great roar went up from everywhere. It sounded like guns. "All the same," said the bright brown young man, "he ought to have passed."
Nothing more was scored, so Oxford just won.
"Then the ball whizzed in the net."
The end was rather funny, because I know you are wondering what I said to Mr. Hook and what he said to me, and what Bob did. But it wasn't a bit like what I had expected. When I came down to the drawing-room after dressing for dinner Bob and the captain were standing talking by the fire.
"I think you have met my sister already," said Bob, dismally.
"I don't think I've had the pleasure," murmured the other man.
Bob turned to me.
"I thought you said you met Watson at Aunt Edith's ball. So you were pulling my leg after all?"
"I didn't. I wasn't. I said I met the captain of the Oxford football team."
"Well, that's Watson,"
"Are you captain, really?" I asked.
"I've always been told so."
"Then," I said, "I think it's my duty to tell you that there is a man called Hook—T. B. Hook—who goes about pretending he's captain."
"Hook of Oriel? Rather shy man? Doesn't talk much?"
"Yes"
"Oh, he's captain of the Oxford Rugger team, you see. I'm captain of the Soccer," said Mr. Watson.
"So it was Hook you asked?" said Bob. "Thank Heaven. You haven't ruined my career, after all. Though I admit," he added, kindly, "you did what you could."
It is curious how everything seems to be all for the best. You would have thought that all my trouble had been wasted. But next day, to show his relief, Bob took me out and used some of father's cheque in buying me the loveliest white "feathery" on earth; showing that out of evil cometh good, as our curate at home says.
