I didn't want to arouse possible false hopes.

It's very simple.
Besides, I like being a dark horse.

It's exciting.

Don't you remember how paralysed you all were when I got my First at Cambridge?
Everybody thought I hadn't done a stroke of work--but I had sweated like mad all the time." This was quite true, the sudden brilliance of the end of Adrian's University career had dazzled the whole of his acquaintance.

Barbara, impatient of retrospect, came to the all-important point.
"How does Doria take it ?" He turned on her and beamed.