CHAPTER SIX.
UP TO FORM.
I have reason to fear that for a fortnight after I received the astounding news of my scholastic success I was an intolerable nuisance to my friends and a ridiculous spectacle to my enemies.
I may have had some excuse.

I had worked hard, and got myself into a "tilted" state of mind altogether.

Still, that was no reason why I should consider that the whole world was standing still to look on at my triumph; still less why I should patronise my mother and Miss Steele and Miss Bousfield as three well-intentioned persons who had just had an object-lesson in the inferiority of their sex.
My mother and Miss Steele were too delighted to mind my airs.

They were really proud--one to be my mother, the other to be my "coach." And when I strutted in and talked as if they barely knew how honoured they were by my company, they laughed good-humouredly, and said to one another,-- "No wonder he's pleased with himself, dear boy." Miss Bousfield was less disposed to bow the knee.
"I hope you won't forget what you owe to Miss Steele," said she.

"I never hoped she could make as much as she did of such unpromising material.