Aubrey Mickley has been spoilt rotten by his mother, allowed to languish under a succession of private tutors and stuff himself with food. At the instigation of his Uncle George, he is packed off to Wrykyn to undo the damage and make something of him. Here he is put under the wing of George's protege Jack Pearse, the son of his gamekeeper, now in the Engineering Sixth. Unfortunately, Aubrey falls under the influence of Stanworth, a rotter...
| Aubrey Mickley | a new boy |
| Mrs Mickley | his mother |
| Jack Pearse | of the Sixth form |
| Fry | head boy of West's |
| Stanworth | of West's |
| The matron of West's |
First published May 1911 in The London Magazine.
Milksop
- a spiritless man or youth.
'Yours is not to reason why, yours is but to do - or die.'
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade. A common misquote; the Light Brigade didn't get the choice.
'... a half-crown, a shilling and some coppers.'
- a half-crown is a coin of two shillings and sixpence, coppers means any of several copper-coloured coins - see also notes on old money or pre-decimal currency.
'... whose muscles were more than coronets, and a simple swagger-stick more than Norman blood.'
- loosely following Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Lady Clara Vere de Vere, Stanza 7.
Swagger-stick
- a cane of the sort carried by soldiers.
'... walking mincingly, like Agag.'
- possibly from 1 Samuel: Chapter 15, Verse 32.
Mincingly
- walk with an affected delicacy.
See also the page on public schools for general information on life at Wrykyn.
There's an interesting comment on how a boy's status at public school isn't determined by his background but his current performance. Probably true for most public schools, even then. I understand today that it's not heredity that counts but money. It can't be easy when you arrive at school in the back of a battered 4x4 (SUV) and your best friend arrives in his father's helicopter (although I suspect the kids don't care and it's just the parents that worry about such things).