late to catch him beforehe

There was, however, one exception to the general rule, one member ofthe school who did not treat the episode as if it were merely aninteresting and impersonal item of sensational news. Neville-Smithheard of what had happened towards the end of the interval, and rushedoff instantly in search of Mike. He was too late to catch him beforehe went to his form-room, so he waited for him at half-past twelve,when the bell rang for the end of morning school. 　　"I say, Jackson, is this true about old Wyatt?"Mike nodded. 　　"What happened?"Mike related the story for the sixteenth time. It was a melancholypleasure to have found a listener who heard the tale in the rightspirit. There was no doubt about Neville-Smith's interest andsympathy. He was silent for a moment after Mike had finished. 　　"It was all my fault," he said at length. "If it hadn't been for me,this wouldn't have happened. What a fool I was to ask him to my place! 　　I might have known he would be caught.""Oh, I don't know," said Mike. 　　"It was absolutely my fault."Mike was not equal to the task of soothing Neville-Smith's woundedconscience. He did not attempt it. They walked on without furtherconversation till they reached Wain's gate, where Mike left him. 　　Neville-Smith proceeded on his way, plunged in meditation. 　　The result of which meditation was that Burgess got a second shockbefore the day was out. Bob, going over to the nets rather late in theafternoon, came upon the captain of cricket standing apart from hisfellow men with an expression on his face that spoke of mentalupheavals on a vast scale. 　　"What's up?" asked Bob. 　　"Nothing much," said Burgess, with a forced and grisly calm. "Onlythat, as far as I can see, we shall play Ripton on Saturday with asort of second eleven. You don't happen to have got sacked oranything, by the way, do you?""What's happened now?""Neville-Smith. In extra on Saturday. That's all. Only our first- andsecond-change bowlers out of the team for the Ripton match in one day. 　　I suppose by to-morrow half the others'll have gone, and we shall takethe field on Saturday with a scratch side of kids from the JuniorSchool.""Neville-Smith! Why, what's he been doing?""Apparently he gave a sort of supper to celebrate his getting hisfirst, and it was while coming back from that that Wyatt got collared.