Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-26
Continued FROM Yesterdays Star,
CHAPTER III.

w WHEN the Rev. Charles
AsI Stanhope came home from
NV India, he bought a HttlG
house in Torquay, and
Dennis, of course, went
home for the holidays. He still wrote
rather stiff, polite letters to Alum
Green, since an hour on Sunday after
moons at Barford was reserved for
letter writing and when the weekly
bulletin for Torquay was finished he
had nobody else to whom he wanted
to send his news. But these letters,
full of details as to which House was
likely to win the Junior Footer Cup,
or how splendidly Manning, the head
of the House, had battled against the
Trojans, served to widen rather than
bridge the gulf between him and Jimmy
Raleigh. Occasionally . note in Jimmy
round, childish handwriting made him
a little homesick for Alum Green, be-
cause of the casual details it confined:
1.-The oak at the corner of the Wilson's
garden has been struck by lightning
last Wednesday. 1t looks awful. I
have a ripping collection of butterflies
now with several tortouseShells and
pecocks and a silver-washed fritillary I
caught just outside Wilman'S Wood.
Daddy has built a new conservative for
his tomatoes and I broke it yesterday
with the croquet ball you clipped last
Summer when you were here. .Madge
is getting on well at Brighton, but its a
bit dull without her except for Pat, who
sends you a veg of his tail"
Madge from her boarding school also
wrote him occasional letters, in hand
writing that leant backwards instead of
forwards and Scrawled all over the page,
TO tell him how she was getting on at
hockey or cricket, and what a ripping
games mistress they'd got Such letters,
although they dealt with a world he
did not know and openly deSpised (even
when it slavishly initiated his OWN,
helped to remind him of Alum Green,
because. in some strange way, every
word she wrote was so genuinely
"Madge-y"-she scrubbed down her
and exactly as she would have uttered
them had they been together
But he thought less and less of Alum
Green and the Raleighs, and more and
more Of his few particular chums at
Barford: Little, who bowled so well;
Graham, who was very good fun when
you got over his shyness, although most
chaps called him q "swot" or q
"greaser." Kindersley, whose father
was q general in India, and who was
already one Of the best shots in the
SlA1OO4- A4IllOukn HE WIS 1llu1Seu ROOQ
at cricket, and showed promise as a
three-quarter at Rugger, Stanhope was
not very popular, for he was quick to
take offense, and never took the initia-
tive in confiding in people, so that these
three friends, who by chance or per-
siStence had come to know him we'll
found him devoted and loyal. When
he was not with them they tired quickly
OF each others company, for they had
little in common beyond their liking for
him; but his presence altered every
thing. If they broke bounds to battle
In the river, If they made particularly
daring raid on some farmers orchard.
If they suddenly became industrious and
all did their Fprep" thoroughly instead
OF sorting out postage stamps beneath
the cover Of book on algebra or Latin
syntax, If they discovered some new way
OF raging" the science master, the
initiative could always be traced back
to Dennis Stanhope. Occasionally, and
as likely as not for no obvious reason
at all, he would ny into a rage and
attack one of them, and then, secretly
ashamed of himself, would put on a
mask OF complete indifference which in
the end led to an apology by the victim
70 the aggresSor. But, once that apology
had been made, he would, by some little
act, show an almost touching LOYALTY
ana adection. In the same way he had
been known to funk q collar" at
Rugger, and to more than compensate
for it few moments later by q courage
In attack which would make any rnem.
Der OF the First Fifteen who happened
to be watching the game shout almost
enthusiastic approval. AS Manning, the
head OF the House, remarked to some
body: TITS a pity the kids so moody.
Hes got CUTS all right when he cares
70 use 'em. He's got the markings of a
wonderful wing three-quarter, but /
don't know what to think Of him. I
shouldn't be surprised if the little
Dllghter didn't write poetry or some
thing"
He said this in a hesitating tone. as
though he were suggesting that STAN
hope were guilty of some terrible i'm
morality, and he would have been
genuinely shocked had he known that
IN point OF fact. Dennis Stanhope had
written o. few attempts at verse, which
he kept carefully hidden beneath the
newspaper with which he lined his
desk.
When Jimmy Raleigh, as a timid and
unhappy little boy who found his self
Importance at the Lyndhurst prep"
School stripped off him like dead leaves
In typhoon, came to Barford. Dennis
Stanhope had already become q dornni-
tory monitor. And this meant that the
gulf OF three years between the two
boys had become temporarily impossible
70 bridge. Besides, Jimmy's behavior
was 20 entirely correct and deferential