Talbot Baines Reed

“ But even that would not have been so bad, had not Oliver immediately gone and made up to Simon before all the class.
Wraysford did not remain to join in the chorus of indignation in which the others indulged after morning school was over. He left them and strolled out dismally into the playground.
He must do something! He must know one way or the other what to think of Oliver. Even now he would gladly believe that it was all a dream, and that nothing had come between him and his old friend. But the more he pondered it the more convinced he became it was anything but a dream. ”

“ Greenfield is a sort of fellow it’s not easy to score off; and some of you would only make fools of yourselves if you tried to do it.”
Wraysford had stood by during this conversation, torn by conflicting emotions. He was undoubtedly bitterly disappointed to have missed the scholarship; but that was as nothing to the knowledge that it was his friend, his own familiar friend, who had turned against him and thus grievously wronged him. Yet with all his sense of injury he could hardly stand by and listen to all the bitter talk about Oliver in his absence without a sense of shame. ”

“ Pembury was always snubbing him.
“I don’t want to tell tales,” he said. “What I mean is, Wrayford ought not to be cheated out of his scholarship.”
“It’s a lucky thing Wray has got you to set things right for him,” snarled Pembury, amid a general titter.
Braddy subsided at this, and left his tormentor master of the situation.
“There’s no use our saying or doing anything,” said that worthy. “We shall probably only make things worse. It’s sure to come out in time, and till then we must grin and bear it.”
“All very well,” said some one, “but Greenfield will be grinning too.” ”