I tried to hug myself with the notion of how independent I was in school and out, how free I was from bores, how jolly the long afternoon walks were with no one hanging on at my heels, how dignified it was to hold up my head when all the world was against me.

But spite of it all I moped.
Greatly to my disgust, Draven's did not mope.

As I sat down in my study, or wandered, still more solitary, in the crowded playground, it seemed as if all the school except myself had never been in better spirits.

Fellows seemed to have shaken off the cloud which Browne's expulsion had left behind.

The football team was better than it had been for a year or two, and I overheard fellows saying that the "Saturday nights" were jollier even than last winter.