The Combined Maze

r. Not that he wanted to haunt it. It was as if, set his feet southward as he would,

to her by Winny as they left the Polytechnic together, on the night of the Grand Display. Winny, preoccupied with her own performance on the parallel ba

t. It meant in nine cases out of ten that they wanted kicking badly. And Ranny would have told you gravely that, in his experience, it was the "swells" who wanted kicking most of all. The "fellows," the shop assistants, and the young clerks, like himself, were fai

ly, any fellow he found making Wi

e and innocent and pretty. He knew now (she had "jolly well shown him") that Winny could take care of herself; but Violet, no; she was too impulsive, too helpless, too confiding. To think of her waiting for him like that-for a fe

luminously cl

he couldn't afford to marry Winny he most certainly could not afford to marry Violet, not for years and years, so many years that you might just as well say never, and have done with it. Violet w

ords; for in this matter of Violet Usher he was incapable of any sustained and connected thought. It came to

et Usher? He ran because he couldn't help it; because of the sheer excitement of the runni

atch her; sometimes he caught her at Starker's, sometimes at their old corner by the Gymnasium; and whenever he caught her he walked home with her. If Winny did not positively seek capture, she no longer positively ev

oing over Wandsworth Bridge, the question th

me of your fri

become of her. She's gone ho

ever

r. She never shou

. Violet had pretty ways that made you fond of her. Everybody was fond of Violet. Only her people-they'd bee

was he

y, since she came to Starker's. She'd been in several situations before that. She was assistant at the ribbon counter at Starker's. The clerks didn't have anything to do with the shop girls as a rule: but Winny thought the custom silly and stuck up. Anyhow, she'd taken a fancy to Violet, seeing her go in an

id Ransome, "sh

urprised if she t

l take car

all take c

ived, it stirred in his heart, that odd m

ay nothing of his body. Under all the shock of it Ransome felt a certain relief in realizing that Violet

and winters he had known. He had got his rise at Michaelmas; but he was free from the obsession of the

thletic Sports. He hoped to win the silver cup for the H

of fitness. His admirable form, hitherto equal to young Booty's, was improved by strenuous training, and at his worst he had what Booty hadn't, a fire and a spirit, a power, utterly incalculable, of sudden uprush and outb

or the contest, a ring of ropes held back the straining crowd; and all round, within the ring, went the course for the mile-flat race. Down one side of the field, facing the Grand Stand, was the co

n the left directly opposite the Grand Stand. Those who could not buy tickets for the

young Tyser and Buist and Wauchope of the Polytechnic, who had come to cheer. And here, by the winning-post, well in the front, having been there since the gates were open, were Maudie Hollis a

trated on the imminence of the Final Heat, there was but one distraction, and that was the remark

hem behind her and slipped into their places at the barrier. This high-handed act roused the resentment of a young man, the parent or guardian of the children. He wanted to know what she thought she was doing, shoving there, and told her that the kids had as much right to see the blooming show as she had, and he'd trouble her to give 'em back the place she'd taken. And it was then that th

serving her for some time with sidelong appr

e impudence," sa

," Mrs. Ransome said, "it wouldn

o shove anybody, Emm

little innocent children. I shou

aid no more attention to th

the two young men from Putney and Wimbledon on the inside of the course, Fred Booty in the middle, and Ransome outside. Booty knew t

rom Putney and Wimbledon were distinctly weedy. He stood poised, with head uplifted, his keen mouth tight shut, his nostrils dilated, his eyes gazing forward, intent on the signal for the start. His brown hair, soaked in the sweat o

n sight, two bodies, Booty and Ransome, soared clean and dropped together. Putney and Wimbledon rose wriggling close behind their drop. At the seventh row Ransome was in front, divided from Booty by an almost imperceptible interval. Putney and Wimbledon were sev

the race was Ransome's. He knew i

f excitement in her eyes; her hand was clenched convulsively over her pocket handkerchief which had rolled itself into a ball

it, old Wandsworth! Wandsworth wins!" Tyser and Buist and Wauchope were yelling "Stick it, Rann

arm and shook a little white handkerchief at him as he came on. Somebody caught his eyes and str

gered Booty rose slenderly and dropped and rushed on to the tape-line at the winning

r and from the Grand Stand there burst forth a more frantic uproar of ap

r him; but he was beaten, be

eedless of his friends, and of Booty's hand on his bent

him, the more he swore at him. He called Ranny a blanky young fool, and asked him what the blank he did it for. He said it was a blanky shame, and that if anybody tried to give him a blanky cup, he'd throw it at 'em. Even when they'd calmed him down a bit, he

in the tent and agreed with him, declaring that it w

t wasn't any blanky fluke, that it couldn't well be fairer, seeing how he'd funked it at the finish, Ranny kne

room in St. Ann's Terrace,

her had c