"What fools we must have looked," said Adair.
"_You_ were all right. I must have looked rotten. I've never had the
gloves on in my life. I'm jolly glad no one saw us except Smith, who
doesn't count. Hello, there's the bell. We'd better be moving on. What
about this match? Not much chance of it from the look of the sky
at present."
"It might clear before eleven. You'd better get changed, anyhow, at the
interval, and hang about in case."
"All right. It's better than doing Thucydides with Downing. We've got
math till the interval, so I don't see anything of him all day; which
won't hurt me."
"He isn't a bad sort of chap, when you get to know him," said Adair.
"I can't have done, then. I don't know which I'd least soon be, Downing
or a black beetle, except that if one was Downing one could tread on the
black beetle. Dash this rain. I got about half a pint down my neck just
then. We shan't get a game today, or anything like it. As you're
crocked, I'm not sure that I care much. You've been sweating for years
to get the match on, and it would be rather rot playing it without you."
"I don't know that so much. I wish we could play because I'm certain,
with you and Smith, we'd walk into them.
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