Marriage of Hermione by Richmal Crompton
Author:Richmal Crompton [Crompton, Richmal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK
Chapter Thirteen
SHE went slowly upstairs to her bedroom, opening Alanâs letter on the way.
Alanânow in his first year at Oxfordâwas spending part of his vacation reading with a friend in Somerset. He had done well with Mr. Swallow, missing a scholarship to Oxford by only a few marks.
âHeâs one of the quickest, most responsive boys Iâve ever taught,â Mr. Swallow had said. âMind you, heâs not a scholar. Donât expect him to end up as a Fellow or Professor or anything like thatâbut heâs got more originality and imagination and a quicker grasp of things than nine out of ten boys of his age.â
Alan had long ago grown out of his childish fits of hysteria, but he remained painfully shy, especially with strangers. Under the mellowing influence of university life, however, he was fast losing his self-consciousness. He played no gamesâhe had always disliked gamesâand the river meant to him only lazy afternoons in a punt, but he had at once been admitted to the artistic set of his college, and for the first time in his life was living with people whose scale of values was the same as his own. He was gaining a new poise and assurance and had already lost the air of bewildered shrinking that he had had before he went there. He was dimly conscious that he possessed creative powers and was blindly fumbling for an outlet for them. He had written several poems that were enthusiastically acclaimed by his friends.
To Charles, of course, his college career had been as great a disappointment as his boyhood. He had secretly hoped that it would âmake a manâ of him. John had played rugger for his college and had rowed in the Cambridge boat. It had been the proudest moment of Charlesâs life when he heard that John had won his blue, and nothing could have been in Charlesâs eyes more despicable and unmanly than the life Alan ledâtaking no part in games or sports, mooning about with a set of unhealthy âmuffsâ, as Charles scornfully called them. Curiously, Alan still retained his childhoodâs admiration of Charles, admiring in particular that very âmanlinessâ whose lack in himself was the chief cause of his fatherâs contempt.
In her bedroom Hermione sat down in an armchair by the window to read his letter.
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