P. G. Wodehouse

“ As the philosopher said of falling off a ladder, it is not the falling that matters: it is the sudden stopping at the other end. It is not the being expelled that is so peculiarly objectionable: it is the sudden homecoming. With this gloomy vision before him, Trevor almost wavered. But the thought that the selection of the team had nothing whatever to do with his personal feelings strengthened him. He was simply a machine, devised to select the fifteen best men in the school to meet Ripton. ”

“ Though nothing was said on the point, he felt certain that if he persisted in ignoring the League, that bat would find its way somehow—­by devious routes, possibly—­to the headmaster or some one else in authority. ”

“ If fifty mad Irishmen were to be expelled, Barry must play against Ripton. He was the best man, and in he must go.
“That’s what I thought,” said Trevor. “It’s bad for O’Hara, though.”
Clowes remarked somewhat tritely that business was business.
“Besides,” he went on, “you’re assuming that the thing this letter hints at will really come off. I don’t think it will. A man would have to be such an awful blackguard to go as low as that. The least grain of decency in him would stop him. ”