CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
THE BOAT-RACE.
The few days that intervened between the Saturday of Brown's party and the Wednesday of the great race were days of restless suspense in Willoughby.

Even Welch's caught the contagion, and regretted at the last hour that they had withdrawn from the all-important contest.

As to the other two Houses, there never had been a year when the excitement ran so high or the rivalry grew so keen.

Somehow the entire politics of Willoughby appeared to be mixed up in the contest, and it seemed as if the result of this one struggle was to decide everything.
The crews had worked hard up to the last, watched morning and evening by anxious spectators from the bank.

The trials had been carefully noted and times compared, the variations in style had been eagerly criticised, the weights of the rowers had become public property, and in short every detail likely to influence the result was a subject of almost painful interest to the eager partisans on either side.
And every hour seemed to promise a closer race.