying, and it seemed to him that he had been standing comparatively still for years. And this boat-race day came to him like a flashing milestone upon the road of life.
In trying to explain the change I found in England after war had commenced, I mentioned Henley and the boat-race crowds. I don't think it was a change; it was only a bringing to the surface of something that had been there always. Some years ago I was at Henley when the Belgians carried off the Leander Cup from the most crack crew that England could bring together.
The foregoing conversation took place at the harbour, a little apart from the noisy group of soldiers and sailors who were discussing the circumstances of the recent boat-race. Immediately after it Molloy returned to his ship in the harbour, and our hero to his post in the line of defence.
"Never mind that, Carlyon; it was a great pleasure to me to do it. Now let us talk of something more interesting." And then for a short time they talked of Oxford and the boat-race; and then of Ventnor, which Malcolm knew well he had even spent an evening at Red Brae when the Godfreys were staying there.
It appeared, therefore, that the Malgamite scheme was already a thing of the past so far as social London was concerned. A sensational 'Varsity boat-race had given charity its coup de grace, had ushered in the spring, when even the poor must shift for themselves. "And in the mean time," commented Mrs. Vansittart, "here are four hundred industrials landed, if one may so put it, at The Hague."
And yet he hardly fancied from the head master's manner this was to be the subject of their interview. Perhaps it was to cross-examine him as to the boat-race. That wretched boat-race! Riddell had hardly had a minute's peace since that afternoon. The burden of the whole affair seemed to rest upon him.
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