He hated scenes of any sort, and therefore took a specially long time over his bath, which his fag had prepared for him with the most lavish care.

Boys waylaid his door and the schoolhouse gate for a full hour ready to cheer him when he came out; but he knew better than to gratify them and finally they went off and lionised Bloomfield instead, who bore his laurels with rather less indifference.
The old captain, however, could not wholly elude the honours destined for him.

Dinner in the big hall that afternoon was crowded to overflowing.

And when at its close the doctor stood up and, in accordance with immemorial custom, proposed the health of the old captain, who, he said, was not only head classic, but _facile princeps_ in all the manly sports for which Willoughby was famed, you would have thought the old roof was coming down with the applause.

Poor Wyndham would fain have shirked his duty, had he been allowed to do it.